Packers Team Report

INSIDE SLANT

Say it isn’t so? Could the Packers secretly be rooting for expatriate Brett Favre(notes) and his Minnesota Vikings to snap out of their late-season doldrums, if only for a week, and beat the New York Giants on Sunday?

A Vikings victory in that early game would remove the suspense from the Packers’ subsequent late-afternoon matchup at the Arizona Cardinals on the final day of the regular season. A Minnesota win guarantees the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye for the Vikings in the NFC playoffs, as well as a rematch between the NFC West champion Cardinals and the wild-card Packers back at University of Phoenix Stadium in the first round the following weekend.

Failing a win by Minnesota, the Packers and Cardinals would still face each other in the opening round if Green Bay emerges as the victor Sunday.

Yet, Arizona would have more of an incentive to win the game because it could ascend to the No. 2 seed, depending on the outcome of the NFC East showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles that will be going on at the same time.

With so many variables at play and so much uncertainty about how the six-team NFC bracket will shake out at dusk Sunday, there’s no telling what tack will ultimately be undertaken by both the Packers and the Cardinals.

For the here and now, Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy and his players insist things remain status quo, even though the Packers have little to gain Sunday since they’ll either be the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.

“We’re not in this situation to back off,” McCarthy said Wednesday. “It’s important for us to continue our style of play. Our approach this week will be the same that it has always been. I think routine in your preparation and your approach is a big part of your success, so we’re going to go out there and our goal is to go to 11-5.”

Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt, in contrast, dropped hints that taking the upcoming game seriously may not be in the cards if indeed the Vikings beat the Giants.

“If you do make any adjustments (with game planning), certainly you can do that during the game or right at the start of the game,” Whisenhunt said.

The majority of playoff combinations point to the Packers and the Cardinals’ meeting for a third time in the desert—they also met in the preseason. If so, the game Sunday could quickly morph into another scrimmage, rather than a sneak peek of the do-or-die contest to be played six or seven days later on the same field.

“I guess what (New England Patriots) coach (Bill) Belichick said was right, ‘If they play, they’ll play; if they don’t play, then they won’t play,’” said Whisenhunt, stopping short of declaring what his true intentions would be with playing time for starters.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers(notes) and cornerback Charles Woodson(notes), among others on the Green Bay side, are expecting to play the whole game, but their stated wishes could be just lip service.

“Though we’re in the playoffs, we don’t want people to get the wrong impression that this game doesn’t mean anything because it does,” Woodson said. “We’re going to approach it as a game that we need to win and, hopefully, we can carry some momentum to the playoffs.”

Yet, there’s precedent for McCarthy to side with vanilla as the flavor of the final week of the regular season with a playoff-bound team that has nothing to play for in the game.

He held out several veterans from the 2007 finale, which Green Bay still won handily over the Detroit Lions. The NFC North-champion Packers weren’t affected in the least as they advanced to the NFC Championship, losing to the Giants by a field goal in overtime.

A certain guy named Favre was the quarterback of that team.

Sentiments about when to play and when to sit apparently are different with Rodgers at the helm of the offense.

“I think that teams who finish off the season playing their guys a lot of times hit their stride quicker in the playoffs,” Rodgers said. “I think there’s a lot of merit to hitting your stride going into the postseason. We’ve seen it I don’t know how many times in the last few years—the Giants, the (Pittsburgh) Steelers go from a wild-card spot to making a run and winning the whole thing.

“So, we want to keep this momentum going. We’ve put together seven games (in which) we’ve been pretty consistent—we’ve won six of those—and we want to keep that thing going.”

Plus, without having to acknowledge it, Rodgers could have selfish reasons for playing from start to perhaps finish in this final preseason, er, regular-season game. He needs 260 passing yards to become the Packers’ single-season leader.

What’s more, the Green Bay defense has a chance to end the season No. 1 in the league for stopping the run for the first time in team history.

But, are chasing such records worth putting key players at risk for injury and exposing too much schematically to an opponent you’re bound to see again around the bend?

“We’re going to win the game, regardless,” Woodson argued. “If we have to see ‘em again, then we plan on winning that game as well. We are who we are at this point in the season, and they are who they are. There’s no ‘showing ‘em too much.’ If they go and look at the film, they can see everything that we’ve done over the course of the season, and vice versa.”

Series History:   69th regular-season meeting. Packers lead series, 42-22-4. Green Bay has won five of the past six meetings since 1988, including a 3-1 record in Arizona. The Packers’ last visit to the desert, however, resulted in a 20-13 loss in 2003. Green Bay won the teams’ most recent meeting, 31-14 at home in 2006. This is the Packers’ first in-season game at University of Phoenix Stadium, though they beat the Cardinals there 44-37 in a preseason matchup Aug. 28 this year.

