MMQB: Packers wrap up home field advantage but questions still remain about the defense...

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and goodwill towards men. And women. And any assorted girls and boys trolling along underfoot this holiday weekend!

I have been admonished by all the after-Christmas party-goers at my house tonight to not go into my normal “glass half empty” rants tonight. The fact that my team has won just about everything they can in the regular season, with only a nothing-left-to-play-for game against the Lions remaining, should put me in the bestest of holiday moods, right? I mean, I’ve got a four day weekend to spend with Mrs. MMQB, I’ve been surrounded by friends and family, I’ve received some excellent gifts, spent some quality time with my parents and kids (even long-distance holiday time with #2 Son and his gal via Skype), and the Packers beat the Bears! What’s not to love, right?

Darn, this is hard. OK, I’m pressing REAL hard on the keyboard, trying not to rain all kind of derision upon the Packer defense. If you watched this game, you know what I’m talking about, making a third string QB look like Johnny F*****g Unitas and a third string running back look like Barry F*****g Sanders. Whoa. That was very negative. Slap my wrist and take away my pumpkin pie! (HEY! I meant that figuratively. I was eating that!)

No, I think I have to be on by best behavior (I still think that pie-forfeiture was uncalled for) since it’s Christmas. Soooo here is my best imitation of a glass WAY more than half full writer:

• Wow, that Aaron Rodgers is good. Five TD’s, no picks and 283 yards. Plus, the dude rushed for some vital yardage as well. Sure, he was off target on a few throws but he more than made up for them with more great plays. His play has eclipsed that of old whatshisname Bent Somebody in every category. Except for interceptions and game-crushing plays.  
• James Jones and Jordy Nelson stepped into the void left by Jennings tonight. As much as they were absent in the loss to KC last week, these two guys were vital to the Packer efforts tonight. And don’t forget the contributions of Driver (2 for 29), Grant (2 for 34) and Cobb (2 for 22). Those were some tough yards and big plays.
• Jermicheal Finley (sigh) is really trying my patience. I don’t mean this to sound negative but in the last two games after Jennings went down, he has had to step into the role of playmaker and has not measured up. Yes, he did have that very nice TD catch but he had two outright drops and two more balls thrown that he should have caught. I’m happy he’s on the team, he’s out best receiving TE but he is not the man he needs to be in terms of taking over a game. Early this year (and last year before he was injured) J-Mike could not be covered. Now, it’s 50-50 if he does get open that he’ll catch the ball.
• I’m loving what I’m seeing from Clay Matthews. The sack totals are way off but his impact in the running game and in coverage (two picks in the last three games) is 112% over and above where he was a year ago when he was racking up those massive QB sack numbers.

So now the Packers have secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They’ve set franchise records for victories, consecutive victories and just about every passing mark there is. Tons and tons of records are being set by Rodgers and if he’s not the league MVP this year, the voting is rigged. So what can they possibly be playing for against the Lions next week? The Lions are in the playoffs for the first time since Boy George was popular. The Packers are in and have everything a regular season can give. What to play for on either side? Pride and momentum, that’s all. Will McCarthy sit his starters? Will we see Matt Flynn in the second quarter? Will this look like a preseason game? Quite possibly. But I sincerely believe that MM and the Packers want to go into the post-season on a roll and with a 14-1 record. They have not looked great the last two weeks against, quite frankly, teams that are just coasting along on fumes. What will happen against a powerful offensive team like New Orleans or a defense like San Francisco? Nothing good. They can treat this game against Detroit as a great way to warm up, get some momentum going into the bye and work out some of ugly kinks (you know I’m looking at you, Defense) that have reared up lately.

MMQB: XPOSED! Packers play their worst game in a calendar year and are shown up by Kansas City

Besides the normal black depression that all Packer fans are feeling right now after a loss, we are all dealing with the knowledge that we let a clearly inferior team beat us. It happens every year and I had hoped that we would get through this miracle season without it but you knew it was coming: the game the Packers mail in.

I should have seen it coming! We had one weak-ass opponent left on the schedule. Not going anywhere, no reason to think that they have anything but “please don’t hurt me” left in the tank. Last year we saw it against the Redskins and the Dolphins (and, to be honest, in the first Bears and Lions games) and here it was again!

