INSTANT CLASSIC

Vikings Slip past Pack; Rematch Next Week in Lambeau

 

Wow. In a season full of goofy calls, bad breaks, high drama and anything else imaginable the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings played one of the most exciting and thrilling games they’ve ever managed to muster between them and it may have been the best game in the NFL this year as the Vikings upended the Packers 37 -34 on rookie K Blair Walsh’s 39 yard field goal as time expired.

To call this game a great game is to do the players who played it a disservice. The fact that the Pack lost was almost moot; the quality of the game and level of effort by the players from both teams has seldom been seen in a regular season game.

The game played was an instant classic.

Granted, much was riding on the outcome of this game. Green Bay was playing for the #2 seed and a first round bye while the Vikings were in utter desperation mode. The Vikes needed a win and nothing else to make the playoffs, a prospect that looked as likely as a heat wave in January in Minneapolis just a few short weeks ago when the Chicago Bears held the hammer. There was no scenario where what some other team did that would help Minnesota, it was on their own shoulders to determine when their post season began. A loss and the Bears would slide back into the playoffs after an epic second half collapse.

To add to the in game drama All Universe RB Adrian Peterson was chasing immortality and needed 208 yards to break Eric Dickerson’s all time record. The TV’s were also crowded in Chicago as every Bears fan was forced to do the unthinkable by rooting for the Packers. The Bears got their win earlier in the day knocking off the defenseless and clueless Detroit Lions then repaired quickly to watch the biggie of the day (all apologies to the Washington/ Dallas tilt that saw the ‘Skins advance to the playoffs).

The Vikings opened fast and looked like they caught the Packers flat footed and unprepared to play and make a full effort. Peterson was his usual stellar self but the Packers also used a gang tackling approach to try to bring the bull down. With Peterson’s combination of speed and strength perhaps no other player outside of Earl Campbell has been able to be compared to the great Jim Brown but Peterson belongs in the equation. While Peterson would fall a tantalizing 9 yards short of the record he ran the Vikings into the playoffs with a 199 yard day. In a passing league the Vikings are a true throwback – a running team that uses the run to set up the pass.

The only flaw in the design is 2^nd year QB Christian Ponder has not exactly driven fear into the hearts of opposing defense yet. Ponder has a big arm, an arm that was hurt in his senior year in college and has taken time to come around. His QB rating of 78.3 coming into the game ranked him very close to the bottom of starting QB’s. Dom Capers had the right idea in trying to limit Peterson’s damage and forcing Ponder into passing, a ploy meant to help the Pack.

Ponder responded with his best game in his young career. Ponder looked far more comfortable than the wide eyed rook the Packers have faced. In the big stat department Green Bay’s defense did their part in creating down-and-distance situations that put Minnesota into several 3^rd and long spots. Somehow the Vikings made hay when it was needed. Ponder’s throws to the side of the field were money and when faced with a 2nd and 27 Peterson tore off a 28 yard run. Ponder showed the poise of a veteran when he found an all alone Michael Jenkins on the sidelines in the Vikings last drive to pick up 25 yards and a huge first down as the Packers inexplicably lost him in an 8 man zone coverage when every knew the ball would be thrown.

Rookie CB Casey Hayward has been huge all year for Green Bay but on this play Hayward lost his zone. As slot CB Sam Shields took Jerome Simpson through the middle of the field Hayward’s job in the zone was to cover the flat and out area if there was no route underneath. “Inexcusable” was the word used by Mike McCarthy on the blown coverage and when the coaches get the film and hand out grades young Hayward will hear about it. Jenkins was so wide open even Jay Cutler would have been able to hit him with a pass. It was a rookie mistake and one the talented Hayward can use in his development.

Singular plays do not define winning and losing. After the Vikings worked the frenzied crowd in the Metrodome with an early lead the Packers countered with their own money man Aaron Rodgers. In a game of anything you can do I can do better it was a monster match between Rodgers and Peterson. Rodgers had another huge day in throwing for 365 yards, 4 TD’s with no interceptions. His fumble when he was hit from the blind side but DE Brian Robison set up a Minnesota TD after Packer rookie RT Don Barclay lost Robison.

