Gobbled up!

Lions upset Packers 22-14

By Bob Dohr

I planned my Thanksgiving Day around this?! Ridiculous. Kudos to coach Steve Mariucci and the Detroit Lions, who played hard, played fast, and played like they wanted to win in securing a 22-14 upset victory over the visiting Green Bay Packers Thursday at Ford Field.

Playoffs shmayoffs. The Pack is now sitting at 6-6 and in serious danger of not being invited to the postseason party.

The Green Bay offensive line, which has been so brilliant all year, was awful, unable to create any sort of room for star running back Ahman Green, who finished with just 57 yards on 13 carries. Quarterback Brett Favre, who continues to play with a bad throwing thumb, also had a forgettable day, tossing three costly interceptions and losing a fumble. The Packers defense, which had shown flashes of fire in last week’s win over San Francisco, clearly missed starting linebacker Nick Barnett and all-pro safety Darren Sharper. This was apparent from the get-go, as the Lions marched 54 yards on their opening drive, with six of the ten plays, including the touchdown, involving running back Shawn Bryson. Shawn Bryson. Quick, where did he go to college? Time’s up. Tennessee.

There were a few bright spots for Green Bay: Favre’s touchdown tosses to Bubba Franks and Javon Walker; Mike McKenzie’s diving interception; Najeh Davenport’s 57-yard kickoff return. But they were too few and far between to offset the effort of a Lions team that was obviously fired up to play their only nationally televised game of the season.

I don’t have too much else to say about this debacle, except that it didn’t really surprise me. It’s tough to win any game in this league, and it’s a lot tougher to win when you’re an average team yourself (6-6 is pretty darn average), and are playing without your two best defensive players, and the opponent really, really wants to win.

We’ll see how the Pack bounces back December 7 against the Bears. I generally stay away from predictions, especially when they’re of the written word variety, but with a must-win game, at Lambeau Field, with Sharper and Barnett most likely returning, with Brett Favre’s thumb given 10 more days to heal, and the opponent being, well, the Chicago Bears, I would be very, very, very, very surprised if the Packers don’t win, and win big. There. I said it. Back me up, guys. Talk to you next week.

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“Green-sleeves” watch: Ahman Green wore the white forearm pads against Detroit and had zero fumbles.

Bob Dohr is the Sports Director and News Anchor for Pure Country 92.5 WBWI-FM and Classic Country AM 1470 WBKV. You can catch Bob's news reports every weekday at 5pm on “Your Ride Home from Work with Fuzz Martin.”

Pack “D” gets an “A”

Green Bay defense deep-sixes 49ers in 20-10 romp

By: Bob Dohr

Maybe this Green Bay Packers defense isn’t so bad after all. They certainly looked like world-beaters on Sunday, stifling the visiting San Francisco 49ers offense en route to a 20-10 victory on a misty, 38-degree afternoon at Lambeau Field.

The Packers defense, which held San Francisco to just 73 yards rushing and 142 yards through the air, was constantly in the face of fill-in quarterback Tim Rattay, sacking him four times, picking him off once, and forcing numerous other incompletions with a constant barrage of pressure.

Oft-criticized safety Antuan Edwards, who was pressed into more extensive duty because of an injury to Darren Sharper, led the charge with a sack, a key fourth quarter interception, and a nice take-down of always-annoying receiver Terrell Owens. Cletidus Hunt, KGB, and Na’il Diggs had the other Packers sacks.

In the first half, the Packers defense twice was forced to defend a short field following a Brett Favre interception. Both times they rose to the challenge, giving up a total of zero points. It really was quite remarkable. Following a Zack Bronson pick in the first quarter, the 49ers took over on the Green Bay 20 but came up empty when kicker Todd Peterson doinked a chip shot field goal. The Niners flashed their ineptitude again when they took over at the Packers 22 following a Tony Parrish interception and proceeded to move backwards.