Everybody and his mother are going to be all over this, looking at the loss of Jennings and the problems along the offensive line and the pressures of trying to accomplish the perfect season...blah, blah, yadda, yadda. You want to know why the Packers lost? I got it here for ya:

• Jordy Nelson: In what should have been the biggest opportunity of his career, Mr. Nelson was flagged for two offensive interference plays in the first quarter (first was good, second was totally bogus) and ended us with a pedestrian two catches for 29 yards. And he got flagged one other time for a false start. 
• Jermicheal Finley: He ended the day as the top Packer receiver for the afternoon (3 catches, 83 yards) and set up the first Packer TD of the day but his three (or four) drops in the first half set the tone for the rest of  the day. J-Mike makes those grabs and the Packers are maybe up by 10 at halftime. I am totally over him. 
• Aaron Rodgers: As good as A-Rodg has been in 2011, he stunk up the joint today. 17 for 35, 1 TD and 235 yards. An OK game for most QB’s but pretty poor based on his production so far. He was high, low and all over the place. He should have been picked off at least two times and maybe three.
• The entire Packer defense: one would think that forcing four field goals in four KC trips inside the 20 would be total victory for the defense but one would be wrong in that assessment. Those drives, while ultimately not successful in scoring a TD, chewed up large chunks of clock and kept Aaron Rodgers and his offense sitting on the sidelines. Win for the Chiefs. And if you add in a lack of turnovers (the Packer D never even got a glimmer) you  should have seen the loss coming.
• Mike McCarthy: With a stuttering offense, MM decides to attempt a 59 yard field goal. It missed but a defensive penalty allowed a second chance and darn if that one didn’t miss too. In the first quarter, those are the WRONG DAMN CALLS! You punt the freaking ball and you let your D do  their job. And if KC didn’t have a direct line into the Packer huddle, it sure looked like it.
• The KC defense:   No one else has been able to do it and I still don’t know how the Chiefs did it but they covered literally everybody and were still able to put all kinds of ugly pressure on Aaron Rodgers. No doubt some of that is due to the unsettled nature of the Packer O-line but you have to give a huge amount of credit to the KC secondary.
• The KC offense: If the KC defense looked like they had a direct line into the Packer huddles, the defense might have been even more in the know. When the Packers brought pressure, they had a screen called. When the Packers dropped off, the Chiefs found the seams. You want to know the difference maker? When the Chiefs needed a catch, the Packer defenders were playing soft and there was always a man open, completely undefended. Conversely, there was not one (no a singe damn one!) Packer wide-out who was open all day! Every single pass was contended. Even the completions were into tight coverage.

So you and I can go on an on all day long about how the Packers missed Jennings or they were looking past the Chiefs. Those are all just excuses. The reason the Packers blew their chance at a perfect season was that they were out-played, out-executed and out-coached (by Romeo Crennel!) in every phase of the game!

So now the 24/7 NFL media will be able, with a clear conscience, to devote 100% of their coverage to Tim Tebow and the Broncos. I’m sure the Packer’s pursuit of history was just a distraction from the true biggest story of the year. And maybe that’s an OK thing. Mike McCarthy said it best after the game: “We were beaten.” At 13-1, the Packers are still the #1 seed in the playoffs. They are still the best team in the NFL and they are still the favorites to get to and win the Super Bowl. The shot at legendary status is all done with. We can quite worrying about when and if Mike McCarthy will sit his starters. There is no reason to do so now. Now all they need to do is win.

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MMQB: Packers go up big early and win going away by 30: Can anybody slow them down? The Tee-Broncos? PLEASE!

Did the Green Bay Packers play on Sunday? If you watch the post-game highlights or scan the Intert00bs, you would have thought that the only game going was Broncos vs. Bears. Yes, it was a miracle finish, for Teebow and the Broncos to beat the Bears (or maybe we should credit the Bears for sucking so completely) but the real story was going on in Green Bay, Wisconsin as the Packers were dismantling the overmatched Oakland Raiders.

