Lions receivers, Packers CBs locked in war of words, face physical matchupBY NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKAFREE PRESS SPORTS WRITERIt was already a great matchup: The Lions' strength -- wide receivers Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams -- against Pro Bowl cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Al Harris. But now there is added intrigue for today's game against Green Bay:Woodson, the Heisman Trophy winner from Michigan, has a broken toe and won't know if he will play until shortly before game time.Two of the Packers' backup cornerbacks don't seem concerned about Johnson.Williams no longer considers Harris the NFL's best cornerback, and the Lions allege Harris' physical play is often illegal.Trashing the LionsPackers cornerbacks Jarrett Bush and Tramon Williams made some eye-catching comments in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last week.Bush said Johnson is "not real quick off the line, so getting your hands on him is a must." Bush faced Johnson often in the two games the teams played last year, in which Johnson caught 11 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown."Once you get your hands on him, I felt like he couldn't really do much because he couldn't really open up his legs -- he's a long strider," Bush told the Journal-Sentinel. "I felt like he wasn't able to move too well. I think that's one of the real weaknesses that we exposed."Williams said much the same thing about Johnson, who is 6-feet-5, 239 pounds."For him to be that big and running a 4.3 (in the 40-yard dash), I would have thought he would have been moving down the field, but I think the bump-and-run coverage messes up the strides," Williams told the Journal-Sentinel. "Since his strides are so long, you can't get to running that fast. Just knock him off his routes and his stride. I think that's the way you take care of those guys."Harris failed to do that against the Giants' Plaxico Burress in the NFC championship game. Burress, 6-5, 232, burned him with 11 catches for 151 yards. But Williams said Burress has "better off-the-ball skills" than Johnson.Lions receivers coach Shawn Jefferson brought the comments to Johnson's attention this week. But Johnson shrugged them off.He's healthy now, after being bothered by a back injury most of last season, and he worked hard on his footwork in the off-season."Well, I mean, that's his opinion," Johnson said. "I'm not really going to get into a jawing match or nothing like that. I'll just show what I do on Sunday."Lions respondRoy Williams isn't as reserved as Johnson.He has put up one big yardage total in six games against the Packers -- 13, 13, 53, 138, 11, 32 -- and often has said Harris is the best corner in the league. But this week, he said Harris has slipped behind Oakland's Nnamdi Asomugha."He's just a bump-and-run guy," Williams said. "He's more physical when he has a safety over the top. When he doesn't have that safety help, he's not as physical as he wants to be."I have to put Nnamdi in front of him. Nnamdi is a guy who will bump-and-run you all day, and he don't want no help if teams are going to throw his way. That's the type of corner I'm impressed with."Is the key running the ball so Harris doesn't have that safety help?"Oh, no question," Williams said. "That's why Plaxico was able to do what he did, because they could run the football and they pulled that safety down. That's one-on-one, and he can't be as physical."Is Harris always legal?"No," Williams said. "Not at all."Williams repeated that last sentence at a higher volume for emphasis, then brought up the Packers' 24-19 victory Monday night over Minnesota."Not at all," Williams said. "If you saw the Monday night game, down the field, it looked like Minnesota's game plan. Just throw it deep, because they know that he's going to be all over you and hope to get that yardage."The Vikings drew one flag on Harris.What does Lions offensive coordinator Jim Colletto think about the Packers' corners?"They're all over you," Colletto said. "I'm not going to say anything so I don't get fined, but they're all over you."Colletto laughed."I think it's going to be interesting," Colletto said. "We're going to try to do some things to help our wideouts."They're a good defensive secondary. We have some wideouts that we think are pretty good. We had some guys open last year at times, and we'll try to do it again."Contact NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA at 313-222-8831 or ncotsonika@freepress.com.