Favre threw a total of three interceptions but offset them with two touchdown passes. One was a 66-yard bomb to Javon Walker to open the scoring; the other was a 16-yarder to Robert Ferguson in the second quarter. On that play, Ferguson ran a fade-stop route along the left sideline, reached behind him to make an athletic grab at the 1, then smartly stretched the ball across the plane of the end zone before stepping out of bounds. Beautiful. That play almost brought me to tears.

Speaking of getting emotional, I just can’t say enough about the continued inspired running of Ahman Green, who cracked the 100-yard barrier for the eighth time this season, a club record. Twenty-seven carries, 154 yards if you’re keeping count. And no fumbles. (Cuz he wore the white arm pads. More credence for my theory! If you’re clueless on this digression, check out last week’s column.)

The only shaky part of this wire-to-wire victory came in the third quarter as San Francisco closed to 17-10 on a TD catch by Owens. The Packers’ next drive fizzled, but so did the 49ers’ and Green Bay finally added a much needed 3-point cushion on a 37-yard field goal by Ryan Longwell midway through the final period. Antuan Edwards’ interception about a minute later effectively quelled any hopes San Francisco had to get back in the game.

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The icing on the cake would have been a Lions win over the Vikings, the ending of which Packers viewers got to see because Fox switched to it after the Green Bay game. And Detroit was in position to maybe pull the upset, but it was almost as if they sensed that a great deal of the country had just tuned in to watch, because they gagged horribly. Detroit trailed 10-7 with about three minutes left, but Lions quarterback Joey Harrington was forced to take some chances and threw some picks and yada-yada, it got away from them. Ugh. I guess it was too much to ask for. Is that good English? Do we care? Does anyone care? Is that a Cranberries lyric? Do I have cranberries on the mind cuz turkey day is right around the corner?

Speaking of Thanksgiving, that�s when the Packers are next in action. At Detroit. 11:30 am if you’re trying to plan your day. (In case you’re wondering, the Vikings have a noon game Sunday at St. Louis.) That was a very disjointed paragraph – my apologies. Have a good holiday. Talk to you after the Lions game.

Bob Dohr is the Sports Director and News Anchor for Pure Country 92.5 WBWI-FM and Classic Country AM 1470 WBKV. You can catch Bob’s news reports every weekday at 5pm on “Your Ride Home from Work with Fuzz Martin.”

The drive to win

Packers 20, Buccaneers 13

By: Bob Dohr

Two 4-5 teams, both with their seasons essentially on the line. One comes up with a masterful 98-yard drive. The other comes up with, well, nothing. Packers 20, Buccaneers 13.

To Denver Broncos fans, the term “the drive” may mean something entirely different. But to Packers fans, the 17-play march that stole 9 minutes and 42 seconds from the Raymond James Stadium clock and ended with Ahman Green diving into the end zone for the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter was pretty much was a season-saver. At least for now. If the Pack goes on to take advantage of their quasi-soft schedule down the stretch and makes the playoffs, they’ll be able to point toward the pivotal march against the defending Super Bowl champs as a turning point in their season.

It really was a thing of beauty. Green, who tied a Packers record with his 7th 100-yard rushing game of the season (109 to be exact), carried the ball on the first play and the last play of the drive, but heat-induced cramps limited his availability for much of the march. Enter Najeh Davenport, who carried the ball five times on the drive for 46 yards, including a 27-yard romp to get the Packers into Bucs territory, and a key 5-yard gain on 4th and 1 from the Tampa Bay 16. Said Mike Sherman about his fourth down decision to shun the field goal attempt and go for the first down: “It was such a beautiful drive, I just hated to let it go to a kicker.”

Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre had a miserable day � at least statistic-wise � but he did come up with the goods when he needed to, rifling a strike to Robert Ferguson for 23 yards when the Packers faced a 3rd and 9 from their own 3-yard line, and hooking up with Ferguson again later in the drive for a 9-yard gain on 3rd and 8 from the Tampa Bay 34.

But my game ball goes to the members of the Packers offensive line, who not only helped the Pack pile up 190 rushing yards, but also kept the Bucs from notching a quarterback sack for the first time in 70 games. So kudos to Chad Clifton, Mike Wahl, Mike Flanagan, Marco Rivera, and Mark Tauscher. Leading up to this game, those guys kept their public comments on the Warren Sapp � Chad Clifton incident on the q.t. � er, on the down low� er, they didn�t say much about it, but make no mistake � this was one unit fired up to play a football game. And it showed.

