Well that was interesting, and if you're a Packer fan, very frustrating. In beating our Packers Favre played like he was twenty-nine instead of thirty-nine, and I'm afraid, once again raised the question as to just why Thompson and McCarthy were so eager to make this Hall of Fame quarterback leave town. Yeah, I know, Favre was waffling about retiring, and he kept changing his mind, but really in the grand scope of trying to build a winning football team with the best personnel possible, how much a of problem was that? Other elite players have caused more numerous and much more serious problems for other teams than Favre not being able to decide if he really wanted to stay home come September. I mean TT and MM are supposed to be experts on evaluating the skills, talent and ability in football players right? So why didn't they think that after a near Super Bowl year that Favre could not still produce better than Rodgers? In the past season and a quarter Favre is 13 -5 while Rodgers and our Packers are 8 -10, this after Favre led us to that 14-4 season, including 1-1 in the playoffs that was just three points away from another Super Bowl. As it now stands Thompson's trading of Favre to the Jets ranks right down there on the all-time stupid list of sporting trades just a notch above the Cubs once trading Lou Brock for… who? Anyone… anyone?*

To further emphasize this question of dumping a star quarterback, one of the more interesting stats that were shown by ESPN during the game was the struggle of NFL teams in finding a competent QB replacement after riding high with a long term Hall of Famer. The list includes Miami's Marino, the 49'ers Young, and Denver's Elway, all of those teams are still looking. Of course any of us who are old enough can remember that epic, Homeric 21-year odyssey of frustration in finding an All Pro winning replacement quarterback between Bart Starr's retirement in 1971, at the ripe old age of 37, and the emergence of Favre in '92. While there were flashes of hope with Dickey and a short lived Magic, it was a long exasperating journey to say the least. Now we have Rodgers who also shows flashes of hope but is still losing and at the rate he is being bounced around by opposing defenses may not live long enough to lead us to any playoff successes. Top quality QB's are rare. Of the current 32 NFL teams there still remains only a handful of QB's who continually make a difference in every game, and unfortunately for the Packers Favre is still one of them. If you have any questions about how hard it is to find that outstanding, year after year, win producing quarterback sensation, ask a Bears' fan.

By the way, is any one else tired of hearing Ron Jaworski babble on MNF? Oh well, at least he's not Tony Kornheiser.

Last night's game was a prime example of just how awful the sports' media can hype what was really just a regular season football game between two good conference rivals. The part of 'between two good conference rivals' should have been enough to stimulate a fan's interest without all of the unnecessary and overblown drama of Favre against his old team and visa versa. Despite all of the hype revolving around Favre, going into the game it was duly noted that in order to win this game the Packers main task was to stop the Vikings' running game, i.e. Adrian Peterson. The Packers admirably accomplished this daunting task, as Peterson was held to a respectable 55 yards on 25 carries while the Vikes only managed a mere total of 63 rushing yards.

Now admit it, if someone had told you before the game started that the Packers would hold Peterson and the Vikings to just 63 total rushing yards, and a rookie linebacker for the Packers would strip Peterson of the ball and return it for a touchdown, you would have bet the house on a Green Bay victory. With rushing stats like this and an "old man" at quarterback you would have been right to assume that the Packers should have run away with the game. After all, the book on Favre is that supposedly he can't throw the deep ball anymore. But you would have lost the house because that somebody didn't tell you that old man Favre was still more than able to accurately wing that ball downfield, or about the Packer's 2 costly turnovers, 7 penalties, ineptitude inside the twenty yard line and their 8, count 'em, EIGHT sacks! For the love of sausage on a stick will somebody please learn how to block somebody and will Rodgers please learn how to throw a pass away for a mere loss of a down!

