2009 Game Reviews
NFL Week 4
by Jody Jamieson
7/10/2009
Lions 24 Bears 48
I love the fact that despite the fact they ended up getting beaten by 24, the Lions are at least becoming competitive. Other than the opening game against the Saints, Detroit has been very competitive, but only once was able to close out the deal. Their defense is still a nightmare, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. I like their attitude under Jim Schwarz and for the first time in a decade there is reason for tempered optimism in the Motor City. Unfortunately, for all the good work they did containing Jay Cutler, they let Matt Forte trample all over them. Cutler was 18/28 for just 141 yards with 2 TDs. Forte on the other hand had only 12 carries, but rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown. The numbers actually suggest that Detroit dominated the game as they comfortably “beat” Chicago in offensive yardage (398-276) first downs (25-14) and time of possession (36:30-23:30) but Detroit weren’t up to much in the second half much like against Minnesota and it cost them. They somehow managed to have -8 yards of offense in the third quarter and weren’t much better in the 4th. Detroit’s offensive disappearing acts in the 2nd half is becoming a concern.
The score was 21-21 after an exciting first half when Johnny Knox returned the opening kickoff of the second half 102 yards for a touchdown. Chicago were 34-24 ahead in the 4th quarter when Matt Forte ran it in from 37 yards, and Garrett Wolfe added some gloss to the score line with a 2 yard TD run. In the first half Cutler ran one in himself before throwing TD passes to Greg Olsen and Kellen Davis. Kevin Smith scored twice for the Lions in the first half and backup tight end Will Heller caught Matt Stafford’s only TD pass of the day. Unfortunately for Detroit, Stafford went down in the third quarter with a suspected dislocated kneecap. He was having another really good day (24/36 296 TD INT) before being replaced by Daunte Culpepper (6/11 54 yds) in the third quarter. No news yet on how long the #1 overall pick will be out, but hopefully he’ll be back soon as he was really starting to perform well.
Bengals 23 Browns 20 (OT)
If it wasn’t for the Denver miracle the Bengals would be 4-0. While that’s definitely true, this game almost made up for it as the Bengals had no business winning this one. They absolutely dominated the first quarter, and then spent the rest of the game killing themselves. What worries me from a Cleveland point of view is that the Bengals played horrendously for much of this game and the Browns still couldn’t win. Credit Cleveland’s offense for getting back into this one. Derek Anderson started poorly, but really settled down and moved the ball well sporadically in this game. Unfortunately, the turning point of this game was a poor interception thrown to Jonathan Joseph while they were deep in the redzone on a good drive.
The Mangenius must think that the challenge flag is like that EA backtrack thing on Madden where you get a do over when you mess up. He made two of the most futile challenges ever on Sunday. He challenged a touchdown catch by The Artist Formerly Known As Johnson that wasn’t even close to being considered for review, and then challenged the previously mentioned interception by Joseph, perhaps more in embarrassment at Derek Anderson’s throw than anything else. Perhaps it’s time for the refs to be allowed to challenge the challenge and tell Mangini there’s no way they’re going to waste a few minutes reviewing his ridiculous use of the red flag.
The Bengals actually had a 14-0 lead in this one after Palmer found Ocho Cinco in the endzone and then Robert Geathers returned a Jerome Harrison fumble for a 75 yard touchdown. Cincy even had time to have a field goal blocked by Shaun Rogers, but then they started playing awful. They didn’t get a first down for FORTY MINUTES in this one. They finally picked up a new set of downs with 5 minutes to go in regulation after not having achieved this since the 1st quarter. That is unacceptable against a defense as inept as Cleveland’s. Derek Anderson brought the Browns within a touchdown with a 1 yard pass to tight end Steve Heiden. They tied the game in the 3rd on a one yard Anderson run on a 4th and goal bootleg play. Andre Caldwell fumbled the kickoff, but Cleveland could only kick a field goal. They added 3 more points before the Bengals decided to play offense again late and Carson Palmer found Ocho Cinco again on 4th and goal with the game on the line. They would have won the game 21-20, but Shaun Rogers again blocked the extra point, sending it into overtime. I can’t believe I’ve mentioned the Bengals long snapper two weeks in a row, but Brad St Louis still has problems and the snap on both blocked kicks was way too high and it allowed the Browns (or Rogers) that extra second to get more penetration and make the block.
