Packers Having Down Year So Far

Oct. 4, 1964 - Vince Lombardi is hardly one to take defeats in stride, but he realizes that some of them simply are inevitable.

“It could be that we’re just having one of those seasons,” he said following his Packers’ 24-23 loss today to the Minnesota Vikings — the Packers’ second defeat of the young NFL season and their second by one point.

“But the fans around here are going to have to realize one thing,” Lombardi said. “They think all the Packers have to do is throw their helmets out on the field, and the game is over. Well, it ain’t so.”

The two defeats leave the Packers in fourth place in the Western Division as they prepare to take on the San Francisco 49ers next Sunday in Milwaukee. Most experts had pegged them to regain the NFL title this year.

Despite the defeat, Lombardi still thought the Packers are “a fine football team.”

“The Packers don’t have to apologize to anybody,” he said. “Neither do the coaches. You can’t let things like this upset you. Otherwise, you’ll just go out of your nut.”

Lombardi praised Vikings’ quarterback Fran Tarkenton as an “amazing, courageous little fellow,” but the Packers’ coach admitted that the game could have been won had it not been for a couple of things.

“When we got down to the 10-yard line, we had to settle for a field goal,” he said. The kick, by Paul Hornung with less than five minutes to play, gave Green Bay a 23-21 lead.

“And we failed to make a first down. That’s what beat us. All we needed was one first down,” he said. The first down he was referring to came — or rather didn’t come — after the Vikings had punted to the Packers with about three minutes to play. Green Bay was forced to punt, and the Vikings came back to score the winning field goal with only 18 seconds left.

Willie Davis, the big defensive end who spent most of the day chasing Tarkenton, called him the “greatest quarterback I’ve ever seen. The secret of his scrambling is that he does the unexpected.”

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