Browse Our Site
|
By The Jazzy One on November 2nd, 2009
Just some notes on the Vikings stats
-In two games against the Packers, Rogers has been sacked 14 times, and Favre hasn’t been sacked at all.
-In two games against the Packers, Favre threw for 515 yards, 7 touchdowns, and no interceptions.
-Only 4 guys in the NFL (not counting Jared Allen) have more sacks on the entire season than Allen has in two games against Green Bay (7.5).
-Three of those four men mentioned above only have half a sack more (8.0 total).
-There are 7 teams in the NFL that have less team sacks so far this season than Minnesota has against Green Bay (14).
-There are 3 more teams that are tied with that number mentioned above .
-Jared Allen by himself has more sacks against Aaron Rogers and the Packers than the Jacksonville Jaguars have had all year so far.
-There are 8 teams in the league that have less touchdown passes on the season than Brett Favre did in two games against Green Bay.
By The Jazzy One on November 2nd, 2009
The Vikings are 7-1 heading into the bye week!
Brett Favre and the Vikings headed to Lambeau field in Green Bay on Sunday to face their division rivals, the Green Bay Packers. A loss for the Vikings would’ve brought the Packers a half game away from first place in the NFC North, and it would’ve taken away an important tie-breaker for the Vikings. A win, on the other hand, would push the Packers farther away from the top of the North, and give the Vikings a sweep in the series this year. The Vikings were able to pull through, and they defeated Green Bay 38-26.
Of course, it was a big win for Favre, too. When Favre played the Packers in week 4, he was facing his old team for the first time, and he set a record as he became the first NFL quarterback to have beaten all 32 NFL teams. This time, he was facing his old fans in Green Bay for the first time, and he again made the record books as he tied Dan Marino for the most 4+ TD games by a quarterback in his career with 21.
Our defense played amazing… in the first half.
Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. The Minnesota Vikings defense played a great first half, even without Antoine Winfield. The Vikings held the Packers to 47 yards in the first half. They were putting pressure on Rogers, covering receivers well, and stopping the run.
But then came the third quarter… all of a sudden, the Packers made an some adjustments, and Rogers started getting rid of the ball quickly…. and the Vikings had no answers. Worse than that, through the third quarter and half way into the fourth, the Vikings forgot how to make tackles. Karl Paymah made some bad plays to make sure we remembered why we missed Winfield so much… but even guys like Chad Greenway who are excellent open field tacklers seemed to forget how to wrap a guy up. Once again, the Vikings took what should’ve been an easy win and made their fans sweat it for a while.
The Vikings made stupid mistakes for the second week in a row.
I have no idea what John Sullivan was thinking when he snapped the ball as Favre was busy making adjustments. Luckily, the Vikings defense played a very very strong series and held the Packers to a field goal. Sullivan needs to take everyone who played defense on that series out to a steak dinner. That was a costly error that could’ve been even worse.
And the special teams coach needs to be telling his guys… if they squib a kick, and you usually play on the defensive line… let someone else take it. I am a HUGE Brian Robison fan, and I think he’s a great D-Lineman, but he obviously shouldn’t be returning kicks. If he was so determined to take the ball, he should’ve at least fell on it and just laid on the ground waiting to be hit. That mistake cost the Vikings 7 points, and was almost a momentum turner.
Brett Favre has the Packers number
Now onto the good…
Favre played great football again against the Packers. 17 for 28, 244 yards, 4 touchdowns, no interceptions. I’ll admit that before the week 4 game I was a little concerned that “Cowboy Favre” would want to come out and show up Green Bay. Instead we got a solid veteran quarterback who knows how to move the ball, knows how to create points, and knows how to win ballgames. He connected on passes to 7 different receivers, and had a 44 yard pass to Peterson and a 51 yard pass to Harvin.
Here’s an interesting note… Brett Favre is actually tied for #1 in touchdown passes this year with 16. Only 3 current starters have less interceptions that Favre (McNabb, Orton, and Rogers)
The Vikings defensive line is great… especially against the Packers.
The Vikings defense had 6 sacks against Green Bay. 3 by Jared Allen, 2 by Ray Edwards, and 1 by Pat Williams. The Vikings defense currently leads the NFL with 31 sacks after 8 games.
Percy Harvin is a game changer.
Have the Vikings ever had a kick returner as good as Harvin? He’s a rookie, and after 8 games he has 2 kickoffs returned for TDs, and he has 3 receiving TDs, even though he’s technically the #3 receiver on the depth chart. I don’t even have a count for how many big first downs he has.
His 51 yard TD on Sunday was a great play. Somehow he went up to get the ball with 3 defenders around him. When he made the catch, he looked down and noticed that all 3 of the defenders were laying on the ground, and he just took off. He almost looked shocked that he had so much room to run.
