You can’t accuse Brandon Marshall of sand-bagging.
The Bears wide receiver said Wednesday this week’s game against the Packers was “personal” and the “biggest game of my career.”
The Packers held Marshall to just two catches for 24 yards in Week Two, and he’s been waiting for the rematch ever since.
He also accused Packers players of not showing respect to him or his teammates.
“I don’t like the Green Bay Packers,” Marshall said, via Lindsay Jones of USA Today. “I’m not going to use the word ‘hate,’ but I really dislike the Packers and their players.
“But you know what? The talk has to back it up. We’ll go out there and do everything we have to do to get a win.”
Marshall, who carried a Charlie Brown Christmas tree with him to the podium, apparently to illustrate the disrespect, didn’t specify what the Packers did that made him angry. “You’ll have to go on Google or something,” he said.
But he made it clear he didn’t think the Packers stopped him one-on-one.
“I didn’t beat double and triple coverage or whatever they were throwing at me,” Marshall said. “I take it as a slap in my face when guys are talking about my lack of ability to do something against them when they have help all over the place.
“I’m looking forward to one-on-one coverage. Hopefully, those guys, in a game like this, will go to their coach and say, ‘Let me have him. I want Brandon Marshall. I want to stop Brandon Marshall.’ Let’s see what happens.”
Frankly, if any of the Packers players did so, they should be fined for stupidity, given Marshall’s success (101 catches, 1,342 yards) and the Bears’ lack of a complementary target.