The Year The Pack Came Back-1972 Green Bay Packers

welcome to the national football league highlights brought to you by hams the beer you've been looking for the lengthy decline of the green bay packers ended during the dismal season of 71 as the new head coach dan divine laid his careful plans to reinvigorate a failing past defense to improve the kicking game and to return the squad to the fundamentals of winning in the way green bay had always won by discipline and gut pride and even as some scoffed coach divine approached the 1972 season fully believing that the pack would soon be back friends uh it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the new president of the theodore ham company theodore bear now author now uh hello for those of you out there who are looking for a beer born wet and clear born in the land of sky blue waters hams is the beer you've been looking for if you're looking for a beer that's born wet and clear born in the land of sky blue waters reach for our hands reach for our hands hands up and looking for hands is the beer you've been [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] on opening day in cleveland the packers won a surprisingly easy victory the off-season trade for number 36 macarthur lane paid immediate dividends and it was apparent that the green bay attack was rolling on stronger treads scott hunt assaulted the victory with two touchdowns to rich mcgeorge but mcgeorge would catch no more touchdowns in 72 for both he and the great guard gail gillingham were soon lost for the season with injuries at such a cost the packers appetite for victory was tested early but veteran senator ken bowman had learned to pay the price with pride in days when offensive lines were the symbol of packer power and though the names were changed now for number 57 the job was the same [Music] so the tackles bill hey ho and dick himes dug in the number 62 guard bill duke was a key man [Music] number 67 guard malcolm snyder proved to be a valuable acquisition from the atlanta falcons but the leader in the toil to compensate for the loss of gail gillingham and rich mcgeorge was santa ken bowman and through adversity with bowman as the bridge the old spirit of the green bay packers took root in this young offensive line and quickly it became the symbol of resurgent packer power the new spirit of the packers was further tested in the second week when a muffed lateral was advanced 104 yards for a touchdown that was the margin of victory in a 20-14 loss to the oakland raiders [Music] the third week the packers unleashed john brockington on the world champion dallas cowboys and green bay enjoyed a decided advantage [Music] coach divine's plan for a reinvigorated past defense were rewarded as craig morton was dumped harassed and intercepted enough to throttle the dallas attack in order to put some teeth into the secondary number 29 al matthews was moved from right corner to strong safety but the most remarkable change was the addition of the defensive rookie of the year number 28 willie buchanan at left corner ken ellis was moved to right corner and he adapted with consummate athletic ease while jimmy hill acquired from san diego was successfully installed at free safety despite these multiple changes the deep secondary gelled almost immediately and it was the key factor in preserving a 16 to 13 victory over the dallas cowboys in milwaukee the next week the bears presented their ominous challenge and the packers revitalized defense again came up with the big play where number 83 clarence williams scooped up a fumble and turned it into an early touchdown but the game was not won until number 22 john staggers collected this deflected pass and carried it into the end zone [Music] the fifth week before a monday night audience the packers quickly fell 17 points behind the detroit lions when the defense turned stubborn and forced a detroit punt number 48 ken ellis turned in the turnabout play of this turnabout season no play in the entire season was more important than this in a game all but lost to the rival lions a team the packers had beaten only once in the last eight games ellis's run put green bay back on the hard road to contention and from there the rest of the packers accepted the challenge with careful guidance from the bench scott hunter found leland glass for the go ahead touchdown and then everything fell in place [Music] the defense was impenetrable number 39 jimmy hill put the finishing touches on defensive coordinator dave haner's masterful job of rebuilding a secondary in a single pre-season [Music] and the lions were left flat on their backs after a 24-23 comeback victory by the green bay packers but the success of any secondary is married to an aggressive pass rush and in 1972 the improved packer rush was aided by a healthy number 76 mike mccoy bob brown number 78 won all pro honors for his outstanding work the improvement of number 83 clarence williams was clear as he led all rushes with nine sacks [Music] and the steady play of number 87 alden rochet anchored the defensive line [Music] strong performances by dave robinson and number 50 jim carter enhanced the packer linebacking core [Music] and number 53 freddie carr was once again a packer intimidator [Music] the sixth week green bay lost a rain-soaked 10-9 decision to the atlanta falcons and a key test that the minnesota vikings followed [Music] the packers controlled the ball and the game but they could earn only a 13-13 tie and then late in the fourth quarter paul krauss intercepted a scott hunter pass to hand green bay its second loss in a row the next week scott hunter was on target and on the scoreboard early with this runaway bomb to john brockington [Music] number 42 brockington scored his second and third touchdowns of the game on foot to give green bay a big advantage [Music] steve spurrier then began to find gene washington with the big ones and the 49ers challenged in the dying seconds ken alice shut off san francisco's last hope with this interception