Green Bay gets spotlight,
but Pats could get glory
■ SUPER BOWL: It could
come down to whose
defense is best in Sunday’s
NFL title game
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — The
NFL’s best late-season defense
will be on display in the Super
Bowl. It may not be the Green
Bay Packers.
They allowed the fewest
points and yards during the
regular season, but the New
England Patriots’ defense has
held its two playoff opponents
to just three field goals and its
last seven opponents to only
four touchdowns.
In the last four minutes of
their 20-6 AFC championship
game win over Jacksonville,
the Patriots forced three
turnovers.
Afterward, defensive end
Willie McGinest spoke up for a
defense that was vulnerable to
long passes early in the season
and was blown out 34-8 by
Denver in the 11th game.
“No one’s been giving our
defense the respect that we de
serve, no matter who we play,”
he said. “We’re the no-name
defense, but we get the job
done and that’s all that
counts.”
McGinest, in his third pro
season, doesn’t have the noto
riety of Green Bay defensive
end Reggie White. And free
safety Willie Clay, whose in
terception with 3:43 left
stopped a potential tying drive
by the Jaguars, isn’t an All-Pro
like Packers’ strong safety
LeRoy Butler.
Yet in their last seven
games, the Patriots have al
lowed 73 points, just one more
than the Packers.
Green Bay’s offense, led by
Brett Favre, is more dangerous
than the
ones the
Patriots
faced in
the play
o f f s
against Pittsburgh and Jack
sonville. The Packers were the
NFL’s highest scoring team.
But New England’s confi
dence and cohesion on de
fense have grown dramatically
since the loss to the Broncos.
The Patriots haven’t allowed
more than 300 yards in any of
their seven games since then.
“It was kind of a rude awak
ening for us,” middle line
backer Ted Johnson said. “It
seems like we still can’t stop
talking about that Denver
game, but from that point on
we’ve improved in all phases.
“Expectations grow and,
with that, everybody on our
side of the ball feels like, ‘hey,
we did it last week, we’ve got
to do it again.’ ”
Head coach Bill Parcells
says the return of injured play
ers in the secondary and a pla
toon system in which players
divide time at a position and
keep fresh, has helped.
Packers’ receiver ready for game
■ GREEN BAY: Split end
Antonio Freeman is very
much on the ball after early
season failures
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Antonio
Freeman cringes at the memory. In
the biggest game of his life, he
dropped the ball.
Then he dropped it again. And
again.
Three times against the San
Francisco 49ers on Oct. 14, Green
Bay’s second-year split end
missed flawless throws from Brett
Favre, who lost his favorite receiv
er, Robert Brooks, to a season-end
ing knee injury on his first snap.
“Brooks went down early and it
kind of put all the pressure on me
at once,” Freeman said. “And 1
think it kind of got the best of me.”
So, Favre turned to Don Beebe,
who had 11 catches for 220 yards,
and the Packers won 23-20 in
overtime.
With the bye week that fol
lowed, Freeman had plenty of
time to think about his eight drops
through seven games.
And he had plenty of time to
consider coach Mike Holmgren’s
assurances that despite all that, he
was going to be Favre’s go-to guy,
with all of 39 receptions in the
NFL.
Freeman flew home to Balti
more and had a heart-to-heart with
his older brother, Clarence III, who
had attended the game.
“He’s in the Marines. He’s a
drill instructor. So, you know he
has a way of saying things,” Free
man said. “And being his brother,
I don’t really see too much of that.
But when he saw my confidence
slip, he went into that mode.
That’s what best friends are for.
“It was just some kind of way he
said it and it really dawned on me
that, hey, I can really be as good as
I want,” Freeman said.
The message was simple: wal
low in your failures or use them as
kindling to turn your career
around.
“Are you going to stick your
head in the dirt? Or are you going
to say, ‘OK, I dropped five balls.
I’ll have to live with the criticism
and I’m going to
become better’?
“And when
he told me that,
it really rang a
bell in my head.
People are going to talk about
those dropped balls, but let’s make
them forget that,” Freeman said.
“My biggest problem sometimes
in my game was lack of concentra
tion,” he said in his typically can
did style. “I just got back to basics,
running the routes, looking the
ball in, watching it go into my
arm.”
But Freeman’s trying times
weren’t over.
In his first game back against
Tampa Bay on Oct. 27, he broke
his left forearm, had surgery and
missed a month. The time off actu
ally helped.
"I was determined to come back
not only as a better player, but a
big-play guy,” Freeman said.
Returning with a cumbersome
cast, Freeman was just that —
catching 25 passes for 452 yards
and four TDs during the Packers’
4-0 December run. He finished
with a team-best 56 receptions for
933 yards.
General manager Ron Wolf,
whose savvy pickups this year in
cluded Beebe, Desmond Howard
a
My biggest problem sometimes
in my game was lack of
concentration. I just got back to
basics, running the routes,
looking the ball in, watching it
go into my arm.
—Antonio Freeman
Green Bay Split End
--55
and Andre Rison, said those addi
tions pale next to Freeman’s ar
rival.
“Probably the best move that
happened didn’t have anything to
do with Ron Wolf. It had to do
with the injury to Robert Brooks,
and that’s the emergence of Anto
nio Freeman,” Wolf said.
Rison was plucked off the waiv
er wire during Freeman’s absence
and thrust into the flanker posi
tion.
In the six games they have been
paired as starters, Freeman had 60
passes thrown in his direction
compared to Rison’s 24.
“I remember this summer I
came across a magazine, and it
said that I would more than likely
be the starter at split end,” Free
man recalled. “And I told some
one, ‘Split end? They don’t catch
the ball.
“All we do is run. I’d better get
my legs ready. The flanker catch
es all the balls.’ ”
Except when the split end is a
second-year sensation who
learned his lessons well, thanks to
some brotherly advice.
Today you may need us.
TO QUIT SMOKING
Smoking
Cessation
Workshop
Wednesdays
3:30-4:30 p.m.
January 22 to March 5, 1997
Health Center,
Medical Library
I Free to UO students
Call 346-4456
to register
TO GET HELP
Coverage
Open 7 Days a Week
8am-6pm
Except Tuesday (open 9am)
and Sunday (open 10am)
After-hours
information
and advice
call 346-2770
Here for you.
THE HEALTH CENTER • 13TH & AGATE • 346-2770 • http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/ UOSHC/