All Shiancoe does is catch touchdowns.
We all thought that Visanthe Shiancoe became an amazing tight end in the last 13 games of the season last year. At the end of the year, he had 7 touchdown catches.
He has 6 already this year. That ties him for second in the NFL in receiving touchdowns, only 1 behind Vernon Davis.
Favre likes his tight ends when he’s in the red zone. Shiancoe is a great target for him to have.
All Peterson does is run for touchdowns
On a similar note, Adrian Peterson had 10 rushing touchdowns last year. After 8 games, he has 9 this year. That puts him in second place in the league, only 1 behind Maruice Jones-Drew.
He’s also currently tied for 2nd in total rushing yards with 784, 40 yards behind league leader Chris Johnson (who is coming off a 228 yard rushing day). He’s tied for 3rd in yards per game with 98.0, behind Cedric Benson and Chris Johnson.
Peterson is currently 39 yards behind the pace he set last year after 8 games, but the team as a whole is averaging 7 more points per game than they were after the same number of games. I think an average of 7 more points per game is worth the 5 yards per game decline in Peterson’s production. I’m sure Adrian would agree.
By The Jazzy One on October 30th, 2009
Brett Favre is going back to Green Bay…. to visit
It’s time for week 8. It’s a huge game for the Vikings, as it’s a road game against a hated division rival. It’s also a huge game for the Vikings’ starting quarterback Brett Favre, who will play as a visitor in Green Bay for the first time ever, after playing about 3 million years as the Packers quarterback.
The Minnesota Vikings at The Green Bay Packers
In Week 4, the Vikings handled the Packers pretty well. The Packers had a chance to comeback at the end, but it would’ve been a miracle, since they were two scores down with time running out. Favre played very well in that game, protecting the ball, but still moving it well for the Vikings.
This time the Packers claim it will be different. Comments and reports from around the league say that their defense will be more prepared for Minnesota this time around. Expect their corners, Harris and Woodson, to play more aggressively against our wide receivers this time around, making it tougher for Favre to find Rice and Berrian open.
It’s still unclear whether or not Antoine Winfield will be playing in this game. The last I heard was that he did not practice today, which is not a good sign. However, I really think if he’s not ready to go, I’d rather him have this week off, especially since next week is the bye week. That way he can play the second half of the season at full strength.
I’ve also read that the Packers will once again be hurting on their offensive line. Last time the Vikings played the Packers, the Vikings defense had a field day, sacking Aaron Rogers 8 times. Jared Allen had 4.5 of those sacks. Don’t be surprised to see them fired up and ready for another shot at Rogers… who by the way is not going to be playing at 100%. He’s been slowed down by injury, and even though he’s expected to play, a lot of people expect him to be at least a little bit limited. The Packers coach says that he won’t be, though. We’ll see how that plays out.
Here are the Viking Ship Keys to Victory:
-The Vikings have to protect the ball
Last week, despite the tough Pittsburgh defense and the numerous penalties, the Vikings still would’ve had a chance to win if it wasn’t for 2 costly turnovers. The Vikings have been awesome so far this year at the turnover ratio. They need to keep that up by creating take-aways, but holding on when they have the ball.
-The Vikings have to clean up the penalties
During the entire preseason, the Vikings were terrible when it came to penalties. They looked very sloppy. Through the first 6 weeks of the season, they seemed to have cleaned a lot of those issues up. Last week was a huge step backwards. The Vikings need to regain their composure and play a disciplined game of football. Green Bay has the ability to move the ball very well. We don’t need to help them out.
-The Vikings need to put huge pressure on Rogers
They did a great job at that during week 4, but it might be even more important this week if Winfield doesn’t play. Sapp, Paymah, and Asher Allen did a decent job filling in last week, but their job will be much easier if Rogers is being tossed around a little bit.
My Prediction
I really expect the Vikings to bounce back after last week’s loss. I predicted at the beginning of the year that the Vikings would split with the Packers, so I wouldn’t be completely shocked if the Packers pulled one out, but I still expect the Vikings to win. I’m going to say 38-27 Vikings in a shootout. 3 sacks by Allen. 155 yards and a TD from Peterson.
By The Jazzy One on October 6th, 2009
The Game Lives Up To The Hype
There was a ton of hype surrounding this game… it is a rivalry game, the Vikings were undefeated, the Packers were 1 game behind in the division, it was a Monday night game, and of course, overshadowing all of that, it was Brett Favre’s first game against the Packers. Would he have something to prove? Would Aaron Rogers feel like he had something to prove?
The game definitely lived up to all of that hype.