and the packers had their third victory over a playoff bound team defeating the 49ers 34-24 the ninth week the packers traded bruises with the bears before winning their sixth game of the season [Music] streaking now green bay laid waste the houston oilers in the astrodome and all facets of the team contributed points to the victory on attacking special squads number 22 john staggers broke off the longest punt return of the year the defensive special team scored when padarond whitby hit dave davis with an extraordinary touchdown pass [Music] macarthur lane powered for 126 yards rushing and added this touchdown to the account [Music] and the defense scored when big number 78 bob brown dropped dante pastorini in the end zone if any one man held the key to the resurgent packer defense it was bob brown for here in the trenches the packers improvement was most dramatic and here this most underrated lineman waged and finally won his battle for all pro recognition against the washington redskins the delicate mechanism of past defense was thrown out of balance when right corner ken ellis was forced from the game with an injury and bill kilmer exploited this opportunity to win the game cashing the last touchdown passes allowed by the packers in 1972 tying a green bay record of only seven scoring passes yielded in a season originally set in 1966 after the loss to the redskins green bay could feel the cold competitive breath of the detroit lines for the central division was now wide open free for all [Music] but the return to the secondary of number 48 ken ellis spiked the line's attack and green bay scored an impressive 33-7 victory [Music] ignoring the high hopes of packer backers dan devine knew that the pack would not truly be back until the mighty vikings were beaten and each of his young packers understood that more than playoff money was at stake in this game this was a test of character number 83 clarence williams responded with his best performance dogging the steps of francis tarkington leading the youthful green bay defense in their charge to a championship and just as dan divine had planned it through the darkest days of 1971 the packer defense was now very real and very earnest with perhaps the finest matched set of cornerbacks in pro football [Music] and fran tarkington and the minnesota vikings were beginning to unravel under pressure [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] when the vikings cracked john brockington and macarthur lane pour to the purple gang eating up huge chunks of yardage on their way to a decisive 23-7 victory in minnesota [Music] for the first time in five years the green bay packers were divisional champions and for the man most responsible for dan divine it was undeniably a crowning moment [Music] [Applause] [Music] so in 1972 rookie chester markle kicked 33 field goals as many as his nine predecessors had managed to convert in the past five years and this statistic as much as any other contributed to the resurgence of hacker power but markle's most memorable boot was blocked in the 14th game against the saints giving ron whidbey another chance to air his arm this time to the venerable ray nitsky for an important 34-yard gain on the way to green bay's 10th victory of the season the ron would be average gain per pass excelled his punting average the packers special teams took full advantage of his towering punts in fact all the marauders on packers special squads took dan divine's coaching of the fundamentals to heart and a new enthusiasm for the game spread over the entire team [Music] coach devine's return to fundamentals put fun back in pro football in green bay and this agreeable air of good feeling carried the packers straight to rfk stadium to their playoff date with the washington redskins it was a brutally fought football game [Music] [Applause] the washington redskins won by heroically blunting the offensive thrusts of number 36 mcarthur lane and john brockington and while washington swelled with joy for their over the hill gang the young packers had flown their colors high and their future was clearly championship gold on a field of green tell me arthur what do you look for in a beer if you're looking for a beer that's born wet and clear born in the land of sky blue waters reach for our hands reach for our hands the beer you've been looking for [Music] [Applause] [Music] in guiding the green bay packers to a divisional title in his second year as a pro quarterback scott hunter's achievement is exceeded only in memory by bob waterfield when as a rookie in 1945 he led the rams to an nfl title and yet after the loss to the redskins hunter's contribution was largely overlooked though the green bay passing game was never imposing hunter's choice of receivers was limited to the veteran number 84 carol dale and the rookie legal in glass and to the backs john brockington and macarthur lane [Music] macarthur lane led the pack in pass receiving and as a runner he raced for 821 yards and 177 attempts number 42 john brockington became the only man to ever gain more than a thousand yards in each of his first two seasons and just as ken bowman was the pride of the packers in the offensive line and as bob brown ignited the defense the entire team took heart from the strength and character of john brockington [Applause] together brockington and lane gained 1848 yards rushing and we're the best running tandem in the [Music] nfc [Music] so these are the green bay packers dan divine's team a team born of an old pride in a new image built by astute trades and superior drafts [Music] mingled together with veterans with men who know the price and who paid it to reclaim the proud heritage of the green bay packers in the year the pack came back [Music] so the highlights of the national football league have been brought to you by hams the beer you've been looking for

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Id: JhpLS4v5T_U

Length: 25min 21sec (1521 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2020