Turf Looks Good From Ground Up

Chip Toma, who oversaw the $150,000 re-sodding of Green Bay’s Lambeau Field with Kentucky bluegrass last week, said the playing surface shouldn’t be a problem for today’s game.

“It’s in excellent shape,” he said. “We covered it up [Friday night] at approximately 6 o’clock. The heating coils have been on.”

The underground electric heating system was purchased by former Packer coach Vince Lombardi and is still in use.

Unfortunately, the system froze and didn’t work before the 1967 Ice Bowl between the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys.

Packer Coach Mike Holmgren likes to joke that he’s in charge of Lombardi’s machine now.

“I equate it with the Christmas tree lights you’ve had for 40 years and when you plug them in, they don’t always work,” Holmgren said. “I’m the only one who knows which coils are working and which ones aren’t.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NFC Championship Team Comparison

*--*

OFFENSE CAROLINA GR.BAY GAMES (W-L) 12-4 13-3 FIRST DOWNS 292 338 Rushing 93 118 Passing 160 197 Penalty 39 23 YDS. GAINED 4,812 5,535 Avg. per game 300.8 345.9 RUSHING (net) 1,729 1,838 Avg. per game 108.1 114.9 Rushes 502 465 Yards per rush 3.4 4.0 PASSING (net) 3,083 3,697 Avg. per game 192.7 231.1 Passes att. 487 548 Completed 273 328 Pct. completed 56.1 59.9 Yards gained 3,333 3,938 Sacked 36 40 Yards lost 250 241 Had intercepted 11 13 PUNTS 78 68 Avg. yards 40.5 42.4 PUNT RETURNS 55 58 Avg. return 11.3 15.1 Returned for TD 1 3 KICKOFF RET. 50 47 Avg. return 26.2 22.1 Returned for TD 1 1 PENALTIES 94 92 Yards penalized 638 714 FUMBLES BY 25 33 Fumbles lost 14 11 POSS. TIME (avg.) 30:48 31:44 TOUCHDOWNS 36 56 Rushing 9 9 Passing 22 39 Returns 5 8 EXTRA PTS (tot) 35 53 Kicks made/2Pt 34/1 51/2 FLD GOALS/FGA 37/45 21/27 POINTS SCORED 367 456

*--*

*--*

DEFENSE CAROLINA GR.BAY PTS. ALLOWED 218 210 OPP. FIRST DOWNS 251 248 Rushing 69 74 Passing 167 151 Penalty 15 23 OPP. YDS. GAINED 4,776 4,156 Avg. per game 298.5 259.8 OPP. RUSH (net) 1,562 1,416 Avg. per game 97.6 88.5 Rushes 374 400 Yards per rush 4.2 3.5 OPP. PASS (net) 3,214 2,740 Avg. per game 200.9 171.3 Passes att. 556 544 Completed 307 283 Pct. completed 55.2 52.0 Sacked 60 37 Yards lost 371 202 INTERCEPTED BY 22 26 Yards returned 277 524 Returned for TD 0 3 OPP. PUNT RET 32 29 Avg. return 5.4 8.2 OPP. KICKOFF RET 71 76 Avg. return 20.1 21.7 OPP. TDS 24 19 Rushing 6 7 Passing 17 12 Returns 1 0

*--*

Regular-season statistics