Packers GM/Head Coach Mike Sherman has a spotless coaching record against the Lions in Lambeau Field. He comes into this afternoon's encounter with a 3-0 home record against Detroit, the Green and Gold having posted victories over the Lions here in 2000 (26-13), 2001 (28-6) and 2002 (40-14).
The 40 points the Packers scored in last year's Lambeau Field win over the Lions are the most the Green and Gold have scored in a regular-(or post-) season game under Sherman to date.
Sherman owns a 5-1 overall record against Detroit.
-GOOD 'REBOUNDERS:' The Packers come into today's contest with the NFL's third-highest percentage following a loss, based on the past three seasons (2000-2002). They own an 11-3 record in the 14 games they have played following a loss, a .786 percentage. The Philadelphia Eagles own the best such record over that span, 12-1 (a .923 percentage), followed by the Denver Broncos with a 15-4 mark (.789).
-HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Today's game marks the 70th consecutive year - and the 140th time - that the Packers have squared off against the Detroit Lions. The franchise, originally located in Portsmouth, Ohio, where the team was known as the Spartans, was purchased by G.A. Richards and moved to Detroit in 1934. Today's principals have met twice annually ever since.
The Lions won that first meeting with the Packers in '34, shading Green Bay 3-0 on a then-NFL record 54-yard field goal by rookie Glen Presnell...before 7,500 fans.
Poetically, the Packers evened the score in their '34 rematch at Detroit (Nov. 25), 3-0, by way of a 47-yard Clarke Hinkle field goal, before 12,000 fans.
-QUARTERBACK BRETT FAVRE, who today is making his 23rd career start against Detroit, has recorded more 300-yard passing games against the Lions - seven - than any other NFL opponent. They include a brace of them in 2002's season series, Southern Mississippi's most distinguished football alumnus throwing for 357 yards in a 37-31 victory Sept. 22 and for 351 in a 40-14 repeat victory Nov. 10, thus harvesting 708 passing yards in the process.
Favre had his best yardage day against Detroit, to date, in 1994, throwing for 366 yards on Dec. 4, 1994, completing 29 of 43 passes, 3 for touchdowns, with 2 interceptions.
-FROM THE DURABILITY PERSPECTIVE, Favre today is making his 175th consecutive start, extending his NFL record for quarterbacks, and playing in his 177th straight game, leaving him only 10 games short of the Packers' career record, 187 by Forrest Gregg.
Favre's 175 consecutive starts also represent the longest active streak in the NFL at any position.
-RUNNING BACK AHMAN GREEN needs only 6 yards rushing this afternoon to move above Pro Football Hall of Famer Clarke Hinkle into fourth place on the Packers' career rushing list. Green enters today's game with 3,855 yards, just 5 back of Hinkle (3,860).
Green also is closing in on another member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Tony Canadeo, who ranks third on Green Bay's all-time list with 4,197 yards.
-AHMAN ALSO CAN move up among the team's career pass receiving leaders. With 199 receptions in a Packers' uniform, he can move past Ed West (202) and into sole possession of 16th place with 4 receptions this afternoon.
Green has now caught at least one pass in 47 consecutive games, the seventh-longest such streak in Packers history.
-GREEN ADDITIONALLY can join a select "club" by posting a 2-point conversion or a touchdown this afternoon. With 198 points to date, he thus would become only the 27th player in the team's 84-year history to score as many as 200 points in a career.
-ANTONIO FREEMAN, already entrenched as one of the premier receivers in Packers history (fifth in both receptions, 417, and yards, 6,510), also is on the verge of crashing the team's all-time Top Ten in scoring. In today's return to Green and Gold, Freeman goes into action as the 11th-ranking scorer in team annals with 346 points...just 23 points behind 10th-ranking Clarke Hinkle (379), a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
From the position standpoint, Freeman is the third-ranking scorer among wide receivers - behind the team's all-time leader, Don Hutson (823) and Sterling Sharpe, eighth with 396 points.
A "big play" performer in the playoffs, Freeman also ranks a close second on the club's all-time postseason scoring list with 72 points, one behind leader Chris Jacke (73).
Additionally, he is the Packers' all-time postseason leader in receptions with 47, two more than runner-up Robert Brooks.
-BRETT FAVRE: (on his professional "reunion" with Antonio Freeman last week) "Antonio is familiar with the routes...It's almost like he never left.
"They say he can't run...he can't catch. But all he does is make plays...There is no substitute for production...I'm glad to have him back."
-QUICK QUOTE: Packers tight end Wesley Walls, speaking to Green Bay's Associated Bank Quarterback Club Tuesday, "I sensed this team is close to the Super Bowl and I still feel that way. I think Sunday's game (against Minnesota) - if we use it the right way - will be good for this team. It can help us come closer together.
"If we execute and play up to our ability, there's no reason why we can't end up in Houston (for Super Bowl XXXVIII)."
-STILL A RECORD: It's been better than a half-century, but the Packers' 57-point eruption against the Lions at State Fair Park on Oct. 7, 1945, remains a club record. The Packers prevailed, 57-21, on that occasion, exploding for 41 consecutive unanswered points in the second quarter - still a league record, though it has been tied - en route to a 57-21 victory.
Don Hutson, the Packers' fabled end, caught 4 touchdown passes and kicked 5 extra points to score 29 of those 41 second-quarter points, the most ever scored by one player in one quarter of an NFL game.
-STEVE MARIUCCI'S PARENTS, Ray and Dee Mariucci, headed up today's "delegation" from Iron Mountain, Mich., the Lions head coach's home town. Ray Mariucci, a retired educator, remains a prominent figure in Iron Mountain where there is a "Ray Mariucci Bocce Complex" in IM's City Park. Bocce, for the uninitiated, is an Italian game akin to lawn bowling.
-THE ANTHEM: The national anthem is being sung today by Country singer Rodney Atkins.
-NEXT WEEK: The Packers make their first road trip, invading Phoenix to take on the Arizona Cardinals at Sun Devil Stadium next Sunday (Sept. 21), with kickoff set for 3:05, CDT. (Wisconsin time).