How can you not love the Broncos? Simple: the Broncos and their QB are an awful team for 55 minutes. Then they suddenly come to life and play out of their heads and win. I will say this now and shout it from the highest mountain top: I WANT the Broncos vs. Packers in the Super Bowl. The Packers will not be within one score in the last five minutes against that team. In fact, I would predict the Broncos to be down by at least 21 in the last five minutes of a potential Green Bay/Denver SB tilt.

But I’m sick to death of the Broncos. I’m here to praise the best team in the land:

• Where has Ryan Grant been hiding all year? Has it been the steady production of James Starks that hid Grant’s resurgence? I’m not sure but I have to say: Grant looked like Ahman Green back there catching passes, bursting through the holes, scoring TD’s. Gotta love having that in your hip pocket down the stretch.
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• Donald Driver, the venerable one in the Packer receiver corps, has his third straight big game. Never the guy with the most catches or the most yards, just biggest catches and the biggest yards. With the injury to Jennings looming, Double D will need to step up and fill a role. I can’t imagine a guy more able to do it.
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• Jermicheal Finley, loosing a battle for possession in the end zone, has officially fallen off my list of Packer weapons and moved into my dog house. And probably Aaron Rodgers’ too: after that fiasco, he wasn’t never thrown to again. In the final year of his contract, I cannot see Ted Thompson shelling out big bucks to retain a guy who has become inconsistent and edging into the area of a liability. 
• Can you do more than Mason Crosby? Damn that guy is good. After two weeks of iffy play, he went 4 for 4 including a long of 49. On a night when the Packers red-zone magic was suddenly absent, Crosby salvaged 16 points for his team. Gotta love that.
• For the second straight week, the Packer defense adds points to the scoreboard. You just can’t put a value on that kind of play. It not only short-circuits an offensive opportunity, it puts points on your side of the ledger and demoralizes the opponent. No one in the NFL is doing what the Packers are doing in that arena.
• I simply love he NFL Mobile ad that has Matthews making a tackle-for-loss and throwing the “Predator” move, repeated by fans watching including sportscaster Rich Eisen. Too much fun.
• The Raiders hang their hat on being able to run the ball and stopping the run. The Packers are just not the team you would expect to run the ball. How did that turn out? Grant and Kuhn ran for 131 and 2 TD’s, Bush found 78 yards and 1 TD. I’d say that’s a win a for the passing team, wouldn’t you?
• The opportunistic Packer defense should really have been able to post a shutout over the Raiders but for two poor series. The safety given up by the offense in slop time was troubling (who the hell was blocking on that play? Anyone? Buehler?). On a Sunday when they Packers won by 30, it really wasn’t that close.

Now we get down to the last three games of the season and 16-0 is within reach. Can any of the final three opponents beat the Packers? Chiefs: not even in the same league. Their only advantage is home field. Bears: they are missing their starting QB and franchise running back. And they lost to the Broncos. Their season is done. Lions: Did you watch them against the Vikings? Up by 21 in the first quarter, they barely hung on for the win. If the Queens were even the teensiest bit better, it’s a miracle come back and a Lions loss. No, I’m sorry: any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday, but I just can’t see the Packers losing to any of these stiffs. Unless, of course, Mike McCarthy sits his starters. I just don’t see that in his character, but the ultimate goal is a Super Bowl win. I will trust MM to do what needs to be done to meet that goal.

MMQB: The Packers Pass the "Character" Test

The Green Bay Packers are the undefeated, consensus class of the NFL. You’ve got folks that talk about the Ravens and the Pats, some who put up the Steelers or the Saints and even the Niner-lovers. And if I hear one more word about the Tee-Broncos, I will absolutely vomit. But all of these teams are in the running for the Best Team Not Named Packers award. 

But there was one thing missing from the Packer’s win portfolio: the gritty come-from-behind, fourth quarter victory. This, to me, is the ultimate test of character for an NFL team. Can you absorb the bets shot from an opponent, get down and find a way to win at that very end. And they haven’t had that opportunity to pass that test for one very good reason: the Packers have not trailed in the fourth quarter for the entire 2011 season.

