| The world has gone mad. Black is white, day is night, and
the Bears are in first place in the NFC Norris Division
six games into the season. At the very least, God has
taken a vacation or decided to punish Packer fans for
vanity. To consider that the Bears are a better team
than the Packers is to consider all the laws of physics
and nature absurd. We have truly ventured into another
dimension. How Did We Get Here? It was easy to dismiss the Minnesota Vikings as a team in decline, based on their performance to date, and to prophesize a victory in the dome this year, regardless of recent history. Yet, in the back of the mind of every Packer fan was the thought that basically, the Vikings are a very sound offensive threat and an upset was not beyond the realm of possibility, even in the dimension of normalcy in which we used to reside. In the past, the Packers have taken a collar on the road when one or more factors of the Packers game failed to deliver it’s potential. The recent loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a perfect example. In spite of the Bucs tremendous defense, the Packers could have won the game if more than one Green and Gold clad receiver had shown up. Instead, a calamity of dropped passes forced Packer field general Brett Favre into a dangerous game of catch... a game which he lost when he was repeatedly picked off, once for a touchdown return. On the whole, the rest of that game was fairly well played by the rest of the Packers team. If the breakdown of one factor was enough to bring |
about loss to the Buccaneers, what chance did Green Bay have when not one single Packer played well against the Vikes. Look as you will, you will not find a single redeeming feature on the Packers side of the game. Darren Sharper’s hits on Randy Moss? Nice, but ultimately ineffective. Bubba Franks 6th TD reception of the year? Two catches for 9 yards is hardly remarkable just because on of them was for a TD. Ahman Green’s 6.64 yard per carry rushing performance? Perhaps if he’d been given the ball more than 11 times that average would seem solid, but instead it was padded by a Viking defense playing with a large lead and defending against catch-up football. Though these mentioned factors stunk less than the rest of the factors, their inadequacy was equally to blame for the Packers loss. But when dishing out blame, it’s only appropriate to start at the top. First and foremost, Coach Mike Sherman started with a bad game plan (one seemingly devised to give the opponents every advantage) and stuck with it to it’s disastrous conclusion. Brett Favre allowed himself to be hurried into bad passes and the good ones he through dropped like raindrops in the Amazon. The offensive line performed as though they had never seen a pass rush and Center Mike Flannigan performed the long snap as though he had never touched a football before in his life. The defensive line tackled as though the ball carrier was an Anthrax carrier and the linebackers reacted as though they were playing in molasses instead of on Fake Grass. And the defensive backs behaved |
as though limiting the Vikes to one passing TD was a moral victory Hopefully they will realize that moral victories don’t get you into the playoffs. Had Packer fans known their team was going to turn Sunday’s game into a ‘casual Friday’ atmosphere, heading into their bye week, they most likely would not have been so vociferous in their certainty of victory. As it turns out, most Packer fans will be feasting on blackbird for the next two weeks, while their heroes, hopefully will work overtime to redeem themselves. Not any of this is intended to take away from the Vikings performance. It wasn’t great, but it was good. Good enough to beat a better team. Had they been able to muster the same degree of play in any of their previous losses, they would be undefeated, and the rest of the NFL would be standing in awe of a team that is on the brink of their first championship, rather than confusion over a second rate team beating a championship contender. Memo To Bill Schroeder: Suck it up man. Anyone who’s ever had a sprained ankle knows how tough it is to walk, and can only imagine how tough it would be to play professional football on it. But that’s why you’re getting paid NFL money. On any other team, gimping out the week before the team’s bye week might be deemed acceptable, but you have the misfortune of playing on a team that features Brett Favre as the leader. You should follow his lead and unless the bone is sticking out of your skin, tape up, dress up, and get out there and play! |