NOTES, QUOTES

—For defensive backs Charles Woodson and Nick Collins(notes), getting word that you’ve been selected to the Pro Bowl is old hat.

For quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who joined cornerback Woodson and free safety Collins as the three Packers picked for the Jan. 31 all-star game in South Florida, hearing his name called for the first time prompted him to tip his helmet elsewhere.

“I have very high expectations on my performance, and at the same time, I realize this is not just an individual reward,” Rodgers said. “This reflects team success. Definitely, this is something that you hope for, but you need to play well as a team. This is a team achievement, in my opinion.”

Woodson and Collins concurred, citing how the Packers’ surge in the second half of the season to go from 4-4 to 10-5 and earn a wild-card berth in the NFC playoffs helped the team get multiple Pro Bowl selections for the eighth time in the last nine seasons.

“They’re each special,” Woodson said of being chosen six times in his 12-year playing career. “I think what makes this one special, of course, is that we’re heading into the postseason. So, it means that what you’ve done on the field has contributed to something that could turn into something great.”

Woodson and Collins, who have combined for 14 interceptions this season, also earned Pro Bowl spots in 2008. It was Collins’ first selection.

Woodson was named a starter for the NFC team for the second straight year.

Rookie linebacker Clay Matthews(notes), pegged as a first alternate, is among four Packers who were named alternates and could wind up playing in the Pro Bowl if players selected ahead of them have to drop out before the game. The others are left tackle Chad Clifton(notes), running back Ryan Grant(notes) and linebacker A.J. Hawk(notes).

• Rodgers’ inaugural Pro Bowl nod this season is validation of how well he has played in the unenviable situation of replacing the legendary Brett Favre as the team’s starting signal caller.

Rodgers has thrown for 4,000 yards in his first two seasons as a starter, the first quarterback in league history to achieve the distinction.

Incidentally, Favre, in his first season with the rival Minnesota Vikings, also was selected to the NFC team. The New Orleans Saints’ Drew Brees(notes) is the other all-star quarterback in the conference.

Favre, a 10-time selection, last played in the Pro Bowl after the 1996 season. He has taken a pass on playing five times since then.

• Woodson wasn’t getting his hopes up too high that he’ll be the choice next week for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

He has attracted a lot of attention and support throughout the league in recent weeks.

“I feel like when I go out there on the field, I leave it all out on the field,” said Woodson, who leads the team with a career-high-tying eight interceptions and four forced fumbles. “If that means defensive player of the year, so be it. But, I’ll keep saying this over and over: For me, it’s about a Super Bowl championship, and that’s what I look forward to accomplishing.”

Woodson, 33, called this season the best in his decorated career.

The Packers’ only defensive player of the year, as selected by The Associated Press, was the late defensive end Reggie White in 1998.

• Green Bay placed linebacker Jeremy Thompson(notes) on injured reserve Wednesday.

The move had been expected after Thompson learned he suffered nerve damage in his neck in a collision with practice-squad running back Kregg Lumpkin(notes) at practice Dec. 4.

Thompson since received multiple medical opinions and is encouraged that the injury wasn’t diagnosed to be career-threatening.

The second-year player appeared in six games this season, primarily on special teams.

• The Packers promoted nose tackle Anthony Toribio(notes) from the practice squad to fill the opening on the 53-man roster.

The 6-foot-1, 315-pound Toribio, a first-year player, was on the practice squad since the start of the season. He was on the team’s 53-man roster the final two weeks last season but wasn’t activated.

Green Bay filled out the practice squad with the signing of undrafted rookie receiver Khalil Jones(notes). The 6-1, 212-pound Jones was with the Atlanta Falcons during the summer.

By The Numbers:   1—Losses by the Packers in their last 15 regular-season finales. The 14-1 record is the best among all NFL teams since 1994.

Quote To Note:   “We have a number of talented guys who have had very good seasons for us. I think there’s a number of guys who should have been considered. But, our ultimate goal is the Super Bowl, not the Pro Bowl.”—Quarterback Aaron Rodgers on being the only player from the Packers’ No. 4-rated offense selected to the Pro Bowl on Tuesday.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

Since there’s a strong chance the Packers will meet the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale again a week later to start the playoffs, Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy could be compelled to play it safe and not risk injury or further injury for several players.

One indication of McCarthy’s potentially cautious approach is the team elevated nose tackle Anthony Toribio from the practice squad Wednesday.

Starting nose tackle Ryan Pickett(notes) has been plagued by a hamstring injury since early December and probably will be held out for the third time in the last four games.

Rookie B.J. Raji(notes) would continue to take the lion’s share of reps at nose tackle.

The Packers’ depth on the defensive line also has been depleted with an ankle injury backup end Michael Montgomery suffered in the last game. His status is up in the air for this weekend.