So when the Packer defense went into “please don’t hurt me” mode late in the game and pretty much handed a tie to the Giants, it was up to Aaron Rodgers and the offense with the ball on their 20, only 58 seconds remaining and one time out to go get the win. Four plays later Mason Crosby was set up with a 31-yard game-winner and the Packers were 12-0. They had passed the test.

Should the Packers have been in that position? No way. How did they get there? The reasons are many:

• The Packers had six dropped passes (I actually counted eight) with Finely being the worst offender. You just can’t drop that many passes and expect to win many football games.
• The Packer defense was torched repeatedly for long passes. Completions of 42 and 51 yards and a TD to former Wisconsin Badger for 67 made the Packers secondary looks foolish. I kept hearing the Benny Hill theme watching the DB’s attempt to cover and tackle.
• Mason Crosby has suddenly become a 50-50 kicker, missing a field goal as time expired in the first half off of fumble recovery. He looked so great through ten games but he’s missed two over the span of that many weeks.
• Aaron Rodgers was off target in several critical moments. The pick he threw was a pure and simple mis-read.
• The Packer offensive line, patched together after injuries have ripped up the starting line, is not doing well. Rodgers was facing more pressure that he should. The run game was almost laughable in places. Smith and Newhouse are not starter-worthy and it showed big time tonight.
• The play calling of Mike McCarthy was surprisingly pedestrian. How many times do you run the ball for under two yards on first down? Why call a reverse/wide receiver pass and take the ball out of Aaron Rodgers hands? I appreciate MM trying to create balance but he has to go with what’s working and not with what isn’t.
• The lack of pressure on Eli Manning was a huge factor. The younger Manning brother is well known for making errors when hit and sacked. The Packers made valiant attempts to rush him and they were successful in many instances but all too often the Giants double-teamed Matthews and then watched the rest of the Packer front seven flop around ineffectively and BOOM! Another big pass play!

So with all that going on, how did the Packers win this game? How did they win the battle of character on the last drive of the game?

• Clay Matthews and his pick-six in the first quarter was a huge turning point. If Eli Manning has time to make the correct read (one of those rare QB pressures) he might have a TD going the other way. A 14-point swing on one play.
• Donald Driver has four catches for only 34 yards but two of those were for TD’s. Double D stepped up for the second game in a row.
• Catches by Jordy Nelson on the last two Packer drives were absolutely crucial to the win. As with the phenominal run into and through the playoffs last year, Nelson knows when to step up his level of play.
• Rodgers, even with his slightly erratic play, was able to put together not one but TWO scoring drives to win this game. The passes to Finley, Nelson and Jennings to set up the winning field goal were as precise as you can get. When it was most important, Rodgers as most effective. Mason Crosby may have put that game winner between the uprights but it was Aaron Rodgers who made it possible.

There were some pretty big injuries in this game and as I write I have no idea how severe they are. Starks went out on the cart and it doesn’t look so great for him. Grant needs to step up. Quarless’ injury looks to my uneducated eye to be season-ending. Good thing we have five tight ends on the roster. Woodson got his head impacted and we might be looking at a concussion. I’d love to point to someone in the secondary that is able to fill in but I don’t see them. But the way Woodson was playing today, it was probably an upgrade to the Packer defense. These are all worrisome.

Again, this game was touted by some as “the one the Packers are going to lose” and again, the Packers found a way to the W. With four games to go, the Packers have locked up a playoff berth and will win the North if the Lions drop one to the Saints tonight. Three of the four remaining games are in the friendly confines of Lambeau Field, so you have to give the Packers the edge. Can they go all the way? Sure. Does it have to be this exciting? No, but why would you want it to be boring? This is a special season and a special team. Let’s hope it can all result in a special trophy. 

