Packers

Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda and Ozzie Newsome, the team's vice president of player personnel, expect close games in the conference championships today.Marchibroda likes Green Bay (14-3), which plays host to the Carolina Panthers (13-4) in the NFC title game, as the favorite to win the Super Bowl in New Orleans. The New England Patriots (12-5) meet the Jacksonville Jaguars (11-7) for the AFC title."Green Bay is a team with no weaknesses," said Marchibroda, whose team played the Packers in preseason.

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Minnesota Vikings are a hard team to take seriously, as the Green Bay Packers found out the hard way yesterday. The Vikings are hoping the Philadelphia Eagles are still giggling about Randy Moss in the conference semifinals Sunday in Philadelphia, where the Vikings will play after they ousted the NFC North champion Packers, 31-17. The Vikings followed the St. Louis Rams as the second 8-8 team in NFL history to win a playoff game, adding nothing to the awful reputation of the NFC but doing wonders for their confidence.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- They used to run the Green Bay sweep here until the cows came home. Now, the Packers strike with the sonic boom of a prolific passing game.Whenever Bart Starr passed in the old days, it was always from the protection of his pocket, and only after the opposing defense had been softened by the Packers' running game.Now, Brett Favre is liable to launch a pass at any time, from any place on the field. Why, he's even talked about winging one left-handed. A short one, of course.

Tim Couch, the first pick in the 1999 draft, moves closer by the day to being a big-time bust this summer in Green Bay. Through two weeks of training camp, Couch, 27, has a tenuous grip on the Packers' No. 2 quarterback job - barely ahead of Doug Pederson, 36, and well behind Brett Favre, 34. Green Bay coaches like Couch's athleticism. It's his arm strength and delivery that have been found wanting. Couch has never thrown the deep ball well, but somewhere during his five seasons with the Cleveland Browns, he developed a hitch in his throwing motion that he didn't have at Kentucky.

PHILADELPHIA -- It is now time to reveal the official loose cannon of the National Football League playoffs -- the Philadelphia Eagles.This is a team with a quarterback who has rushed for 828 yards, a running back who has thrown three touchdown passes and a cantankerous coach who remains unsigned and unrepentant. The Eagles are a highly volatile mixture of ability and unpredictability. Good enough to plunder the New York Giants. Bad enough to lose to the Indianapolis Colts. But come January, these carnival performers in cleats could create playoff mayhem in a tight-rope walk to the Super Bowl.

It's becoming easier to forget that Jonathan Ogden is a rookie playing a new position. Each time he flattens a lineman or repels a pass rusher, which happened often last night, the Ravens' first-round draft choice looks more like a first-rate professional.An All-America tackle at UCLA, Ogden is making the switch to left guard look simpler with every snap. And though the Ravens may not win every game, he looks primed to win most of the battles.A week earlier, he had dominated Ray Agnew of the New York Giants, blowing him off the line of scrimmage as if he were a defensive back.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Steve Mariucci, the San Francisco 49ers' rookie coach, is violating the first rule in the coaching handbook this week: He's not playing them one game at a time.As he prepared his team for today's playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings, Mariucci admitted he was peeking ahead to the game the 49ers think they'll play next week against the defending champion Green Bay Packers.If all goes according to form and the 49ers and Packers win this weekend, they'll play next week in the NFC title game, with that winner trying to give the NFC its 14th straight Super Bowl victory Jan. 25.Mariucci, who spent four years as the quarterbacks coach in Green Bay, said of the possibility of playing the Packers, "I'd be lying if I said it never crossed my mind."

Thousands of collegians play football each year, but being drafted by an NFL team is an honor bestowed on just 224 this year.Yesterday, Navy's Bob Kuberski became one of the select few, capping a day of mixed emotions.Kuberski, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound defensive tackle, was drafted in the seventh round by the Green Bay Packers, the 183rd pick overall. A half-hour before he was drafted, Kuberski had learned that his request to delay his five-year military obligation -- which would allow him to play in the NFL immediately -- was denied.

SAN DIEGO -- It's no coincidence that the Green Bay Packers' Dorsey Levens does his best running in the second half.By that time, the Packers usually have secured a lead, the opposing defensive line is worn down, and Levens is warmed up.That's the formula the Packers have followed with great success in two playoff victories to reach Super Bowl XXXII against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.Levens, one of the NFL's rising stars as a fourth-year running back, has produced 70 percent of his 226 rushing yards in the second half this postseason.