Interestingly late in the overtime period Carson Palmer tried to find Andre Caldwell on second down but the pass was broken up... by wide receiver Mike Furrey. Furrey played defensive back with the Rams, and found himself in emergency coverage in the overtime period. That was about as exciting as overtime got until the Bengals moved all the way down to the Cleveland 15, and Shayne Graham kicked the game winner with 4 second remaining. Sometimes sloppy play can make an exciting game if it’s close. This Battle of Ohio won’t win any style points, but stayed interesting enough for 74 minutes and 56 seconds to make it a fun game to watch. If this game however ends up my longest report of the season then there’s definitely something wrong with the NFL! Or more likely there’s something wrong with me...
Raiders 6 Texans 29
Good news – JaMarcus Russell didn’t throw an interception in this game! Bad news – he was characteristically awful. 12/33 for 128 yards is terrible. Russell has a 39.8% completion percentage so far on the season. It’s clearly a great thing that the Raiders draft measurables over actual football skills or we’d have nothing to talk about. After all, Darrius Heyward-Bey had a career day in Houston. 1 catch for 20 yards and an 18 yard end around! DHB shouldn’t be playing right now as he’s not ready and isn’t helping Russell, but Al knows best. I would put my house on the Raiders drafting Taylor Mays in April. More on that when the draft coverage gets into full swing, but this is a certainty.
Houston threatened to allow Oakland to hang about, but Steve Slaton took matters into his own hands in the 2nd, running for a 32 yard TD to make it 13-3 Houston. Matt Schaub almost got sacked by Slaton on a play action pass when they ran into each other, but Schaub kept his feet and completed a 44 yard pass to Owen Daniels. Three plays later Slaton took a screen pass and made it 20-3. The only scoring of the second half came in a little period of madness by the Raiders. Justin Fargas was tackled so deep in the endzone for a safety he was almost in the front row of the stands, and on the ensuing punt, Jacoby Jones took it back 95 yards for the TD. In the big match up, Andre Johnson had 2 catches for 68 yards. He had a 64 yard reception, but wasn’t lined up against Raiders corner Nnamdi Asomougha. Instead, Asomougha was lined up with Kevin Walter on the play. Johnson had 1 catch for 4 yards when Asomougha was covering him.
Seahawks 17 Colts 34
Indianapolis comfortably won their 13th straight regular season game at the Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday against a toothless Seattle side. Indianapolis found themselves up 14-0 quickly on a Donald Brown rush and a Reggie Wayne catch. Olindo Mare kicked a late field goal in the second quarter, but Peyton and the Colts found enough time to drive down the field and when Manning hit Austin Collie in the back of the endzone with 5 seconds remaining in the half the game was over. Just to make sure Indianapolis confirmed their complete dominance when Joseph Addai went in from 12 yards after a long drive to start the half. Indy added two field goals before Seneca Wallace ran one in himself then threw a TD pass to Owen Schmitt in garbage time to make it much closer than it really was.
Peyton Manning is having a ridiculous season so far. He has went over 300 yards in every contest this year, and is distributing the ball evenly to all his receivers. He had 5 players go over 50 yards receiving on Sunday, including running back Joseph Addai. Seneca Wallace was dinking and dunking all day long and it would have been effective if he had a running game and didn’t take 5 sacks on the day. Julius Jones could only get 25 yards on his 11 carries and Robert Mathis sacked Wallace 3 times.
