I'm not sure when, if ever, during an NFL preseason it becomes dignified to panic, but it's beginning to feel like it might be that time.
Green Bay visited muggy Miami Monday night, and even Dennis Miller's chicanery couldn't obfuscate a few blatant truths about the team as it stands currently: the defense is a work in progress, Matt Hasselbeck has not won three MVP awards and just about every starter of note on either side of the ball is either hurt or pretending to be.
Oddly, despite being overrun between the 20-yard lines for the first 30 minutes (Dolphins kicker Olindo Mare missed four field goals in the Packers' eventual 17-14 loss), the defensive effort was probably the game's most encouraging. There is no refuting the fact that the linebacking group is sub-standard, but newcomer Nate Wayne at least appeared active. And while ex-starter Jude Waddy seems to almost have a propensity for not making plays, starting corner Mike McKenzie can almost make up for it.
What became most evident during Monday's first half was that coordinator Ed Donatell's attacking philosophy appears to be taking root. But like Nietzche's, it takes some time to wear in. The Packers finally registered a couple sacks, but pressure on the quarterback was minimal. However, coordinated run-blitz packages seemed on the verge of clicking, with tackles for losses just missed here and leaping lineman missing thrown balls there. Timing, as they say, is everything.
The group even resembled Denver's 1997 team that harassed the Packers into their worst defeat under Mike Holmgren, however mildly. Again, there is still nary a push from the down lineman, and Wayne, Waddy, Mike Morton and Nail Diggs aren't reminding too many folks of Pepper Johnson, Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carsons.
Offensively, the group needs only Larry Linville trying to bag Hot Lips in the Swamp to fully resemble a MASH unit. Brett Favre continues to rest his tennis elbow, which he got from playing too much golf or from gripping a football too hard. At running back, a kid named Whisper temporarily helped us forget that Dorsey Levens and Ahman Green are both nursing leg injuries, but Herbert Goodman's loud numbers (13 carries for 91 yards) must be judged in light of their timing -- the second half of a pretend game.
Tackle Earl Dotson still is sidelined with back trouble (how useful is an offensive lineman with a bad back, by the way?) and, to add injury to insult, WR Corey Bradford has a mid-October due date stamped across his broken fibula.
Assuming that Favre, Levens, Green and Dotson all return by Week 2 or so, it's still tough to believe that the offense will come roaring out of the gates just become we recognize the names on the jerseys. Preseason has its reasons, even for veterans, and especially for a couple aging ones playing under a new coach or two.
But allow me to shed the negative for a moment. Rookie tight end Bubba Franks (2 catches for 37 yards) showed some improvement in the passing game, which can only mean good things for the Packers red zone offense. And the wide receivers got through a game without any more injuries; Donald Driver even turned an 8-yard in pattern into an 80-yard Danny Wuerrfel TD pass in Tuesday's morning papers.
Over the past few weeks, I've stated a couple times that I really don't know what type of season the Packers will have. And unlike the past seven or eight years, nothing would truly surprise me. A slow start in the preseason and early injury trouble don't necessarily mean 6-10, but that mark wouldn't totally shock me. But like a true fence-sitter -- I'll vote for Gore, after all -- I'll be able to cobble together pieces of various columns to show that an eventual 10-6 was just as likely.
It may well be an uncertain year in Packer Land, that ethereal domain of wins, brats and beer to wash them both down. Whatever the ledger looks like at the end, though, here's a fairly safe bet -- the team will finish better than it starts. Opening games against the Jets and the Bills could actually spell an 0-2 start, something that hasn't happened 'round these parts for some time. Sure, the Jets game is in Lambeau, but both Empire State squads boast solid defensive groups, and Favre, Levens and Dotson are likely to have seen less than 10 live series among them since last December when the season begins.
A 1-1 start isn't unlikely, and 2-0 would be no miracle. But a winless start in the first two weeks might be good for everyone -- it would give false credence to rabid Packer attackers in the media, would have a finite shelf life and would set Sherman's jaw steadier than the ones on the front line of Sherman's march.
Hey ... who's kidding whom? Amongst a fan base that more than likely taped the Miami game on a VHS cassette purchased during Monday's lunch break, bright sides aren't exactly ferreted out like research data for a senior thesis. In answer to my earlier question re: preseason panic, yeah, it's too early to freak out. But I'll call you after Week Two with my Percodan connection if things don't turn around by then.
Sports shots columnist Tim Gutowski was born in a hospital in West Allis and his sporting heart never really left. He grew up in a tiny town 30 miles west of the city named Genesee and was in attendance at County Stadium the day the Brewers clinched the 1981 second-half AL East crown. I bet you can't say that.
Though Tim moved away from Wisconsin (to Iowa and eventually the suburbs of Chicago) as a 10-year-old, he eventually found his way back to Milwaukee. He remembers fondly the pre-Web days of listenting to static-filled Brewers games on AM 620 and crying after repeated Bears' victories over the Packers.