McCarthy said Toribio, who was on the practice squad from the outset of the season, has the flexibility to play all positions on the line.

“Anthony has been with us, and he’ll fit right in, won’t miss a beat,” McCarthy said.

Player Notes  

• NT Ryan Pickett has yet to practice this week, and it’s looking as if he’ll be held out for the third time in the last four games because of a hamstring injury. Rookie B.J. Raji would remain the starter in Pickett’s absence.

• ILB Nick Barnett(notes) went through the full practice Thursday after being sent home the previous day because of an illness. Barnett should be ready to make the start in Sunday’s regular-season finale at Arizona.

• FB Korey Hall(notes) did next to nothing in practice for the second consecutive day and probably won’t play Sunday. He suffered an elbow injury in the last game. The Packers are covered at the position with rookie Quinn Johnson(notes) and John Kuhn(notes), who is expected to play after missing two games to rest a broken hand.

• S Derrick Martin(notes) is the only player on the team’s injury report who has been ruled out for Sunday. The special-teams ace is on the mend with an ankle sprain he sustained in the last game, and the team wants to try to get him ready for the start of the playoffs next week.

• K Mason Crosby’s(notes) two field goals in the Sunday rout of the Seattle Seahawks came in handy, not only for restoring the team’s confidence in him after he had missed a field-goal try in each of the previous four games but also for etching his name in the league record book. Crosby has 390 career points, topping the 388 by the New England Patriots’ Stephen Gostkowski(notes) from 2006 to ’08 for most points scored by a player in his first three seasons.

Game Plan:   What game plan? Packers head coach Mike McCarthy and Cardinals counterpart Ken Whisenhunt aren’t letting on much as to how they are approaching what the odds favor will be a glorified scrimmage before the teams meet again six or seven days later back at University of Phoenix Stadium in Round 1 of the playoffs. The teams will know by kickoff of the late-afternoon game whether the Minnesota Vikings followed through with an expected victory over the New York Giants, thus ensuring a Packers-Cardinals rematch, or whether another meltdown by the Vikings opens the door even more for Arizona to jump up to the No. 2 seed in the NFC bracket. Assuming the latter scenario doesn’t materialize, it would be hard to imagine that either Green Bay or the Cardinals will show much. From the Packers’ perspective, McCarthy probably won’t deviate from his usually protective approach with players. Thus, seeing the precious commodities of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, receivers Greg Jennings(notes) and Donald Driver(notes), running back Ryan Grant and cornerback Charles Woodson for more than a half would be shocking. Game-planning for the encounter that will really matter will have to wait until next week.

Matchups To Watch:   Packers defense vs. Cardinals RBs Tim Hightower(notes) and Beanie Wells(notes). Since a Green Bay-Arizona rematch in the first round of the NFC playoffs could be set in stone by kickoff, the Cardinals will probably be inclined to dial things down on offense and not play quarterback Kurt Warner(notes) too long, if at all. That would possibly mean a heavy dose of Arizona’s talented duo of running backs to test the Packers’ top-rated run defense. Hightower is a multifaceted threat, leading all NFC backs with 61 catches, but Green Bay’s greedy defense (37 takeaways) could exploit Hightower’s butter fingers (four fumbles, eight dropped passes). The powerful Wells has been a load to bring down in his rookie season.

Packers TE Jermichael Finley(notes) vs. Cardinals SS Adrian Wilson(notes). Finley needs six catches in the regular-season finale to overtake Paul Coffman (56 receptions in 1979) for the single-season team record for tight ends. Finley should have ample playing time to make a run at it, even if Green Bay winds up resting quarterback Aaron Rodgers for most, if not all, of the game. Finley has been unstoppable the last four games with 24 catches for 303 yards and three touchdowns. Pro Bowl selection Wilson has the physical and savvy goods to temper Finley’s late-season antics. Wilson has two interceptions and six pass breakups in the last three games, including five breakups when he continually hounded the San Francisco 49ers’ Vernon Davis(notes) over the middle two weeks ago. The best way to beat Wilson is for either Rodgers or backup Matt Flynn(notes) to throw over the top to Finley, who has the straight-line speed to get behind Wilson.

Injury Impact:   Nose tackle Ryan Pickett is in jeopardy of being sidelined for the third time in the last four games because of a nagging hamstring injury. Rookie B.J. Raji would remain the starter, and the first-round draft pick has been effective with the increased playing time down the stretch.

Fullbacks Korey Hall and John Kuhn figure to swap roles for Sunday’s regular-season finale at the Arizona Cardinals. Hall is a long shot to play after suffering an elbow injury in the last game. That would pave the way for Kuhn to be in uniform again after he was out the last two games to give him a break after playing for a few weeks with a broken hand.