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Forced by the schedule maker to play at Denver last Monday night and then the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Packers might have done well just to split. Instead, they turned it into a stunning daily-double, nipping the Broncos in an overtime thriller and then outlasting the Chiefs, 33-22, in another well-played inter-conference battle that could have gone either way. "And in 5 1/2 days," said coach Mike McCarthy, summing up what the National Football League's youngest team had just accomplished with its improbable sweep in two of the league's most venomous venues. "That's pretty impressive." No coach, McCarthy included, is keen about revealing what he honestly expected from his team, even after the fact. He didn't want to say that going 1-1 last week probably would have been OK. "But I'll say this," he said. "When the schedule came out, I was worried about this game. Coming off a Monday night in Denver and then into Kansas City, having worked here before, I have a lot of respect just for the way they go about their business." There were six lead changes in all on a crystal-clear, 61-degree day. The roaring crowd of 78,988, which by rough estimate was 10% to 15% pro-Green Bay, saw a defensive struggle in the first half that abruptly turned into a shootout in the second half. To win such a game requires unity of purpose throughout the ranks and individual players coming through with extraordinary plays. The finest player on the field was Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez, the brilliant tight end who despite stubborn resistance still caught 10 passes for 109 yards, but the Chiefs had no one to support him. "If you've got one guy, and that's all you've got," linebacker Brady Poppinga said, "then you're not going to win a lot of games." And in the dramatic back-and-forth of that second half, the Packers had half a dozen performers making splendid, athletic plays. Linebacker A.J. Hawk's first big play of the season, an interception in traffic late in the third quarter, set up a go-ahead touchdown. It came when Greg Jennings, on third and 8, danced across the linebacker level of the Chiefs' hard-hitting defense before diving into the end zone for the 13-yard score. One play after the Chiefs retaliated on Larry Johnson's 30-yard screen pass, the forgotten man, Donald Driver, split a deep double-team and made a spectacular one-hand reception worth 44 yards. That set up a field goal. Still, the Chiefs were able to respond, with Gonzalez gaining too easy of a release and then burning Atari Bigby for a 17-yard TD. A 2-point conversion gave the Chiefs the lead at 22-16, and just 5 minutes remained. "We had a 6-point lead and I didn't think they would score," Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said. "I thought they might move the ball and we could hold them to a field goal. There wasn't much time on the clock." Starting from the 18, McCarthy didn't mess around and gave the reins to Brett Favre, who had defeated all 30 other franchises but never Kansas City. Said Edwards: "When the game is close and he has the ball in his hand, they think they have a great chance to win. He's done that the last couple weeks. That's why he's a first-round Hall of Fame guy." After Favre put the ball on Driver for 11 in the middle and on Koren Robinson for 11 more on a slant, Edwards was hoping to bait Favre into a sideline pass against his Cover-2 scheme. He widened his safeties and gave the middle to Donnie Edwards, his aging but still-speedy linebacker. On the right side, Jennings was the innermost of three wide receivers. He was going to run a deep clear-out route to free Driver in the middle at 12 yards. But when Favre realized that Edwards would be trying to cover the deep middle in the Cover-2 scheme, he decided to take the shot deep. After looking right to keep safety Jarrad Page busy outside, Favre delivered a 60-yard strike to Jennings 5 yards behind Edwards for the score. "Jennings is making a lot of plays," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said. "He's scoring touchdowns, so that's pretty good." The pass rush, a consistent force all season, produced a sack by Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and that led to a punt, which was returned 27 yards by Charles Woodson. Mason Crosby then kicked another field goal. Then, when the Chiefs crept near midfield with 1:10 left, Woodson rode the hip of Samie Parker from the left slot into the middle. When Damon Huard didn't quite get what he wanted, he threw the ball anyway and it went right to Woodson, who high-tailed it 46 yards the other way for a closing TD. In some kind of order, it was Hawk, Jennings, Driver, Favre and Woodson coming through with six game-changing plays. When observers ask why the Packers are 7-1, this is why. "The beauty of this football team is different guys stepping up each week and making plays to win," McCarthy said. "But we haven't played our best football. I don't believe that at all." Lest the Packers get big heads, they have the advantage of being pursued in the NFC North Division. It might be true that New England is the only team in the NFL with a better record than Green Bay, but the woebegone Detroit Lions (6-2) are just one game in arrears and the next opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, just got done ambushing the high-flying Chargers. "Mike's keeping us humble," cornerback Al Harris said. "We've got a lot of young guys who are completely playing their (expletive) off. If we don't get too cocky, we'll be good." Only five times in their 87-year history (1929, '30, '31, '32 and '62) have the Packers had a better start than 7-1. In each year except '32 they won the championship. "I don't know if it's the best team I've ever been on," said tackle Chad Clifton, the veteran whose stellar pass blocking against redoubtable rusher Jared Allen was the foundation for Favre's 360 yards passing. "But I will say it's a really mature team, even with the youth. To go on the road and do what we've done speaks volumes for our maturity level." The Chiefs, 4-4 and coming off a bye, benefited from Green Bay's general sloppiness (13 penalties for 115 yards). They also slammed the door on Green Bay's one-week rushing resurgence. Ryan Grant averaged merely 2.9 yards in 19 carries as Kansas City's front seven proved just too stout. But at least McCarthy kept running this week, as his 43.6% run ratio attests. And in the end it enabled the play-caller to expose the weakness of the Chiefs' defense, which was the lack of speed across the secondary. "I don't think we collapsed," said the great running back Priest Holmes, in the second week of his improbable comeback from a spinal injury. "I think Green Bay made better plays than we did at the end. That last stretch of five minutes, that's definitely the character of any team, and their character pulled out a big win." Have an opinion on this story? Write a letter to the editor or start an online forum. Subscribe today and receive 4 weeks free! Sign up now.
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7-1 start:
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A.J. Hawk: Third-quarter interception sets up a touchdown.
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