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That�s pretty much all I have on the game (gotta get to my real job), but two other things before I go, one you can maybe help me with.

It�s a theory I have on the Ahman Green / fumbling thing. Actually, it�s more a theory of a guy I know, Mike Hansen. We were talking about the rainy Monday night game against the Eagles and Green�s fumbles and how after he changed out of that black (neoprene?) arm sleeve, the fumbling stopped. The thought was that sleeve gets slick when it gets wet and makes it tougher to hold on to the ball. Well, my friend�s theory was that Green is a “sweater,” and that black sleeve gets slick from the sweat � it doesn�t necessarily have to be raining. So that got me to thinking. Arizona game. Very hot. Lots of perspiration. Does anyone know if he was wearing the black sleeves in that game? Who�s got that game on tape? And I wonder if we go back and look at all the games he�s fumbled, if the black sleeve/sweat has been an issue. Because on some of those hits (against the Eagles) the ball came out even before he really got jarred. Just a theory, but I wonder if anyone has any insight. I did notice he went with the white forearm pads against the Buccaneers and had no fumbles. Just thinking out loud.

The other thing was I wanted to say thanks to my intern Wes for filling in for me last week. He�s a good kid and generally gets my Starbucks order right. And I don�t yell at him that much J . Thanks Wes. Talk to you guys after the Niners game.

Bob Dohr is the Sports Director and News Anchor for Pure Country 92.5 WBWI-FM and Classic Country AM 1470 WBKV. You can catch Bob’s news reports every weekday at 5pm on “Your Ride Home from Work with Fuzz Martin.”

Pinch-Hitter

Intern writes this week's Packers column

by Wes Bender

Hi everybody. I guess I should start by letting you know who I am. I'm Wes Bender, Bob Dohr's intern. Mr. Dohr asked me to write the collum this week because he said he wasn't up for it. I didn't want to ask him why cuz he would probably yell at me. He's always yelling at me.

Anyway, I'm not a very good writer. But I'll try my best. I watched the Packer game. They lost to the Eagles. It was on Monday Night Football. I think the score was 17-14. I liked when the Packer pass-throwing guy kept doing that thing where he'd pretend to throw the football but the ball never went forward it just kind of went sideways. That was funny.

I also liked when the announcer guys talked about the sour krout (sp?). And they showed the factory where they make it. And they showed a guy with pitchfork standing in the krout and pulling it. I liked that. They then showed on the tv a lady eating a brat that had sour krout on it. And she was pretending the bun was a mouth and was making it move. That was pretty funny, too.

I missed some of the first half of the game. I was watching it with Mr. Dohr and he kept switching to a program on another channel about some woman -- Jenna Jameson I think her name was. I didn't really understand what her job was but I thought she was pretty.

Okay, that's pretty much it. Mr. Dohr's yelling again. He wants me to go to Starbucks for him. Oh, and he wants me to tell you that he'll be back next week. Okay. He'll be back next week. Bye. I liked doing this.

Bob Dohr is the Sports Director and News Anchor for Pure Country 92.5 WBWI-FM and Classic Country AM 1470 WBKV. You can catch Bob's news reports every weekday at 5pm on “Your Ride Home from Work with Fuzz Martin.”

Dome This!

Packers 30, Vikings 27

By Bob Dohr

Well, that was worth waiting for, wasn’t it?

The Green Bay Packers, coming off a bye week and playing in a place where they have traditionally struggled, upset the Minnesota Vikings 30-27 Sunday night at the Metrodome to get back to .500 and keep first place Minnesota in their sights.

A Packers loss would have left them four games back in the NFC North with eight games to play. As it is, the 4-4 Packers moved to within two games of the 6-2 Vikings.

Three players stood out for Green Bay – Quarterback Brett Favre, wide receiver Javon Walker, and running back Ahman Green.

