Sunday, Sept. 13 - Lambeau Field - 7:20 p.m. CDT
WITH THE CALL
- NBC Sports will broadcast the Sunday Night Football contest to a national audience. Play-by-play man Al Michaels joins color commentator Cris "my **** don't stink" Collinsworth in the broadcast booth with Andrea Kremer serving as the sideline reporter.
- 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 Bowler Larry McCarren (color) calling the action. The duo enters its 11th season of broadcasts together across the Packers Radio Network, which covers 43 markets in five states.
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AND SO IT BEGINS
- After a month filled with two-a-day practices, four preseason games and two roster cutdowns, the regular season arrives.
- But the story of the 2009 Green Bay Packers began back in March, when nearly the entire team participated in the offseason program.
- Though the offseason was headlined by a new defensive staff, led by defensive coordinator Dom Capers, and the transition to the 3-4, much of the Packers' core roster remains intact.
- 10 starters return on offense, including a 4,000-yard passer (Aaron Rodgers), 1,200-yard rusher (Ryan Grant) and two 1,000-yard receivers (Donald Driver and Greg Jennings). With a full offseason under its belt, the first-team offense could hardly be stopped in the preseason. In fact, it punted just once.
- Schematically things will look different on the other side of the ball, but all 11 defensive starters return in 2009. Bolstered by two first-round draft choices, the unit made plays through its pressure packages in the preseason and excelled at causing turnovers. However, there is a feeling around the locker room that the unit has only begun to show a small portion of the schemes from Capers' notoriously thick playbook.
RIVALRY GAME STARTS IN PRIME TIME
- Green Bay kicks off its 91st season of professional football - its 89th as a National Football League franchise - at Lambeau Field Sunday night against its most storied rival.
- No truer rivalry exists in the NFL, and no two teams have met on the gridiron more than Green Bay and Chicago. Sunday marks the 178th game in the all-time series.
- Names like Halas and Lombardi, Nitschke and Butkus, Starr and Payton only begin to define the history of the series. Currently, the Bears own a 90-80-6 advantage in regular-season play, in addition to the lone playoff win in 1941.
- Green Bay opens the season at home for the fourth consecutive season. The Packers are 49-36-3 (.570) all-time in season openers and 2-1 under Head Coach Mike McCarthy.
- It marks the 21st time the Packers and Bears square off in the NFL season opener. Amazingly, 18 of the previous 20 have occurred in Green Bay, with the lone Windy City openers coming in 1979 and '81. The Bears hold a slight 10-9-1 advantage in openers against the Packers.
- For the second consecutive season, the Packers will open in prime time against a division opponent. Green Bay defeated Minnesota 24-19 on Monday Night Football to open the 2008 season. The Packers are 4-0 all-time in prime-time openers, all of which have come on MNF.
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