The 35-21 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots yesterday hardly brought back memories of Vince Lombardi's grind-it-out champions of the '60s.
Instead, it was a high-powered Pack - doing it with big plays, especially by MVP Desmond Howard - that returned Green Bay to NFL prominence and put the title back in "Titletown, USA."
It was Brett Favre finding the duckwalking Andre Rison for a 54-yard touchdown on the Packers' second offensive play, then throwing an 81-yard TD pass to Antonio Freeman in the first minute of the second quarter to put Green Bay ahead for good.
It was Howard scoring on a 99-yard kickoff return then striking an abbreviated Heisman pose in the end zone, a dagger in the heart of the Patriots, who had closed to within six points at 27-21.
Howard, the first special teams player ever to win MVP, finished with a record 244 return yards.
The win was the 13th straight for an NFC team and kept Bill Parcells, who had two of those 13 with the Giants in 1986 and 1990, from becoming the first coach to win a Super Bowl with two different franchises.
Instead, the Packers won the trophy named for their storied coach. It was Lombardi's teams that won the first two Super Bowls.
There was, of course, time for sentiment.
The team that wanted to win one for Reggie White did it and he contributed - getting two straight sacks of Drew Bledsoe after Howard's return, and a third late in the game.
That ensured that the Patriots wouldn't strike back at the Packers the way Howard had struck back at them.