Packers-Saints Week 4 Dope Sheet

*Two years after he co-founded the Packers with Curly Lambeau, George Calhoun began writing a piece called The Dope Sheet, which served as the official press release and game program from 1921-24. *

*Honoring Calhoun, the first publicity director, the Packers are running this weekly feature as their release, which is being made available to fans exclusively on Packers.com. This is an abbreviated version of the Dope Sheet. To read the full version, download the PDF by **clicking here**. *

Here are some highlights from the Packers-Saints Week 4Dope Sheet:

NEW ORLEANS (0-3) AT GREEN BAY (1-2)
Sunday, Sept. 30 - Lambeau Field - 3:25 p.m. CDT

PACKERS HOST SAINTS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT SEASON

• Green Bay returns home this Sunday to host the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field, the fifth time the clubs have met in the past eight seasons.
• This will be the second straight year that the Packers and Saints have squared off at Lambeau Field in the month of September. Last season, in a meeting of the two most recent Super Bowl winners, Green Bay topped New Orleans, 42-34, in a Thursday night contest that kicked off the NFL season.
• This fifth meeting in eight seasons comes after the clubs played only once over a nine-year span (1996-2004).
• The Packers hold a 15-7 edge against the Saints in the all-time series, including a 9-2 mark vs. New Orleans at home.
• Sunday's matchup features the only two teams in the league to finish in the top 10 in total offense each of the past six seasons (2006-11).
• The Packers (35.0) and Saints (34.2) finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the league, respectively, in scoring last season. It was the first time in NFL history that two teams each scored 525-plus points in the same season.
• In the last four meetings between the two clubs (2005, 2006, 2008, 2011), the teams combined to score a total of 272 points, an average of 68 points per game. That included a 52-point outing by Green Bay in '05 and a 51-point showing by New Orleans in '08.
• Including playoff games, both teams have identical 41-16 records (.719) since 2009,tied for No. 1 in the league over that span.
• The Packers have won 18 of their last 21 regular-season games (.857) entering Sunday's contest, the best record in the league over that span.
• This Sunday's game vs. the Saints is Green Bay's lone home contest over a five-week stretch (Weeks 3-7). The Packers won't play at home again until they host the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 28 (Week 8).
• Following Sunday's contest against New Orleans, Green Bay will go on the road for its next three games, the first time it has played three straight road contests since 1998 (Weeks 10-12).

HOME COOKING

• The Packers enter Sunday's game having won 20 of their last 22 regular-season games at Lambeau Field.
• Green Bay's .909 home winning percentage over that span is tied for No. 1 in the NFL with Baltimore (20-2).
• With their loss to San Francisco in the season opener, the Packers' 13-game regular-season home winning streak came to an end. It was tied for the fourth-longest streak in franchise history (25 games, 1995-98; 20 games, 1929-32; 14 games, 1923-26).
• Green Bay has averaged 31.9 points per game at home since 2009, the best in the league over that span.

WITH THE CALL

• FOX Sports, now in its 19th season as an NFL network television partner, will broadcast the game to the majority of the country.
• Play-by-play man Joe Buckand color analystTroy Aikman will have the call from the broadcast booth with Pam Oliver reporting from the sidelines.
• Milwaukee's WTMJ (620 AM), airing Green Bay games since 1929, heads up the 53-station Packers Radio Network, with Wayne Larrivee(play-by-play) and two-time Packers Pro BowlerLarry McCarren (color) calling the action. The duo enters its 14th season of broadcasts together across the Packers Radio Network, which covers 44 markets in six states.
• Sports USA radio will air the game across the country. Larry Kahn (play-by-play) and John Robinson (analyst) will call the action with Troy West reporting from the sidelines.
• The broadcast is also available on Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 86, WTMJ feed) as part of the network's NFL Sunday Drive.
• DIRECTV subscribers can watch the game in HD on Channel 714.

