GREEN BAY — Fortunately for the Green Bay Packers, Brady Poppinga is a better pass rusher than he is a historian.

Would someone please get the man a calendar? And maybe access to Google, too?

For example, in the course of some recent small talk, the Packers always-intense strongside linebacker was asked about his wedding anniversary. His confusion is sure to please his wife of six years, Brooke.

"February 14, 2003," Poppinga said, confidently. Then, a pause. "Oh, wait, 2002? Yeah, 2002."

And then there's the history behind Poppinga's new gig, as a part-time pass-rushing defensive end in the team's "Frisco" nickel package. Because Poppinga sounds a little bit like an amped-up professional wrestler in interviews, it'd be easy to simply accept what he says, given how passionate and convincing he is. Nevermind that his accuracy is, again, off.

After putting his hand on the ground at end a half-dozen times in last week's loss to the Carolina Panthers — and coach Mike McCarthy having said he'll continue to fill that role this week against the Houston Texans — Poppinga offered up his background at defensive end, the position he played his first three seasons at BYU before shifting to linebacker as a senior in 2004.

"It (had been) six years to the day since I'd gotten a rush in that position," Poppinga said. "And as a matter of fact, guess who it was against: Utah. And guess who their left tackle was: Jordan Gross. The same guy with Carolina. It was pretty ironic. Full-circle."

Uh, not really. Gross, the Panthers' starting left tackle whom Poppinga did go against Sunday, was the No. 8 overall pick in 2003 NFL draft — meaning he played his final college season in 2002.

The Utes and Cougars did finish that season playing each other (Utah won 13-6), so Poppinga would have gone against him. But Poppinga misfired on the exact date (Nov. 23, 2002, which was six years and one week before the Packers-Panthers game) and apparently forgot that he started all 12 games of his junior year at defensive end, meaning in his last game as an edge pass rusher for the Cougars, he went up against the Utes' Tavo Tupola, not Gross. On Nov. 22, 2003.

Despite his faulty memory, Poppinga gave the Packers coaches hope that he may solve the team's pass-rushing woes.

Because two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Aaron Kampman has been a one-man pass-rush (9.5 of the team's 20 sacks), the Packers have been desperate for help from the opposite side, where Jeremy Thompson, Mike Montgomery, Kenny Pettway and Jason Hunter have failed to produce and pass-rushing specialist Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila proved to be washed up, resulting in his Nov. 1 release.

"I thought Brady did some good things in pass rush," McCarthy said. "We'll continue to use him in that spot. He definitely brings another element to our pass rush."
In fact, one might wonder why Poppinga, who experimented as a pass-rushing end in offseason minicamps and occasionally worked in one-on-one pass-rush drills during training camp, didn't get a look sooner.

"You've got to ask the coach about that. I just do what I'm told," Poppinga said. "I'm just that kind of guy. I leave those kind of questions to the coach, because he's the guy running the whole ship. I do what he wants me to.''

Asked about the delay, defensive coordinator Bob Sanders said the coaches have "been getting him ready as best we could. He's gotten better and better. We just talked about it and said, 'Hey, let's do it.' We had to get some push on that back side."

Poppinga said readjusting to his old position wasn't particularly difficult, and he did generate pressure on Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme twice.

Unfortunately for the Packers, Poppinga was a tick late each time, and Delhomme hit Steve Smith for 36- and 54-yard gains on those two near-misses. Each play set up touchdowns, including the game-winner.

"There's a learning curve in the sense that I'm like a rookie at that position, but at the same time, it's all coming back to me very fast," Poppinga said. "That's just who I am — somebody that can play a lot of different positions. I'm just a football player. Wherever I'm needed, whatever schemes they want to run here, I can do it."

And what the Packers need is another pass-rushing threat to take the pressure off Kampman. Entering Sunday's game against the Texans, the Packers' second-most productive rusher remains Cullen Jenkins (2.5 sacks, 10 hurries), who hasn't played since Sept. 28 because of a season-ending torn chest muscle.

"The league is a passing league," said Poppinga, who has three career sacks. "With the weather starting to turn against us a little bit, teams are going to try to pound the ball a little more, and we haven't really shown that we can stop anybody trying to run the ball on us.

''But at the end of the day, teams are still going to try to pass the ball and the best way to combat that is to have a sound pass rush — get the quarterback off the spot, make him feel uncomfortable, make him feel like he's not back there sipping on coffee and enjoying his time. You have to get him moving, get him feeling like things are in a frenzy. The key to that is the pass rush, so it's going to be vital.''