MMQB: Turkey Day and another pretender is dealt with by Green Bay

Wednesday, right before leaving work, one of my fellow Packer fans asked me how I felt about the Thanksgiving day match-up between Green Bay and  the surprising Detroit Lions. I answered as honestly as I could: “I feel good about this game. Lions are going to be tough but I’ve seen them play a few times this year and I can’t see them beating the Packers right now.” Deep in my pessimistic MMQB lizard brain (the part that makes us fearful little animals instead of top-of-the-food chain predators) I knew that this game had the markings of a problem for the Packers. The relative strengths and weaknesses of the two teams did not bode well for our guys. To wit:

• Lions have an excellent front four that can get after a quarterback without blitzing - The Packer offensive line has not given Rodgers the kind of time lately he needs.
• The Lions biggest weakness is run defense - Packers have good backs but they are never going to win games by dominating on the ground.
• The Lions have a pretty good QB in Stafford and a legitimate star in Calvin Johnson - The Packer defensive backs tend to make even mediocre QB’s look like Hall-of-Famers.

 But this is why you play the games. This is why stats and tendencies can lie. This is why the pundits like to look at a game like this and teams like this and say, “yup, time for the Packers to lose one.” And Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers and Charles Woodson say, “nope, not going to happen!”

This team is starting to get into a groove and a rhythm that seems very familiar to me. It was the 2007 season and the almost-perfect New England Patriots were tearing up the entire NFL. Teams would play them tight and close and do everything right and they’d still look up at the scoreboard ten minutes into the game and be down by 21. You could almost hear them think “how the hell did that happen?” And the Packers are getting like that too. Teams have been giving it their best shot (well, maybe not the Vikings two weeks ago) and are still ending up on the short end of the stick. The Bucs played one of  their best games of the season and the Packers won. The Lions stayed nose-to-nose with the Packers in a typically gritty, first half, only to get smoked. 

Think about this team and what they have already accomplished: 11-0 record, pretty darn good. 17 wins in a row going back to last year, outstanding. Beating good teams of all stripes and schemes, can’t get any better. Here is the big one: winning three games in 11 days, against maybe our biggest division rival (Vikes), an up-and-coming team (Bucs) and the biggest revival of fortunes in many years (Lions). 

We have a lot of reasons to be thankful for this year, and as is my habit, I want to tell you mine:

I’m thankful that the Lions have such and undisciplined team. Seriously: 11 penalties for 82 yards is bad enough but two of them allowed the Packers to score touchdowns instead of field goals, total no-no’s in the NFL. Add in the ejection of Mr. Suh (if you’ve heard his after-the-game denial/shifting of blame/explanation, you know this guy is a total head case) and it all totals up to a pretty dysfunctional team. If you want to hand out a game ball, hand it to the Lions: they found a way to keep our drives going for us!

I’m thankful that Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy saw fit to hang on to James Jones. The Lions must have got word that Jordy Nelson could burn you if you took away Jennings and Finely. In their attempt to cover all three of those guys, they forgot about #89 for that one brief moment it took for Aaron Rodgers to find him. BOOM! Touchdown Green Bay. 

I’m thankful for a team that has grown and matured so much in the last three seasons. Not that long ago a sack or penalty or a lack of execution or concentration would have meant a stalled drive and a punt. Now we can rise above the mistakes and make positive plays. We don’t get impatient with ourselves. We know we can overcome adversity.

I’m thankful for team depth. Mike McCarthy deactivate not one, not two but three linebackers before the game and we had the misfortune to have both of our starting inside backers (Hawk and Bishop) go out with injury. A bad day for Green Bay? Nope. We saw DJ Smith and Robert Francois step right up and shoulder the load. Were they perfect? No, that’s why they aren’t the starters. But just like last year, if someone goes down, someone else comes in and plays at or above the level of the starter. Francois even got an interception. THIS is the kind of team character champions are made of.

I’m thankful for the bend-but-don’t-break defense. It can be awfully trying to watch but you just cannot deny it’s effectiveness. The opportunistic nature of this defense would seem to be something you shouldn’t be able to count on but week in and week out, they get the job done! When Charles Woodson RIPPED the ball from a receivers hands, you just had to smile and marvel at our good fortune.

Most of all, I’m thankful for Mindy, Matt, Sean, Becky, Dora, Toni, Jim, Mary, Fred, Joan and all my excellent friends, teammates and co-workers. I’m thankful for all of you read this little rant and from time to time, tell me you like it. I’m thankful for all the fine folk that contribute (in money, support and sweat) to our yearly biking/fundraising quest to eliminate the scourge of MS from Planet Earth.