Titans 17 Jaguars 37
What has been going on with the Titans? Jacksonville hasn’t been particularly good this year and while Tennessee were a disappointing 0-3 coming into this one, they’ve actually been unlucky at times as special teams has had a habit of destroying them. Special teams was solid this week, yet they still got walloped. At one point they were 30-3 down to the Jags. How does that happen? Poor coverage is part of the reason as they inexplicably let David Garrard pass for 323 yards. Garrard had a really good day, but there’s no excuse for the Titans to let Garrard beat them so badly. Obviously not having Albert Haynesworth is having a negative effect on their pass rush, but it’s ridiculous how wide open receivers are getting on the Titans secondary.
Mike Sims-Walker is a freak. Want proof? When his catch in the endzone to make it 27-3 that was originally called an incomplete pass was reviewed, the referee said “the receiver had 3 feet down” and thus ruled it a touchdown. Three feet down! How do you cover a guy with three feet? No wonder Tennessee’s defensive backs had a tough day. Sims-Walker and his 3 feet (but still only 2 hands) had 7 catches for 91 yards and 2 touchdowns. Maurice Jones-Drew only had 6 carries for 14 yards, but did have a first half rushing TD. Kerry Collins padded his stats well in garbage time but had another poor week. Last week he finished the game with 13 straight incompletions, and carried on his poor play to make sure the game was over as a contest early. Somehow, the Jaguars late in the game allowed Collins to score on a 10 yard scramble. A small, unexplainable blemish in a commanding win over a divisional rival. Tennessee has major issues.
Giants 27 Chiefs 16
With not much to say about this one, it’s worth bringing up here that for those of you who read my report last week, I do know what an apostrophe is. For some reason pretty much all of my punctuation was lost in translation from English to English by Google Mail. I have no idea how or why that happened, but nonetheless I do apologise about that. On the other hand, perhaps the Chiefs should have sent their $63million offer to Matt Cassel by Google Mail in the hope most of the terms of the contract disappeared. Cassel was a fairly brutal 15/32 for 127 yards and has thus far shown no signs that he is close to being worth the money Kansas City gave him. He did have 2 TD’s with no picks, but the two scores came when the Giants had a huge lead. New York’s offense on the other hand allowed this game to stay close with some sloppy play. If they hadn’t been so careless with the ball they could easily have scored 50, but luckily they were playing a bad team who had no chance of ever making them pay. I’ve become fully sold on Eli Manning after years of not being a believer, but he was very sloppy on Sunday and looked like Eli of old. Giants fans shouldn’t worry as this was likely just an off game. He was 20/34 for 292 yards 3TDs and a pick, which looks good, but he was off target with a lot of throws and the line flattered him.
Steve Smith has been amazing this year. He had 11 catches for 134 yards and 2 TD’s. Only Smith and Kevin Boss (4) had more than 1 reception. Rookie Hakeem Nicks made his catch count on his return, taking it for a 54 yard touchdown to make it 27-3. Sean Ryan and Bobby Wade had the scoring catches for the Chiefs in the 4th quarter. David Carr got into his second game in a row. He was 0/2.
Ravens 21 Patriots 27
This was a really good game that came down to the wire, but as usual, I will complain first. I don’t know why the Ravens were so quick to get away from the run in this one. In the 2nd and 3rd quarter Flacco wasn’t sharp but at least Ray Rice was getting yards on the ground. Rice even fell down on his own twice on the same play and still gained 2 yards. It’s absolutely ridiculous that Baltimore had 47 passing plays compared to 17 rushes in a game they were never behind big. Bizarrely, Cam Cameron went back to mixing up the run and the pass later on after being pass heavy in the 2nd and 3rd, and thus Baltimore started moving the ball effectively again. Who’d have guessed it? Rice only had 11 carries, but 103 yards and a score. Why did he only get the ball 11 times? Cameron should be ashamed.
Chris Carr fumbled the opening kickoff, but the Ravens defense held New England to three. Baltimore mixed the run and pass on their first drive and scored when Flacco hit Derrick Mason for 21 yards.
