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Green Bay vs. San Francisco
10/14/96 - Packers Win 23-20 in OT
Box Score
It was midnight and the Green Bay Packers had just shaded the San Francisco 49ers in overtime on a dramatic, 53-yard field goal by Chris Jacke before a record Lambeau Field crowd and a national, "Monday Night Football" audience.
Head Coach Mike Holmgren, in an understandably jovial mood as he launched his post-game news conference, jested, "Never a doubt...never a doubt..."
Chris Jacke kicks a game winning 53 yard field goal in overtime |
A pardonable "understatement," under the highly felicitous circumstances.
In truth, it had been a largely tenuous, uphill struggle for the Packers, generally accustomed to scoring points in large numbers during the 1996 season.
On this "touch-and-go" occasion, they trailed 17-6 at halftime and, finally, by 20-17 before gaining a tie on a 31-yard Jacke field goal with only 12 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, a development which forced the sudden death overtime.
Before his news conference had ended the Packers' head coach was citing the positive impact the gritty, extending kind of victory it was could have on his team down the line.
"In the four or five years we've been here, we've talked about the steps we've taken," he said. "And, at the end of each season, I can point to something that was a step we took.
"Against this team, coming back...that's another thing that we haven't done...just exactly like we did tonight. So that will help us in the future...a game like this will help you in the future."
Gilbert Brown stuffs the 'Niner running game |
The contest itself, Holmgren acknowledged, "was one of those great games...Two, I believe, real fine football teams just going at it tooth and nail, and coming down to a big kick at the end."
In many ways, it was a hallmark effort by the Packers, coming as it did on a national showcase and against a perennial power like San Francisco, again rated a major contender for Super Bowl status at season's end.
The victory, which gave them a three-game winning streak going into the bye, was all the more impressive because the 49ers had come into Lambeau Field with a potent revenge motive, having been dethroned as Super Bowl champions by the Green and Gold (27-17) in a divisional playoff in their own 3Com Park last January.
In winning, the Packers made significant artistic strides:
- The latest success improved their record to 6-1, matching their best season start since 1978, when they opened with an identical record.
- It also was their 19th victory in their last 20 regular season games in "Lambeau" and their 12th win in their last 14 regular season games overall.
- In addition, it was their first overtime victory since 1989 (they defeated the Detroit Lions, 23-20, on October 29, 1989 in their last previous OT win) and their sixth all-time, compared to 10 losses and 4 ties.
- Poetically, it was achieved before the largest crowd ever to grace Lambeau Field...60,716. The previous record, 60,666, had been set five weeks earlier when the Packers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 39-13, in their first "Monday Night Football" appearance of the season.
The proceedings also were punctuated by three record individual performances and a number of key and milestone efforts.
- Chris Jacke, for one, tied his own club record for most field goals in a game, five, his decisive 53-yarder having equaled the mark he established against the then Los Angeles Raiders in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum November 11, 1990.
The only man in Packers history to kick as many as five field goals in a single game, he for the second time went a "perfect" 5-for-5 in his record performance, connecting from 30, 25, 35, 31 and, finally, 53 yards.
In his original record effort, against the Raiders, he hit from 39, 51, 32, 23 and 20 yards.
- In Monday night's process, Jacke moved past Paul Hornung into second place on the Packers' all-time scoring list with 767 points. Hornung, who was in the Lambeau Field press box for the game, scored 760 points during a 9-year Green Bay career (1957-62, 64-66). Don Hutson is the team's career leader with 823 points.
- Quarterback Brett Favre set a record for most passing attempts in a single game, 61, eclipsing the previous mark of 59, established by Don Majkowski against the Detroit Lions November 12, 1989.
- Favre also closed out the evening with 395 passing yards and the 13th 300-yard game of his 5-year Packers career, leaving him only two shy of the club's all-time record, 15, set by Lynn Dickey.
- Don Beebe, who became Favre's primary target after flanker Robert Brooks went down with a season-ending knee injury on the Packers' first offensive play of the game, proceeded to mount a career game, amassing 220 yards with 11 receptions, including a 59-yard pass-run touchdown.
His imposing production represents the third highest single game total in team history, behind only the 257 yards by Bill Howton against the Rams at Milwaukee in 1956 (October 21) and the 237 by Don Hutson against Brooklyn November 21, 1943.
- Reggie White, the NFL's official all-time sack leader, registered the 160th sack of his distinguished career, felling 49er quarterback Elvis Grbac for a 3-yard loss in the third quarter.
- Another contribution, of major importence in the final analysis, was the 2-point conversion which followed the Packers' third quarter touchdown, on a Favre pass to running back Edgar Bennett, closing the gap to 17-14 and making it possible for a 17-17 tie via Jacke's third field goal with 3:35 left in the fourth period.
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