 
THE DOPE ON THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT:

• Packers vs. New Orleans Saints:
• All-time regular season:15-7-0
• All-time, home:9-2-0
• Streaks:The Saints have won three of the last five meetings.
• Last meeting, regular season, in Green Bay:Sept. 8, 2011, Packers won, 42-34

 
COACHES CAPSULES

• Mike McCarthy: 69-38-0, .645, (incl. 5-3 postseason); 7th NFL season
• Aaron Kromer (interim coach):0-3-0, .000, 12th NFL season as an NFL assistant coach
• Head to Head:Never met
• vs. Opponent:McCarthy 1-2 vs. Saints; Kromer 0-0 vs. Packers

MIKE McCARTHY…Is in seventh year as the Packers' 14th head coach.

• Joined Vince Lombardi and Mike Holmgren as the only coaches to guide the Packers to a Super Bowl title with a win over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV.
• Has led the Packers to playoff appearances in four of his six seasons as the helm, and the team's four postseason berths over the past five seasons are the most by an NFC team.
• His .645 winning percentage (including playoffs) ranks No. 5 among active NFL coaches (min. 50 games).
• One of only two coaches, along with New Orleans' Sean Payton, to have his offense ranked in the top 10 in total yardage each season from 2006-11.
• Was named Packers head coach on Jan. 12, 2006, his first head-coaching job after 13 years as an NFL assistant.
• Became the first Packers coach since Lombardi to lead the team to a championship game in his second season (2007).

 AARON KROMER…Is in first year as the Saints' interim head coach.

• Is in his fourth season as the Saints' offensive line/running game coach after starting his career in New Orleans as running backs coach in 2008.
• Under his direction, five Saints offensive linemen have been selected to the Pro Bowl. The line allowed just 70 sacks from 2009-11, the third fewest in the league over that span.
• In both 2009 and 2011, the New Orleans offensive line was honored with the Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award, given annually to the best offensive line in the NFL.
• Prior to New Orleans, also coached on the staff of the Oakland Raiders (2001-04) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2005-07). Also coached at Miami (Ohio) from 1990-98 and Northwestern (1999-2000).

 THE PACKERS-SAINTS SERIES

• These teams meet for the fifth time in eight seasons after having met only once in the previous nine years.
• These clubs launched their series in 1968, when former Vince Lombardi assistants Phil Bengston (Packers) and Tom Fears (Saints) met in Milwaukee. The Packers, one year after winning Super Bowl II, defeated the second-year Saints, 29-7. Fears, who coached Super Bowl I hero Max McGee with the Packers from 1962-65, was New Orleans' first head coach.
• Green Bay's 52-3 victory in 2005 was the most lopsided in the series history, eclipsing the Packers' 35-7 victory in New Orleans on Dec. 13, 1981. 