The Packers have earned some time off before they take on the Giants and so have you. Bask in the afterglow, get yourself a big ol’ slab of white meat and take a few days to appreciate all you have.

MMQB: Packers play perhaps their worst game of the season and still win by 9

If you were watching the Packers beat the Buccaneers this afternoon, you would not be in the minority thinking that this game should have been closer than the final score indicated. Was I the only one who felt like we were playing from behind all day? Looking at this game on paper, you would have come up with the same thing all the talking heads did: Packers win, somewhere around 35-17. And if you look at the final, you’d say “yeah, Pack gave up one more score than it should have but they still beat ‘em”. You wouldn’t be wrong, but you wouldn’t have seen the complete picture either.

If you watched the Packers beat up on the Vikings last week, you were probably just like this humble scribe in thinking that the Packer defense had finally turned a corner and had solved all those nagging problems (giving up 400+ yards a game) and found a way to stop offenses that were (literally) throwing caution to the wind and attempting to keep pace with the prolific Packer offense. But watching the mediocre Josh Freeman light up the Packer DB’s for 342 yards and 2 TD’s and the decidedly not mediocre Blount run over through and around the Packer tacklers for 107 yards and 1 TD, you have to question that defense again. Seriously: in the third quarter, a period that has been dominated by Green Bay all season long, the Bucs OWNED the game on both sides of the ball.

I have to ask: How did the Bucs take away both Greg Jennings (2 catches for six yards) and Jermichael Finley (1 catch for 30 yards) and STILL put all that pass rush on Aaron Rodgers? Sure, you had a career day by Jordy Nelson (6 for 123 and 2 TD’s) and a resurgence of Donald Driver (4 catches for 72 yards and two key first downs) but how does that happen? I can see every offensive coordinator in the NFL (especially the Detroit guy) pouring over that film, studying what went right for Tampa Bay. One big factor: Aaron Rodgers was not on his game today. Yes, yes, he still threw some great, great passes but he was off-target in many instances and the interception he threw in the fourth quarter was the only one so far that came off of a bad read and bad throw.

We got into the second half and the Packers were getting out-coached and out-played in all phases of the game. Very much uncharacteristic. The defense was embarrassed, seemingly in prevent but in actuality was just out of position. The offense sputtered and stalled. The special teams barely held on. 

But even with all that crap going on, the Packers were still leading the game! Think about that: they were totally messing up on both sides of the ball and yet they were still in control of their destiny. How weird was it?

• On the Packers first drive, Masthay came on for a seeming three-and-out punt, fumbles twice but runs for a first down.
• Aaron Rodgers was the second-leading rusher today, something that means the pass blocking is really bad.
• BJ Raji, a defensive lineman, gets his first rushing TD and second TD overall of his career. Shades of “the Fridge”?? Heck no: he’s now “the Freezer”.
• Tom Crabtree, the most handsome player in the NFL (Google a picture of him. I dare you) catches the first TD of his NFL career. 

Aaron Rodgers was not efficient. The Packer defense was soft and flaccid. Yet still they won. They made the needful plays in the right spots and found a way to win against an inferior opponent playing out of their heads.

So you have to ask yourself: how does this team beat the Lions on Turkey Day? You have a fine offensive team in Detroit (doesn’t bode well to the seemingly lax Packer defense) and a team that can be good on defense (against a Packer pass attack that suddenly looks mortal).  Can the opportunistic Packer D make up for their lack of backbone with picks? Can Aaron Rodgers and his receivers bounce back from a sub-par performance? The Lions ALWAYS play well on Thanksgiving Day and the Packers will have all they can handle. 10-0 is a remarkable record and a 15 game winning streak is unprecidented in Packer history. Is this the week it all comes crashing down? I don’t know. But I think they will have to play the best game of the season so far to get out of this week undefeated.

MMQB: Packers finally put together a complete game in demolishing the Vikings

When I sit down to write after the Packers have finished playing, I am usually looking for the faults and flaws, no matter what the outcome is. To me, the failures tell you far more about a football team than the successes. Tonight, facing the hated Vikings on a large, nationally-televised stage, the Green Bay Packers made my job here almost impossible! How can I fill up my allotted space with pithy rants and snarky comments if they play like they did? Come on, guys! Have a heart, will ya?

