Dr. Z's Forecast
Posted: Tuesday October 27, 1998 04:53 PM
By Paul Zimmerman
Packers-49ers at Lambeau doesn't take on the epic proportions it did when
the schedule came out and we thought we might be looking at a couple of
unbeatens, but the game is big for this time of the year, plenty big. The
Niners have three years and four losses worth of resentment stored up.
Green Bay knocked San Francisco out of each of the last three postseasons
and added a regular-season defeat last year for good measure. Only one of
the four games was close. No one has had as good a read on Steve Young's playbook as
the Packers' brain trust: defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, backed up by
the head man, Mike Holmgren, who worked for San Francisco. The Niners have
had to live with all this since the '95 season, and frankly, they're sick
of it.
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Stokes (left), here beating Packers corneerback Tyrone Williams deep in last season's NFC title game, will try to do more of the same this Sunday. V.J. Lovero |
What are the Packers sick of? They're sick of questions that
start, "What's wrong with...?" Back-to-back losses early this month
unleashed that plague. Can't run the ball, can't stop the deep threat,
quarterback's on a downer, you know the drill. The rather breezy 28-10 win
over Baltimore quieted the yapping for a while, but there were a couple of
jarring notes. The Ravens defied the Pack to run the ball by
occasionally using a 4-2-5 defense on base downs, lifting a linebacker for
a defensive back. Didn't matter. The Pack had as much trouble running
against this defense, which is designed to stop the pass, as it has had
against any alignment this year. Baltimore got its touchdown on a
46-yard pass to wideout Jermaine Lewis. That makes
five touchdown passes of more than 40 yards that Green Bay has allowed in
the last three games. Do you think the Niners might be taking the Packers'
corners deep? Are you as impressed with San Francisco's trio of
wideouts—Jerry
Rice, Terrell Owens
and J.J. Stokes—as
I am? The Niners have had cornerback problems of their own, but the
Rams' attack that San Francisco faced on Sunday was the kind of thing that
gets defenses healthy. Right corner Marquez Pope, returning
from a back injury, gave up only one completion and had an interception. Darnell Walker, switching
to the left side, had two pickoffs. I think the 49ers will do O.K. against
the Packers' wideouts. The pick: San Francisco in an upset. In
Atlanta, Dan Reeves loved the way 44-year-old Steve DeBerg threw in
preseason practice. So he brought him out of retirement and made him his
third-stringer, then his second-stringer, then the oldest starter in NFL
history on Sunday, subbing for the injured Chris Chandler. The trouble
is that you don't face a serious rush in practice, and DeBerg certainly did
against the Jets, who exposed him for what he is—an extremely nice
chap who should be coaching. If Chandler can't go this weekend, I pick
the Rams. If not, I go with the Falcons. The Jets beat a wounded
team. Their value, as they say on Wall Street, is inflated. On Sunday, in
K.C., it deflates. Chiefs by a touchdown. The scenario was
much the same in Miami, where the Patriots, with a crippled offense but a
lot of heart, took the Dolphins into overtime and lost when the real Dan Marino replaced that
impersonator who has been handing the ball off all season. Now Miami
travels to Buffalo, where the nastiest winds in the NFL blow, and a little
will-o'-the-wisp named Doug
Flutie defies all the elements with his quick feet and even quicker
brain. Bills in a squeaker. The quarterback duel everyone is
waiting for takes place in Seattle. Donald Hollas (Raiders)
versus John Friesz
(Seahawks). I'll go with Seattle and the Frieszers, although the
Oakland defense has been surprisingly stingy. If Warren Moon is back from his
cracked rib, there's even more reason to like the Seahawks. If Jeff George miraculously
returns from his pulled groin, and the chances are slim, uh, I guess I
still like Seattle. There will come a cloudy afternoon when the
unbeaten Broncos will be upset. I just feel it. But not in Cincinnati. The
Bengals loaded up against the run in Oakland with an old-fashioned 4-3. And
they held the Raiders to 251 yards on the ground. Now they entertain Terrell Davis. Good luck.
I like Denver to put up more adding-machine numbers. Issue date: November 2, 1998
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