New England led 17-7 at the half after they took control and scored twice on a Tom Brady QB sneak and a Sammy Morris run. Just when it looked like Ravens were going nowhere, they got a break when Tom Brady was strip sacked by Terrell Suggs and Dwan Edwards recovered the fumble in the endzone. New England put together a really good drive to re-establish their 10 point lead, but how Domonique Foxworth allowed Randy Moss to get back inside for an easy TD catch when he pressed him to the sideline I’ve no idea. Ray Rice ripped of a 50 yard run to set up Willis McGahee for a 13 yard score. See, the run worked Cam! New England had a 6 point lead when Baltimore drove into the redzone and could have won the game, but Mark Clayton dropped a cookie from Joe Flacco on 4th down to end any chances of a comeback. It was a shame for Clayton, who had a pretty good game otherwise (5 catches for 45 yards) but Cam Cameron was still the Ravens offensive goat for me.
Baltimore left tackle Jared Gaither left the game with a scary head and neck injury, but thankfully has no serious structural damage and had feeling in his arms and legs on Sunday night. Hopefully he makes a full recovery and gets back on the field soon.
Buccaneers 13 Redskins 16
Jason Campbell tried everything he could to lose this one, but unfortunately for Secret Agent Campbell, they were playing the Bucs. Secret Agent Campbell is obviously still a little upset that Jim Zorn flirted with replacing him in the offseason and is doing everything he can to get him fired. The Redskins are inexplicably 2-2 right now, but luckily their schedule will get a lot tougher over the next few weeks and it will be easier for Secret Agent Campbell to get Zorn fired. How has a promising young quarterback who led the Redskins to some huge wins at home and on the road over the past couple of years become so inept? While I think Campbell and the Skins are likely done together after this year, someone is going to pick him up cheap and get a bargain.
Campbell fumbled the ball away on his first series at his own 10, and the Bucs scored on a beautiful 8 yard pass by Josh Johnson to Antonio Bryant. This was a great start for Johnson in his first NFL start to throw a TD on his first pass attempt, but it didn’t do anything to settle him down. Johnson really struggled in his first start, going 13/22, 106 yds 1TD 1INT and is likely a fill in till Josh Freeman is ready to take over the offense. Johnson did have a couple of nice throws to flash his potential, but needs more work. Campbell threw two interceptions to Aqib Talib in the first half, and almost coughed up the ball on a backward pass to Clinton Portis that went out of bounds. Tampa ended the first half 10-0.
Campbell abandoned his plans to get Zorn fired in the third quarter to lead two touchdown drives to give Washington the win. He found Chris Cooley for 7 yards and Santana Moss for 59 yards to give them a 16-10 lead (the extra point on the Cooley TD was blocked) that was threatened late when Mike Nugent kicked a field goal and Tampa got the ball back with 2 minutes remaining. However on a 3rd and 1, Clifton Smith got the carry, fumbled the ball away, and Chris Horton recovered to take the Skins back to .500. Nugent did earlier miss kicks from 48 and 49 yards which helped the Redskins escape.
Bills 10 Dolphins 38
The Dolphins returned to winning ways in an impressive display on both sides of the ball. With the score 3-0 Miami in the 2nd quarter rookie Vontae Davis intercepted Trent Edwards pass and took it back to the house. Ronnie Brown made it 17-3 from a yard out after a Ryan Lindell field goal put the Bills on the board. Chad Henne in his first NFL start led a composed drive to start the second half and finished it off with his first NFL touchdown pass. Brian Hartline caught the 5 yard strike. Edwards in a desperation effort to lead his team back into the game was picked off again (by Will Allen this time) and the Dolphins took advantage of the short field when Ricky Williams scored on the ground. On 4th and 2 in the final period Buffalo scored their lone touchdown of the game when Edwards hit Fred Jackson in the endzone, but it was too little too late. The Dolphins continued their dominance in the running game and added another rushing TD when Ronnie Brown went in for the second time to complete the scoring.