Excuse me, I didn't mean to shout…

In my last post concerning the Packers first two games of this season I mentioned that I believed Rodgers' sack problems was not all due to his offensive, offensive line. As in Rodgers has a tendency to hold onto the ball too long. At the end of those first two games he already had a pitiful sack ratio of 1 sack for every 6.7 attempts. After two more games, including one against the lowly Rams, a team that many perceive is currently the worst team in the NFL, Rodgers now has a sickening sack ratio of 1 sack for every 6.35 attempts. Rodgers and the offensive line are getting worse instead of better. After just four games Rodgers is only 14 sacks away from his total for the entire 2008 season and is averaging one more sack per game than Houston's David Carr when that QB set the season record for being sacked at an incredible, and death defying, rate of 76 times in 2002. At this rate Rodgers is in line to hold his first dubious QB record of being sacked 80 times in a single season. Injuries to offensive linemen or not this sack ratio is unacceptable in a team that was supposed to be in contention for the NFC North Title.

So what's better, MNF's opening with Hank, Jr. or NBC's Sunday Night opening with Faith Hill? If you said Hank, Jr., you could be a Niners' fan.

Just kidding.

As outstanding as the Packers defense executed against the Vikings' rushing game they are lucky that they were not executed for how they played against the pass. No sacks for one thing and with very few pressures or knockdowns. For another, Favre pretty much threw that old pigskin to wherever and whomever he pleased, all night long. Third downs meant nothing as the Vikings just kept converting them into first downs, what was it, something eight or nine third down conversions in a row? I lost count. On the first scoring drive the Packers' defense gave up almost as many penalty yards as the Vikings' gained on their own. However in this modern day game of constant trash talk and macho idiocy I would like to know what on earth Chillar could have said to Peterson that would result in a taunting penalty? Perhaps the ref who was standing nearby and made the call just isn't used to hearing somebody talk bad about somebody else's mama?

So if by mid-season Rodgers has not developed on his own that "clock in his head" that everybody keeps talking about, can it be surgically implanted, and if so how many weeks will Rodgers be on the disabled list?

As with the first two games of this season the Packers best half was the first half, yet because of penalties, mistakes, sacks and turnovers they still had only one offensive TD. Likewise the opposing teams' best halves against the Packers have been the second half in all four games. The Packers just don't seem to make the necessary adjustments at halftime, while the opposing teams seem to come up with new ideas or the necessary adjustments. Of course this falls on McCarthy who seems to have the mindset that no matter what, he will stick to the game plan that they have devised that week in practice. In his mind if he thinks it should work than by golly it will work! The trouble is it isn't working, at least after halftime when the opposing coaches can make their adjustments.

On the bright side the defense did stop the best back in football, the Packers never did give up, it is always a pleasure to watch Donald Driver play and you can see flashes of the potential in Ryan Grant. If we could only just get a big lead and hand him the ball… ah well.

The stupidest thing that I saw Monday night was an advertisement for a white and purple Vikings' football complete with a Leroy Neiman style picture of Favre by the famous artist, Inever Herdofhimbfore painted on one side of the ball. On the other side was a list of all of Favre's accomplishments in purple print on a white background. Of course all of Favre's accomplishments, such as division and conference titles along with his Super Bowl victory, were all accomplished at Green Bay. So what in the wide world of sports would lead anyone to believe that any Vikings or Packers' fans would ever want this bastardized football? I sure hope those footballs taste good with a little A-1 cause somebody is going to have to eat a bunch of them.

Any of you are reading this please note that I am not giving up on the Packers' season. We have a long way to go. I just hope Rodgers and Company stop adding that extra sack yardage to make it less longer than it needs to be. Unfortunately, the way  this season has been progressing an 8-8 season record might be all we can hope for. If that is the case I wouldn't be a bit surprised if McCarthy and Thompson weren't the next two guys to be unceremoniously booted out of town.

God Bless America

Go Pack Go

Semper Fi,
Mike

* Pitcher Ernie Broglio (June 15, 1964)

"Copyright 2009.  Michael E. Tank   All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author."