If you were judging which player in the NFL has made the greatest impact since joining a new team last offseason, there is no question that Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens would win that contest in a landslide.
Owens, who was traded to the Eagles in March after spending his first eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, is no stranger to big games with the Packers. Since he came into the league in 1996, Green Bay has faced off with the rangy receiver 10 times - with the Packers winning nine of the games, including three of four postseason contests.
The Green Bay defense has been able to keep T.O. in check for the most part in the 10 games, limiting him to an average of four catches for 47 yards per game, although Owens has scored five touchdowns against the Green and Gold.
Scoring touchdowns has been T.O.'s specialty in his first season with the Eagles as well. Owens leads the NFL with 13 TD catches. Coming along with those catches has been the receiver's famous end zone celebrations.
Packer defenders have said this week that while his antics are entertaining for the most part, they don't want to give him an opportunity to show off any new moves Sunday.
"I like some of the stuff he does, I laugh at it," said safety Bhawoh Jue. "I think it's cool, but once he does it to you, then it changes obviously. Our goal out there is try to stop him from doing it to us."
Owens, who stands 6-foot-3, has drawn comparisons to another Pro Bowl receiver that the Packers face even more regularly - Minnesota's Randy Moss.
Darren Sharper said that the secondary will approach this match-up in a similar way they have gone about defending Moss.
"We usually have a big corner that we can match up with a big receiver, similar to going against Randy Moss," Sharper said. "You always can do different things, whether I might follow him around over the top or we might have a corner be able to press him and be pretty physical.
"The main thing with Terrell is just the run after the catch. You have to stop that. If we're able to tackle after the catch, we should be fine as far as slowing him down."
During his mid-week press conference Wednesday, quarterback Brett Favre was asked his opinion of the attention-grabbing superstar.
"I think he's a great player," Favre said. "As I said to the (Philadelphia) media, it's a love-hate relationship with him. Either you love him or you hate him, but the bottom line is he produces. He backs up his talk.
"To say whether or not I would like to have him, I wouldn't trade our guys, and that's no disrespect to him. We have players that can make plays - maybe they're not Terrell Owens, but that doesn't mean that we can't produce and be effective. I like our guys' attitude and work ethic. I wouldn't trade them."
One of those receivers that Favre wouldn't trade for T.O. is especially looking forward to this weekend's meeting with the Eagles. Javon Walker and Owens trained together in the offseason in Arizona and both are enjoying tremendous seasons, ranked in the top three in the NFL in receiving yards (969 for Owens, 960 for Walker).
Walker said while he benefited from being around such a hard worker in his offseason program, he didn't pick up any celebration tips from Owens. Walker did say that he and his fellow receivers will be looking to perform well in yet another showcase match-up against some of the league's best wideouts.
"We're just going to go out there and play how we play and do the things that we do when we get in the end zone," said Walker.
"It will be fun because obviously we're going to look at the things he's doing and they're going to be looking at the things we're doing and it's going to be fun to try to go out and make plays."