Miami ran all over Buffalo in this one no matter how they lined up. Brown had a 38 yard run in the 2nd quarter to set up his first TD, but when they were running wild in the 4th quarter, it was from more conventional formations. In the 4th Ricky Williams ripped off a 28 yard run from the I-formation. On the very next play from the same formation Brown ripped off a 26 yard run. Miami overall had 250 rushing yards on the day, and it allowed them to east Chad Henne into his first NFL start. Henne had only 22 pass attempts on the day and played mistake free football, completing 14 passes for 115 yards. He did fumble twice but they were recovered by the Dolphins. Trent Edwards on the other side had a tough day as his protection broke down around him. Linebacker Cameron Wake had 3 sacks on the day as Edwards was sacked six times. Edwards was a disappointing 14/26 for 192 yards TD 3INT.
Jets 10 Saints 24
New Orleans won this game on the back of the Jets making more mistakes on offense. Both defenses were outstanding, and it was always going to come down to which offense took better care of the football. Mark Sanchez has gotten away with a few errant throws recently, and this week Saints didn’t let him away with anything. Hopefully the hype machine will quiet down for a little while. I hate the fact that the New York media expects a Jets-Giants Super Bowl this year after 3 games under center for the rookie. However, I do believe Sanchez can become an elite level quarterback in the NFL as he has all the tools. He’s such a gamer and will likely will the Jets to some wins they don’t deserve down the line in his career. I love Shaun Hill with the 49ers as while he doesn’t have many great redeeming football skills, but is such a gamer that he finds a way to win. Mark Sanchez is Shaun Hill with a great NFL arm. Rookies are always going to cost their teams games with bad play early in their careers. Sanchez unfortunately cost the Jets this one.
The Jets were 3-0 down when they put together a good drive. Unfortunately it ended when Sanchez threw a pick-six to Darren Sharper who returned it 99 yards. The Jets then had a great stop at their own goalline to keep it a 10 point game as the Saints turned it over on 4th and goal. Two plays later though on 2nd and 7 Sanchez held onto the ball way too long, was strip sacked by Will Smith and Remi Ayodele recovered for a TD and a 17-0 lead. They led 17-3 at the half.
Reggie Bush fumbled earlier in Saints territory and the Jets took full advantage when Thomas Jones went in from 15 yards. With the Saints going for it on 4th and 1 from midfield, Kris Jenkins jumped offside and gave New Orleans a new set of downs. Drew Brees and the offense made no mistake and re-established a two score lead when Pierre Thomas scored on the ground from a yard out. The game was over when Sanchez forced a pass on 3rd and 21 that was again picked off by Darren Sharper. Sanchez can’t be blamed for putting this one up for grabs as they had to try something, but it capped off a miserable day for the rookie.
Cowboys 10 Broncos 17
I owe Josh McDaniels an apology. Not that he’d care, but I do. Well, that’s not completely true. I owe him half an apology. I still think it was stupid to replace Jay Cutler with Kyle Orton. It can’t be ignored that the game winning touchdown pass by Orton should have been intercepted by Terrence Williams. Luckily for the Broncos, Brandon Marshall is a beast when he wants to be, and he rose highest to snare the woefully underthrown pass from under Williams’ nose and took it to the house on an amazing scamper. So while I will not apologise for saying that I think what he did on the offensive side of the ball was ill advised, what has happened on defense is incredible. Dallas has just spent the last two weeks running wild on the Giants and Panthers, but Denver held them to less than 3 yards a carry. Neither Barber nor Tashard Choice did anything of note in Felix Jones’ absence, but that’s all on Denver rather than Dallas. They also sacked Romo five times. FIVE TIMES?! Romo can go through an entire 60 minutes without being touched even when his protection isn’t great. You saw on the 4th and 3 play late what Romo can do to avoid a sack, so for Denver to take him down 5 times is outstanding.
