Our Wide Receiver Castle
We Packer fans have maybe be down, but we have our Wide Receiver castle we can take refuge in. Our WRs are better than most teams including our division rivals. The Packer defensive backfield has some talent as well.
This is some solace while seeing the Viking have the NFL's #1 defense against the run. With Adrian Peterson and that OL providing a dangerous rushing attack, I'm a bit green with envy this year. Our journalists tell us that the Vikings will pay later for Hutchinson, Allen, and other free agent signs. I'll believe that when I see them not able to afford to re-sign Peterson.
Remembering the Packers 2005 "salary cap hell" year
What were the ingredients to the Packers overcommitment and what were the consequences? I guess not being able to resign Mike Wahl and maybe Darren Shaper were the main consequences of the Joe Johnson dead-money. I can't recall any significant free agent signings until Ryan Picket and Charles Woodson came on board.
FOX Announcers Pan Viking Hoard in 2Q Silence
So Falcons are up in the 2Q with the two minute warning a play or two away. They are ahead 14-7. Falcons have the ball. Peterson has fumbled twice, but before that the Viking fans were only reacting to good plays by the Vikings. There was almost no unprovoked crowd energy one would expect in for a team than needs to win to clinch the division. As much as I covet some of their players, I could never feel comfortable in Purple.
Luck of the Falcons
Falcon Rookie QB, Matt Ryan is 11-18 for 109 yards. You would think the Michael Vick implosion would take that team down for a few years. Nope. Despite what we hear from the Packers press corp about the worst time to be looking for a QB is when you don't have one, the Falcons came up golden right away. That's no knock on Aaron Rodgers, but it is a knock on Ted Thompson's "time bomb pick" of Rodgers that ended up putting Thompson in his "uncomfortable position" last spring.
Dangerous Chicago Cold
I don't think it will matter to Packer fans if they win or lose at Soldier Field Monday night. But there will be a lot of heat on Thompson and McCarthy if the team looks cold and loses bad. You can see that subtext developing in the J/S with comments about the Bears practicing outside on their heated field earlier this week and the Packers staying inside with the doors of the Hutson Center closed. There's a little bit of fan desire to punish guys who can't pick up 3rd & 1 and 4th & 1 situations by "toughening them up".
That's to say, if you are going to be a losing Packer squad, at least live up to the Packers' cold weather tradition. I am most concerned about the Packer OL & DL guys losing the physical battle. When that happened last year at Soldier Field and later in the NFC Championship, it started with the opponents laying the wood while the Packers finessed some plays. But as the cold and the beating both took their tolls, the beatings came at the point of attack, and the finesse choked in the cold as it often does. That's pretty much the lesson of December and it's looking increasing incompatible with the Zone Blocking Scheme's lighter guards.
Another Viking Fumble in the 3Q
Could there be some kind of Bud Grant curse on the Vikings for lossing 4 Super Bowls? Vikings take over from their 20 with 9 minutes left in the 3rd Q. They need to get points on this drive.
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