All kidding aside, it’s hard to find anything to pick about and I’m pretty sure you all know where I’m going to find the only blemish on an otherwise complete game: the Cobb fumble. Yeah, the rookie stunned the Vikings by putting up his second return for six after they went three-and-out to start the game. But his muffed punt and subsequent recovery by the Vikings would lead to their only points two plays later. Sound familiar? He did exactly the same thing in the first meeting this year between the Packers and Vikings and it allowed the Queens to climb back into that contest and make it a game. Not so much this time: Cobb redeemed himself by returning the ensuing kick-off to the 50 yard line. Five plays later Rodgers tossed his third TD of the night to Kuhn. I think all is forgiven, Randall. 

I’ve got one more: allowing Jarred Allen to rudely school Marshall Newhouse over and over again was a pointless blunder by the Packers. The guy completely dominated the line of scrimmage and disrupted our passing game, tossing Rodgers about on multiple occasions. When the Packers chipped him or double-teamed him he was much less effective. When they left Newhouse to his own devices, well, Allen had one sack, six tackles and I lost count of the hits and pressures. 

But aside from those two quibbles, I think this is the very first complete game the Packers have put together all season. Offense scored early and often. Defense almost pitched a shut-out. Special teams covered kicks, punted well and Crosby probably will have to spend time in the whirlpool from all the extra points he had to make tonight.

The biggest surprise was the defense, though I’m not sure what adjustments Dom Capers installed this week. Maybe it wasn’t anything new and it was just better, more aggressive play all around. Maybe it was the fact that Ponder isn’t that great, the Vikings wide outs are mediocre and Peterson becomes a non-factor when playing from a large deficit. But you have to be impressed by the play of Charles Woodson all night long. You have to notice that not only did Clay Matthews continue his stellar play at OLB, he also brought the hammer down twice on Ponder. I was wondering if we’d ever get to see that Predator move again but there it was! And the front seven holding AP to only 51 yards, well, that’s just unheard of!

It’s hard to figure out what to write about Rodgers and his receivers that hasn’t already been said a dozen times over. Repeat all the great stats? Call out one or two dynamite plays? Bow respectfully? How about this: On the Packers first offensive possession, they faced a third and one from the Vikings 27. Obvious spot for a run or a QB sneak, since you’re already in field goal range, right? Well the Vikings had such respect for Rodgers’ arm that they had their corners playing off the Packer receivers and the safeties were 20 yards off the line of scrimmage. Rodgers went up the middle for three and the first down, tossing his first TD strike of the game to Jennings across the middle three plays later. That’s just nuts. 

Packers vs. Vikings used to produce an almost visceral reaction for me: I couldn’t wait for the game to start yet I was so apprehensive about it that I couldn’t sit still. It started during all those years when Randy Moss was racking up dozens of touchdowns on us and it came to an ugly head three years ago when the Favre-led Vikings made my Packers look foolish. Since  that day, however, all my anxiety has been pointless as the Packers have owned the Queens. Tonight I could feel the tension in texts from Brother Russ and I’ll admit to some trepidation in the first half and one moment of doubt right before the second half but I never felt like Minnesota was ever going to make anything happen past a few meaningless opportunities. It’s ALWAYS a good feeling, though, when you beat the Vikings. It’s a MUCH BETTER feeling when you humiliate them in front of a prime time TV audience. Yeah, do your little “hog-tie” move, Jarred Allen. Get your kicks, guy. I much prefer a Lambeau Leap and a John Kuhn TD. And then you get to see the absolute best sight there can be: Matt Flynn in victory formation to end the game. Love it!

So, we sit at 9-0 and just played our best game of the year. This is the first of three games in 11 days and it couldn’t have turned out any better. But the challenges abound: a short turn and then Tampa on Sunday, followed by an even shorter turn and Detroit on Turkey Day. Oh, and once you get past that mess, you get to go to New York to play the Giants. If the Packers have indeed started to peak, they picked a perfect time for it.