I know it’s natural for the announcers to fawn over the big name players, but when Roy Williams makes the catch at the goalline, Troy Aikman can’t possibly get away with saying “it was actually excellent coverage by Champ Bailey.” Sure Troy. It was excellent coverage apart from the fact that Williams was wide open. Marion Barber went in on the next play to make it 10-0 in the first quarter and suddenly Denver looked like the bad team we all expected them to be when they played someone decent. Dallas however did score a single point after this. Denver even gave Dallas a freebie to start the second half when Knowshon Moreno fumbled at his own 28 yard line. Romo instead threw an interception to Champ Bailey. This was Romo’s second turnover of the day after a second quarter fumble gave Denver the ball in the redzone and Moreno caught a 9 yarded from Orton for the score.
Denver eventually tied the game with 6 minutes to go on a Matt Prater field goal. Dallas couldn’t do anything on their next drive and punted to Denver who kept it simple. 8 yard pass to Marshall. 14 yard rush by Moreno. 51 yard TD pass to Marshall for the win. Dallas had a chance to take it to overtime, but failed deep in the redzone. They had first and goal from the 7 but turned the ball over on downs after a 4 yard pass, a spike and two incompletions. Romo has to do better if Dallas are to go anywhere this year. He performed poorly for large stretches of this one and his accuracy was a major problem. He even got Roy Williams injured in the 4th quarter after overthrowing him badly. Denver on the other hand are for real, and I can’t believe I’m saying that after how much I trashed them.
Rams 0 49ers 35
Credit where credit is due. The St Louis Rams defense had a really good game on Sunday. That sounds like a crazy thing to say when they lost 35-0, but there’s a method to my madness. Firstly, San Francisco scored 21 points while their offense was on the sidelines. They limited Glen Coffee to 3 yards a carry, and didn’t let Shaun Hill kill them in the air. The Rams started the second half without either of their starting tackles. 2nd overall pick Jason Smith didn’t dress due to injury and Alex Barron was removed from the game by the coaches. For a team that has difficulties up front as it is, they can’t afford to have their decent linemen out of the line up. It also doesn’t help when down 14-0 Kyle Boller threw the worst interception of the year back across the field right into the arms of Patrick Willis. Willis took it back for a touchdown. I’ll bet if the Rams played 60 minutes of defense they wouldn’t have lost by 35.
The Rams decided to kill themselves on special teams first before the offense destroyed them. The Niners took a 7-0 lead when an Andy Lee punt deflected off Quincy Butler, and Sean McKillop recovered it for a touchdown for the only score of the first half. Shaun Hill found Vernon Davis on a nice touch pass to make it 14-0. Then Boller had his Patrick Willis nightmare. Josh Morgan then made a great catch in the endzone on a slightly underthrown pass by Shaun Hill into double coverage to start the 4th quarter. Rams newbie Danny Amendola then fumbled a botched end around play and Ray McDonald picked it up and scored to complete the rout. The Rams were shutout for the second time this season as San Fran scored more points against them on Sunday than they’ve mustered in 4 games all season.
Chargers 28 Steelers 38
It would be easy to talk about how bad San Diego were in going 28-0 down, but that would do a big disservice to a Pittsburgh Steelers team who had to have this one and didn’t give the Chargers a chance. San Diego couldn’t stop the Pittsburgh offense despite constantly sacking Roethlisberger in the first half. The offensive line did struggle to protect Ben at times, but were dominant in the running game with left guard Chris Kemoeatu having a great night. The line got a constant push and allowed Rashard Mendenhall to run wild. Mendenhall was left out last week for missing assignments in practice constantly to send a message. He clearly got the message, running with conviction and even destroying a San Diego defender on a passing play a la Maurice Jones-Drew on Shawn Merriman a couple of years back. Defensively the Steelers were outstanding in the first half but in a complete turnaround they completely fell apart and allowed the Chargers back into it.
