Cisco WAN :: Unable To Get Connection Between 2811 And NM-16ESW

For some reason I cannot seem to get a connection between the router and the switch.  I see the FE ports on the siwtch, sh ver  includes all 18 FE ports, but it seems that there is no backplane connection.  The only way I can get conenctivity to the switch module is to jumper between one of the routers FE ports and a NM port.  The switch will not accept any IP addressing on the same network as the router becasue of overlap.  Am I just being stupid?  My understanding was this NM would have a backplane connection to the router.  Some docs mention a GE conneection that should show up and there were two parts to the config, one to set up the interconnect and then to set up the switch.