Favre, who had been 2-9 in Metrodome games and who threw 4 interceptions in the first game against Minnesota, AND who was playing with a splint on his BROKEN THUMB, was (oh no, wait a minute, here we go… I sense a misguided homage to ESPN play-by-play guy Mike Patrick coming on … can’t stop now…) BRILLIANT! (Sorry, Mike. But really, pick up a thesaurus sometime. There are other adjectives in the English language. But I digress. Back to Favre.) Favre completed 18 of 28 passes for 194 yards and 3 touchdowns with just one interception. Two of the scoring passes went to Walker and one to Green. More on Ahman and Javon in a bit. (Ahman and Javon – hey, that’s got a ring to it.) The most impressive play by Favre may have been the block he threw on the last play of the 3rd quarter. It was a running play to Green designed to go to the right, but the Vikings defense bottled it up. So Green reversed his field and broke back to the left. Favre, recognizing what was happening, immediately sprinted out in front of Green to lead the way, delivering a solid block on Vikings cornerback Denard Walker. Not a lame quarterback-leading-the-reverse-dive-at-the-guy’s-feet block. But a solid lick. Nice. I’m not sure what I enjoyed more. The block itself, or seeing Favre so pumped up after the play. It got me jacked up. I was ready to throw a shoulder into my Sony.

Speaking of not being able to decide what I enjoyed more, there was some of that going on with regard to Javon Walker. You tell me what was more impressive: Walker’s move on Denard Walker to get into the end zone on his first touchdown catch. (Uh, Denard. It’s on the 5-yard line if you’re looking for it.) Or his amazing snare of a Favre missile (that was thrown behind him) on his second TD catch.

That brings me to player number three. I don’t know where this team would be without Ahman Green, but it wouldn’t be at 4-4. Green showed an extra burst on the turf and had some big holes to run through, piling up 137 yards on just 21 carries. He also caught 5 passes for 52 yards and a touchdown. And no, he didn’t have a fumble.

That’s pretty much all I have on the game itself, but as long as I got you here, I did jot down a couple of other notes.

1). The Packers’ return game is nonexistent.

2). Football should be played in an outdoor stadium. On grass. I hate domes.

3). I’ve always liked the Packers’ road jerseys.

4). Do you think Chris Hovan has had a protein shake at some point in his life?

5). I was so proud of Brett Favre. Throwing the ball away when he didn’t have anything. Not once, but several times. It was a thing of beauty. It only took 11 years.

6). Nice grab by Darren Sharper on the onside kick at the end. Atta kid.

7). The field goal by Minnesota kicker Aaron Elling in the 3rd quarter would have been a perfect one on which to test my invention. (Someone can run with this idea if they want, I don’t have the time.) Actually, it’s not a complicated idea. The premise is that I’ve never been happy with kicks that seem to go over the top of the upright. (Remember the kick by the Broncos’ Rich Karlis in that AFC Championship game?) Right now it’s up to the officials to judge if the kick is good. To do that, they have to decide -- if the uprights were extended in an imaginary line straight up -- if the ball would cross inside or outside the upright. One way I guess you could eliminate the problem is by physically make the uprights higher – make them 100, 200 feet high, or whatever. But since that’s not practical, what I propose is just installing a laser beam on the top of each upright that would shoot straight up, thereby extending the uprights. You would only turn the laser beam on when there’s a field goal or extra point attempt (although I can’t recall it ever being a problem on a point-after try). Then if there’s a kick in which the ball goes over the top of the upright you’d be able to see if it’s inside or outside the beam. I’m not sure what the ruling would be if the ball crosses the beam, I’ll leave that up to someone else.

8). I wrote WAY too much about that. Sorry.

9). Monday Nighter against the Eagles coming up next. I’ll meet you back here next Tuesday.

10). Cuz I felt like I needed a 10. You know, round number, metric system, all that.

Bob Dohr is the Sports Director and News Anchor for Pure Country 92.5 WBWI-FM and Classic Country AM 1470 WBKV. You can catch Bob's news reports every weekday at 5pm on “Your Ride Home from Work with Fuzz Martin.”