Vikings 30 Packers 23
What could have been? TD drop on 4th down summarizes Packer woes
So while this was a hard loss to swallow, I think the Packers gained some significant confidence at the end. Rodgers left the game feeling like he cannot be stopped. Even though they left a lot on the field – including zero points on three red-zone possesions which could’ve drammatically changed the outcome of this game – they played with energy and showed some talent. But this is Favre’s revenge game or whatever you want to call it. The reality of this game was captured perfectly by Gregg Easterbrook’s TMQ today. Yes Favre can still play, but the Packers didn’t let him go because they thought he couldn’t. It was that they couldn’t be held hostage by his indecision and take the chance of losing their QB for the next 10 seasons, Aaron Rodgers.
Anyway, I’m still thinking the Vikes will take a nose dive eventually…The next month will be a pretty good indicator as they have to play against two of the toughest teams in the league, the Steelers and Ravens. Here are some other thoughts that have left me shaking my head.
- The Packers started out beautifully with vintage WC offense, what happened after the 1st QTR? Did the Vikings adjust or did MM just say f-it?
- Zero pass rush on Favre – This was the reason they went to the 3-4…to get a pass rush! What happened? I’m thinking (hoping) that they held the blitzing package back to stop Adrian Peterson. Which they did…too bad Favre owned them because of this.
- Bishop / Chillar – I’d love to see these two starting at MLB, they could really shake things up. But that won’t happen with a high priced MLB and another who’s a top 5 pick.
- Kampmen – Jon Gruden was right on the money! This guy is an all-pro, he needs to be doing what he does best…why can’t he move from left to right side on the line?
- Charles Woodsen – He and Rodgers are easily the best two players on this team, here’s hoping he sticks around another year or two. Hopefully we don’t hear any more quotes like this:
- “My mind keeps going back to Anthony Smith,” he said. “I don’t know if we win this game if we have Anthony still on the team, but the decision to get rid of a guy that knows this defense in and out and made plays in the preseason, and not being able to have a guy like that come in when Atari goes down, that’s a big dent in this defense. If the outcome would have been different, who knows? But I think we would have played some of those things a lot better.”
- Kuhn – The Packers have gone to the well too many times on that stupid FB draw on short yardage. I can’t believe it almost worked on the goalline in the 3rd quarter.
- Donald Lee – That was easily the biggest drop of the year so far. Man how different this game could’ve been if he catches that TD.
- O-line – Hopefully in the next few weeks their line is…LT Clifton, LG Lang, C Spitz, RG Sitton, RT Babre/Gionconi…OR even better, Tauscher!