NOTABLE CONNECTIONS
Packers head coach Mike McCarthy served as the Saints offensive coordinator from 2000-04...Other members of the Packers staff who coached in New Orleans include defensive coordinator Dom Capers (1986-91), offensive coordinator Tom Clements (1997-99), quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo (2004) and assistant head coach/linebackers Winston Moss (2000-05)…Packers offensive line coach James Campen played two seasons in New Orleans (1987-88) after playing collegiately at Tulane…Tight ends coach Jerry Fontenot was born in Lafayette, La., and played center for the Saints for seven seasons (1997-2003)...Packers assistant offensive line coach Joel Hilgenberg played 10 seasons (1984-93) for New Orleans and was inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame in 2006...Packers safeties coach Darren Perry played for the Saints in 2000, the final year of his nine-year playing career...Packers special teams assistant Chad Morton was a fifth-round draft choice of the Saints in 2000 and played one season in New Orleans…Packers CB Tramon Williams attended Assumption High School in Napoleonville, La., and played at Louisiana Tech…Packers LB Dezman Moses played two seasons (2010-11) at Tulane University...Packers vice president of football administration/player finance Russ Ball spent six seasons (2002-07) with the Saints, the final two as vice president of football administration and the first four as senior football administrator...Packers director of college scouting Brian Gutekunst assisted the offensive line of the Saints during training camp in the summer of 1995...Saints secondary coach Ken Flajole served as defensive assistant/quality control for the Packers in 1998...Saints QB coach Joe Lombardi is the grandson of legendary Packers head coach Vince Lombardi…Saints LB Jonathan Casillas was a three-year starter at the University of Wisconsin…Saints RB Mark Ingram's father, Mark Sr., played WR for the Packers in 1995...Packers outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene and Saints wide receivers coach Henry Ellard were teammates with the Los Angeles Rams...Packers special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum coached at Texas A&M with Saints defensive line coach Bill Johnson…Saints offensive assistant/offensive line Frank Smith was born in Milwaukee…Packers DB Charles Woodson played for the Raiders when Saints interim head coach Aaron Kromer was on Oakland's staff...Packers defensive line coach Mike Trgovac and Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael coached together on the staff in Washington in 2001...Former college teammates include Packers LB Clay Matthews and Saints T Charles Brown and DT Sedrick Ellis (USC), Packers WR Jordy Nelson and Saints RB Darren Sproles (Kansas State), Packers CB Sam Shields and Saints TE Jimmy Graham (Miami), Packers LB A.J. Hawk and Saints DE Will Smith and S Malcolm Jenkins (Ohio State), Packers LB D.J. Smith and Saints RB Travaris Cadet (Appalachian State), Packers T Marshall Newhouse and Saints LB David Hawthorne (Texas Christian), and Packers K Mason Crosby and LB Brad Jones and Saints LS Justin Drescher.

 LAST MEETING, REGULAR SEASON

• Sept. 8, 2011, at Lambeau Field; Packers won, 42-34.
• Green Bay's 42 points were the second most in a season opener in franchise history behind only the 53 points scored in the 1919 season opener (Sept. 14, 53-0, vs. Menominee North End A.C.).
• QB Aaron Rodgers threw for 312 yards and three TDs on 27-of-35 passing and became just the second quarterback in NFL history to throw three TD passes in the first quarter of a season opener, joining Buffalo's Jack Kemp (Sept. 13, 1964).
• WR Randall Cobb tied an NFL record with his 108-yard kickoff return for a TD in the third quarter, matching the mark set by New England's Ellis Hobbs vs. the N.Y. Jets on Sept. 9, 2007.
• With the Saints on Green Bay's 1-yard line, LB Clay Matthews and S Morgan Burnett led a swarm of Packers defenders that stopped Saints RB Mark Ingram short of the goal line on the final play of the game.
• With the victory, Mike McCarthy became the first head coach in franchise history to win five consecutive season openers.

STAT OF THE WEEK

• Through three games, Green Bay has been one of the best defenses in the league when it comes to getting off the field on third down.
• The Packers have allowed their opponents to convert just nine of 35 opportunities on third down in the opening three contests, a 25.7 conversion percentage that ranks No. 3 in the league behind only Houston (22.2, 8-of-36) and Chicago (24.3, 9-of-37).
• In the loss to Seattle on Monday night, Green Bay allowed the Seahawks to convert just two of 11 third-down opportunities (18.2 percent), including none in the second half.
• The 18.2 percentage on third down was the best posted by a Green Bay defense in a game since it allowed just two conversions on 12 attempts (16.7 percent) at Cleveland on Oct. 25, 2009.
• The combined 25.7 percentage so far this season is the best by Green Bay over a three-game stretch since an identical 25.7 mark (9-of-35) in Weeks 9-11 of 2009.
• The opponent conversion rate of 25.7 percent is the best registered by the Packers in the opening three games of a season since they allowed a 20.6 percentage (7-of-34) in the first three games in 1996.
• Since Head Coach Mike McCarthy took over in 2006, the Packers rank No. 4 in the league over that span in third-down defense at 36.0 percent (464-of-1,288).

*This is an abbreviated version of the Dope Sheet. To read the full version, download the PDF by **clicking here**. *