Mendenhall scored on a one yard rush on the opening drive, and very quickly it was 14-0 when Mewelde Moore caught a 19 yard pass from Big Ben. Mendenhall had his second TD run of the game towards the end of the first half. Early in the third the game seemed to end as a contest when Heath Miller caught Roethlisberger’s second TD pass of the day to make it 28-0. San Diego finally scored in the 3rd when Rivers found Gates for a 3 yard score. Jacob Hester then stripped Stefan Logan on special teams and took it 41 yards to make it a suddenly interesting 2 score game, but Pittsburgh seemingly iced the game when Mewelde Moore threw to Heath Miller on a halfback pass. I’d say Moore showed more arm strength on the throw than at least a few NFL quarterbacks. Chad Pennington and Matt Cassel immediately spring to mind. Gates had his second score, this time a 31 yard TD reception to make it 35-21 and then Tim Dobbins recovered the onside kick with over 5 minutes to go and quickly Phillip Rivers threw to Chris Chambers for a 14 yard score to make it 35-28 with 4 and a half minutes to go. San Diego would have had a chance for one more drive to tie the game, but the Chargers defense continued their disgraceful night by not being able to contain the Steelers offense despite the fact that they were obviously running to kill the clock. Jeff Reed kicked a 45 yarder and the game was over. To complete the awful night for San Diego, Antonio Cromartie was offside on the field goal attempt. If Reed had missed, Cromartie would have been the biggest field goal blocking goat since Leon Lett.
Packers 23 Vikings 30
Let’s get it out of the way early. Brett Favre had his best game as a Viking, much to the delight of Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden in the Monday Night Favre commentary booth. Gruden finally found something that almost gets him as excited as the Wildcat. We all know Favre is an NFL great, but there were many many things to love about this game besides him. Favre was 24/31 for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns. He took care of the ball, went deep when he could and took what the defense gave him when there was nothing much on. A great performance.
But because of the storyline behind this game, some of the great things about this contest will go largely ignored.
 Aaron Rodgers – It’s amazing that this guy can get beaten half to death in this one and still play magnificently. Rodgers never stopped fighting and finished 26/37 384 yards 2TD 1INT. Rodgers is missing left tackle Chad Clifton badly as Daryn Colledge is a liability. It’s hard enough to block Minnesota’s pass rush without putting Colledge and Allen Barbre at the tackle positions. Green Bay Packer fans will be disappointed with the loss, but every single one of them should be proud of their franchise quarterback for his guts.
Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly and Clay Matthews – Green Bay didn’t do a good job stopping the passing game, but they completely shut down Adrian Peterson and it was largely thanks to these three. Pickett and Jolly did a great job of stacking the line and getting a push. Clay Matthews only had 3 tackles, but I love to see young players who have great gap control. Matthews doesn’t over pursue and I’ve been hugely impressed. Of course, he also stripped Peterson and ran it back to the house which did him no harm.
Minnesota’s offensive line – Absolutely magnificent in the passing game. I cannot remember Favre taking a single hit on Monday night. On one play, Favre stood in the backfield for almost 8 seconds before releasing the ball, and would have stood there for 8 more if Sidney Rice hadn’t popped open over the middle.
Jared Allen and the Vikings pass rush – The Vikings sacked Rodgers 7 times and if they had been facing a pure pocket passer with no mobility then they may have set an NFL record. Despite having 4.5 sacks on the day, Jared Allen’s most impressive play on the day came on Green Bay’s penultimate drive when he rushed the passer, Rodgers hit Jermichael Finley for 37 yards, and pursued down the field and made the tackle. How can someone have that much of a motor in the 4th quarter after having a game like that? Allen is a freak. When Chris Kluwe had a punt downed at the Green Bay 1 yard line, was there any doubt that there would be a safety? The only surprise was that it took 3 plays.
Donald Lee dropped a pass that hit him in the numbers on 4th down in the endzone with the score at 28-14 to ruin a potential Green Bay comeback. Brad Childress somehow didn’t get the challenge flag out in time when Greg Jennings “caught” a deflected pass on 4th and 3 and then late in the game gave Green Bay hope when with 3:30 on the clock and up 10 Childress called a play action bomb down the field that predictably fell incomplete. What was he playing at? Thankfully, this was all I could complain about in this game. This was a great game despite the fact that Green Bay were never really going to come back. I can’t wait for the Week 8 rematch at Lambeau, and that has nothing to do with Favre.
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