Even if you weren’t a fan of the Packers or the Vikings, you would’ve loved this game as a football fan. There were big plays on offense, big plays on defense, and both teams came out to play.
Overall I was very happy about the way the Vikings played. There were some bad points, but there were lots of good points as well. Let’s start with the bad.
The O-Line is not creating holes
This was the main problem of the night. Every time Adrian Peterson touched the ball, it seemed like every gap was filled. He was forced to try to bounce a lot of plays to the outside, and he just wasn’t finding the room. The line needs to figure out what is holding them back and fix it. Quick.
The Defense gave up some big passing plays.
Now, to be fair, the defense played pretty solid most of the game. Aaron Rogers did have a lot of yards, but a large chunk of them came in the 4th quarter when the Vikes were up by 16 and they were playing a prevent defense. Rogers was finding the holes in the dropped back zone and exploiting them. But there was also the big 62 yard TD play in the first half that seemed to find it’s way through the defenders. If the defense could have closed the big play down, they would’ve been close to perfect.
But overall I thought the bad points were minor. The Vikings did some great things last night, too.
Brett Favre played like a champ.
The biggest reason that the Vikings needed a guy like Favre to come in is that they needed someone to be able to throw the team on their shoulders during any game where Peterson was not able to take over. Last night that happened. All-Day was held to 55 yards, so Favre came out and lit up the arena, throwing for a very efficient 24/31 and 271 yards, three touchdowns, and no turnovers. He was nailing the short passes, nailing the mid-range passes, and keeping the defense honest by taking shots down field. He hit passes of 24, 25, 31, and 43, as well as finding the short passes when needed, like the 1 yard TD to Shiancoe. The Vikings are Adrian Peterson’s team, but last night he let Brett Favre borrow the reigns.
The pass rush was fierce
The Packers have had some injury and personnel issues with their offensive line, and I was glad to see the Vikings defense exploit it. They sacked Rogers 8 times, and they hurried him and hit him several more times. Jared Allen was a beast. 4.5 sacks, a forced fumble, and a safety. That’s the best game of his career.
The pass protection was great.
For once Favre had time. The offensive line still hasn’t gelled when it comes to opening holes for Peterson, but Favre was very well protected. After the game Childress said that they really didn’t try anything new. The guys just executed really really well, and that was nice to see. When Favre has time he can pick apart a defense.
Punt coverage was still good.
That’s still the area of the game that I’m concerned about, but the Vikings punted 5 times last night and gave up 0 return yards.
Overall, I think this was the Vikings first big challenge, and I think they stepped up to the plate. Their performance against the Packers gave me confidence in the team when they have to face Baltimore and Pittsburgh in a couple weeks. I can’t say I had that confidence after watching the first 3 games.
SKOL VIKINGS! 4-0
By The Jazzy One on August 26th, 2009
There are some GREAT Minnesota Vikings Blogs out there.
Vikings fans are a lucky bunch. There are lots of great websites out there to get good information and opinions from.
One of my favorites is VikingsGab.com, who put up an article looking today about the Green Bay Packers.
The truth is they may be a real good. Aaron Rodgers had a fantastic year in 2008, essentially stepping into the quarterback role as a rookie in his fourth season and passing for over 4,000 yards and 28 touchdowns to his 13 interceptions. While the team itself wasn’t very good, finishing at 6-10 , the offense was fantastic when led by Rodgers and was surprisingly a top five unit in 2008. With all the main pieces coming back in place, and healthy to boot, there’s no reason why the offense in Wisconsin shouldn’t be able to keep chugging along at a stellar pace.
Read the rest of the article HERE
It’s really all about the defense.
I think the Packers (not the Bears, despite the addition of Cutler) are the team that the Vikings will have to keep an eye on as they defend their NFC North crown. The big question mark will be the defense. Traditionally, teams switching from a 4-4 to a 3-4, like the Packers are this year, take a little while to adjust. If that happens, expect another year like last year for Green Bay… great offense, terrible defense, bad record.
However, if the defense improves from last year at all, their record will, too. Aaron Rogers is a really good quarterback… probably the best in a division with a lot of good quarterbacks.
Brett Favre vs. The Green Bay Packers!
I really can’t wait for week 4 to see the Packers face Brett Favre as a Viking. I have confidence in the Vikings playing at home, and I think they’ll have things clicking by Week 4.
If I wasn’t a fan of either team, though, I still think it’d be a great game… division rivalry, Brett Favre against his old team, Monday Night Football, Adrian Peterson vs. the new Packers defense, Aaron Rogers trying to outdo Favre… all the makings of a classic.
I REALLY can’t wait for week 8 to see Brett Favre go back to Green Bay for the first time. The crowd reaction is going to be something to behold.
|
|
Check Out Our Minnesota Twins Blog!
