A Day of Learning

The game was hardly super, but neither was the action as one-sided as the score seemed to show. "That Oakland is a good, well-coached team," said Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi, after his N.F.L.-champion Packers drubbed the A.F.L.-champion Raiders 33-14 in last week's Super Bowl. Lombardi had no such kind words last year for the Kansas City team that the Packers defeated (35-10) in the first Super Bowl. Oakland was clearly a classier club. The Raiders tallied 16 first downs to Green Bay's 19 (one of which came on a penalty); they ran for 105 yds. against Green Bay's rugged defense; and they actually outgained the Packers in the air, 186yds. to 162.

The Packers gave away age (two years per man), and at many positions they gave away vital speed. Their edge was experience. Their old pros overpowered the Raiders' youth and enthusiasm. Coolly and methodically, Green Bay ground the challengers down, capitalizing on Oakland's mistakes while making practically none of its own. Not once did Green Bay draw an offside or illegal motion penalty--while Oakland, baffled by the staggered cadence counts of Packer Quarterback Bart Starr, twice jumped the center snap. The Packers never fumbled; the Raiders did three times. The only interception came when Green Bay's Herb Adderley picked off a sideline pass thrown by Oakland Quarterback Daryle Lamonica and scampered 60 yds. for a touchdown. Oakland Safetyman Rodger Bird was responsible for a swing of perhaps 17 points in the score: he fumbled a punt and got beaten twice on passes.

Even so, the game hinged less on what Oakland did wrong than on what Green Bay did surpassingly right. "Execution," according to Oakland Coach Johnny Rauch, was the key to the Packer victory. Quarterback Starr read the stunting Raider defenses as if he had written the book, completed 13 out of 24 passes behind impregnable blocking that virtually nullified Oakland's vaunted pass rush. Packer Tackle Bob Skoronski, assigned to hold off Oakland's mammoth (6 ft. 8 in., 280 lbs.) Defensive End Ben Davidson, did his job so well that Davidson only once all game got his hands on Starr. Led by End Willie Davis, who contributed seven tackles, Green Bay's own "front four" dumped Raider Quarterback Daryle Lamonica three times, harassed him so severely that he was constantly forced to scramble out of the pocket and hurry his passes.

Then there was Ray Nitschke. At 31 and in his tenth season, Middle Linebacker Nitschke has lost most of his hair (and teeth), but he still plays, as he puts it, "with abandon." On the very first play from scrimmage, he slammed head-on into Oakland Full back Hewritt Dixon, flipped Dixon cleats over clavicle for no gain. When the Raiders tried to run wide, Nitschke demonstrated his remarkable talent for lateral pursuit--shooting through the gaps left by Oakland's pulling guards to run down Raider ball carriers from behind. In all, Nitschke made five unassisted tackles, helped on four others and blocked a pass. Afterwards, in the locker room, legs covered with welts and dried blood caked on his knee bandages, Nitschke said: "I knew we were going to win the first time we got the ball."

Real Hard Look. The Raiders took their defeat--and their $7,500 perman loser's share--gracefully. Said Quarterback Lamonica: "It was a day of learning." The Packers, richer by $15,000 a man, were already thinking about the future. Talk had it that several oldtimers would retire, among them Flanker McGee, a star for twelve years. But the biggest conjecture of all concerned Coach Lombardi, who in nine years has turned the Packers from the patsies of the N.F.L. into the most successful team in pro football history. One report had Lombardi giving up coaching but retaining his Green Bay general manager's job; another had him heading a syndicate to buy the A.F.L.'s New York Jets; still another had him giving up football altogether. "I'm exhausted," was all Vince himself would say. "I just want to take a good, long rest and give Vince Lombardi a real hard look."

Three days later, there he was, talking about next season, about maybe changing his offense ("We might go to the old tight-T"), about his plethora of talented running backs, about his rookie quarterback prospect, Don Horn ("He'll be a great one some day"). Reports of Vince Lombardi's retirement may be greatly exaggerated.

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