Green Bay Packers: Mike Sherman’s Exciting, Disappointing Tenure
By Tim Muma
After a terrific start to 2002, the Green Bay Packers ran out of steam, in part due to injuries to key pieces.
Yes, every team in the NFL has to deal with players getting hurt. But it’s often times the clubs that stay healthy who keep moving on.
For the 2002 Packers, the injury bug – large and small – took its toll as the season wore on and it culminated with a terrible playoff defeat.
Green Bay started the year with a phenomenal 8-1 mark, which including a seven-game winning streak. The offense was clicking, scoring 30 or more points in five of those nine contests.
However, they’d lose both starting tackles during the year – Mark Tauscher and Chad Clifton.
Tauscher was lost for the year in Week 2, while Clifton was destroyed by Warren Sapp on a cheap, blindside hit.
The team hit a speed bump during the 8-1 start, dropping two straight road games in Minnesota and Tampa – the game Clifton’s season ended.
A week later, Pro Bowl safety Darren Sharper would go down for the year, placing Matt Bowen into the starting lineup.
Somehow, the Packers kept on winning with four straight victories, pushing their record to 12-3 with one game remaining.
Despite the wins, you could to see the team running on fumes. The offense scored fewer points each week, including just 10 in a Week 16 victory.
Green Bay couldn’t tackle Mike Vick or Warrick Dunn. It was a complete disaster and the first Packers’ postseason loss at Lambeau Field – ever.
The defense was bending while avoiding a major break. They pitched a 10-0 shutout, but that was only thanks to six Buffalo Bills’ turnovers.
So the Packers hit the road to take on the New York Jets in Week 17. A win would give Green Bay the top seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Instead, the team looked slow and tired in a 42-17 drubbing. That dropped the Packers to a three seed, missing out on a much-needed bye week.
In the opening round, the red hot Atlanta Falcons came to Lambeau Field. They had gone 7-0-1 in the last eight games of the season.
Atlanta would find the end zone on a 76-yard drive to start the game. Later in the first, the Packers had a punt blocked for a touchdown.
It was 14-0 in a flash.
Then Ryan Longwell missed a field goal. That was followed by a punt being muffed to give the Falcons the ball in Packers’ territory again.
However, Sherman should have challenged the play. Replays clearly showed the ball hit a Falcons’ player first, which would’ve meant Green Bay ball.
He didn’t, the Falcons scored soon after, and they went up 24-0 by halftime.
The Packers lost Donald Driver, Ahman Green, Gilbert Brown and others throughout the game. Favre went full gunslinger as they scrambled to come back.
Green Bay couldn’t tackle Mike Vick or Warrick Dunn. It was a complete disaster and the first Packers’ postseason loss at Lambeau Field – ever.