This Sunday, the Green Bay Packers will start their third different quarterback in as many games.
This week in our history lesson, we’ll harken back to the days when the Pack only ever used one quarterback.
Six seasons ago, Green Bay and the New York Giants prepared for the sixth of what would eventually become seven postseason meetings between the franchises. And it’s pretty safe to say that the teams’ NFC title game clash in 2007 was the one that offered plenty of drama.
Tom Coughlin’s 10-6 upstarts had already pulled off road playoff wins at Tampa and at Dallas, the latter against the top-seeded Cowboys and a team the Giants had lost twice to during the regular season. Like the Pokes, the Packers also finished 13-3 and were coming off a 42-20 win over the Seahawks at snowy Lambeau Field in which running back Ryan Grant (a former member of the New York Giants) ran for 201 yards and three touchdowns.
Much would be made about quarterback Eli Manning and how he would handle frigid Lambeau Field with the game time temperature at minus-one degrees and the wind chill at a “balmy” minus-23. The Giants’ signal-caller had struggled in the elements at Buffalo four weeks earlier, throwing two interceptions and losing two of his five fumbles in a 38-21 win over the Bills, would simply be dealing with the cold rather than the rain and win at Orchard Park. And it would be the veteran, Packers’ quarterback Brett Favre, who would wind up being chilled in his own stadium.
After the Packers won the toss and got the ball first, Favre would come out firing. But soon the Packers would punt and the Giants would embark on the kind of drive that would serve them well in many regards, marching 71 yards on 14 plays and killing over 10 minutes of clock, the march resulting in a 29-yard field goal from PK Lawrence Tynes and a 3-0 New York lead. The Packers would go three-and-out on their next two possessions and after the second, the Giants mounted a short drive which resulted in another Tynes’ field goal and a 6-0 New York lead early in the second quarter.
But that would edge would last less mere seconds. After Packers’ kick returner Koren Robinson muffed the ensuing kickoff and set his team up at the 10-yard line, Favre found a wide open Donald Driver on the right side of the field, the play covering 90 yards and gave Green Bay a sudden 7-6 lead. Later in the quarter, Packers’ quarterback Mason Crosby would add a 36-yard field goal and Mike McCarthy’s club would take a four-point lead into the locker room.
Once again, New York would respond with a long time-consuming drive. Taking the second half kickoff and using 7:04 of the clock, Tom Coughlin’s team would cap a 12-play, 69-yard trek with a one-yard TD run by running back Brandon Jacobs and the Giants were back ahead, 17-13.
But somewhat similar to the second quarter, Favre and company would waste little time going back ahead. A 49-yard kickoff made for a short field and less than three minutes later, Favre’s 12-yard scoring pass to tight end Donald Lee gave Green Bay a 17-13 lead. But this defensive struggle of sorts was suddenly turning into a shootout as Manning marched his club 57 yards (thanks to a 33-yard kickoff return from kick returner Domenik Hixon) and running back Ahmad Bradshaw’s four-yard run gave New York a 20-17 edge late in the third quarter.
NY Giants
Then things became interesting, sort of speak. On Green Bay’s next series, Favre and company had a first down at the Giants’ 31-yard line when the Packers’ quarterback was intercepted by cornerback R.W. McQuarters at the eight-yard line. But on the return, he was tackled by Grant, fumbled at the ball was recovered by Packers’ right tackle Mark Tauscher and suddenly a turnover turned into a 12-yard gain for McCarthy’s team. Four plays and zero yards later, Crosby would add a 37-yard field goal and the game would be tied at 20-20.
The defenses would settle in for the rest of the game but New York looked like it would win it late. Just before the two-minute warning, Bradshaw ran 48 yards for a touchdown but it was called back by a holding penalty. Still, Manning put his team in position to win it at the gun but Tynes pulled the 36-yard kick left and we were headed into overtime.
But retribution would soon come as the Packers won the toss and on their second play of the extra session, Favre (in his last pass for the Packers) was picked off by Giants’ cornerback Corey Webster and his nine-yard return set up his team at the Green Bay 34. And plays later, Tynes would connect from 47 yards out to give Coughlin’s team a 23-20 win. And as we all know, the Giants would pull off an even more improbable win two weeks later at Arizona over the previously-unbeaten Patriots.
And the man who would catch that winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl was the unsung hero of the win at Lambeau Field as wide receiver Plaxico Burress caught 11 passes for 151 yards without a touchdown vs. the Packers, totaling more than half of Manning’s 21 completions and 251 yards that frigid day.