Barclay had a rough day and will need to break down the film in the upcoming week to improve. Robison played the young rookie with a combination of bull rushes, swim moves and flat out speed to make Rodgers uncomfortable in the pocket. But Rodgers himself is no mere mortal when the behemoths of the defensive line are in his face. Rodgers uncanny ability to look beyond the rush to spot an open receiver is his greatest unseen strength and allows him to play fearlessly. His bomb to Jordy Nelson signaled Nelson’s return to the lineup form a hamstring injury and paved the way for a short toss to Greg Jennings who looks to be rounding back into form.

Jennings would go on to have a great day hauling in 8 balls for 120 yards and 2 TD’s. In the bizzaro category though Jennings also caught a short flip from Rodgers and had it, then lost, regained it and in the end somehow the ball looked as if it was being pulled away by some invisible force. Jennings stared agonizingly at his hands but made up for it later when Rodgers scrambled to his right, caught Jennings’ eye and motioned him into an open area in the end zone where Rodgers delivered a perfect strike, one that Jennings grabbed like a drowning man grabs a life preserver, and hung on for 6.

Jermichael Finley also had 8 catches that picked up 72 yards, many on key plays to extend drives. When the Vikings opened up a 20- 7 lead going into the half. But Rodgers led another drive, moving the Pack from their own 20 to the Minnesota 33 and the beleaguered Mason Crosby was called upon for a pressure field goal try from 51 yards. Crosby has been the victim of a horrendously cruel cold streak and has been vilified throughout the NFL. Perhaps no one felt more pressure than Crosby when he lined up as the Packers’ fans turned their eyes away expecting the worst.

It was all for naught; Crosby was money drilling the ball right down the middle with nary a waver on a kick that would have been good from 65 yards. The relief on Crosby’s face was also reflected by Mike McCarthy and the rest of the Packers. They know they’ll need Crosby over the next month and if Crosby, who went 2 for 2 on the day, has finally found his stroke it will only make McCarthy more confident in sending him out.

Breakout season star Randall Cobb sat out the game with a knee and ankle injury and the kick returning duties were handled by newcomer Jeremy Ross, a late season PS pickup from the Indianapolis Colts. Whoever is returning kicks in Indy has to be pretty darn good because Ross was, in a word, spectacular with his jaunts. Ross broke a kickoff for 44 yards and only a shoestring tackle by Walsh saved a touchdown. Ross was equally brilliant on punt returns averaging 20.5/ return setting up an interesting dilemma for McCarthy in next Saturday’s playoff rematch with Minnesota. Does he reinsert Cobb in the lineup as a return man risking injury to a player who has become a key component in the offense or does he trot out a rookie who had a terrific game and showed some moxie but has exactly zero playoff games under his belt. This debate will make the rounds over the water cooler throughout the week.

The Packers roared back in the second half behind Rodgers’ arm and the surprise running from another veritable unknown in RB DuJuan Harris. Harris carried the ball 14 times for 70 yards showing explosive bursts through the holes and speed the Packers backs have not seen since Ahman Green. McCarthy has maintained he will go with whoever is hot, a sort of running back by committee approach. Ryan Grant had 2 yards on 2 carries and when Harris came in he showed poise in his runs. Built low to the ground at a generous 5’8” Harris gets so low it made him a difficult target to bring down. Harris’ running made Rodgers’ passing all that much more effective.

The game also featured a few tense moments for the officiating crew. Early in the game Peterson looked to have fumbled the ball but after review it was seen that his knee was down prior to losing the ball on the ground. Barely. That early play came back once again in the 3^rd quarter. After Rodgers hit Nelson on a 73 yard bomb NFL leader in receiving touchdowns James Jones caught a pass on traffic at the 2, spun and stretched out and as his hand hit the ground the ball squirted free and the Vikings jumped on it sending the Dome into orbit. Many Packers were screaming that Jones’ hand hit the goal line and it should have been ruled a touchdown.

Then it got strange… very strange.

McCarthy ran 5 yards out onto the field and heaved the red challenge flag as far as he could. As the red hanky hit the ground Nelson grabbed it on the first bounce and tried to stuff it under his jersey as Rodgers came sprinting, jumping, and screaming at his coach for throwing the flag. By rule all scoring plays and turnovers are automatically reviewed. Any coach who attempts to challenge prior to the review process gets a double whammy – the team not only draws a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty they also lose the review. Rodgers and Nelson knew the situation better than their coach and knew how devastating the challenge could be.

McCarthy had an earlier situation this year when he did the exact same thing and was penalized and lost the review. Referee Mike Carey and his crew were under fire all day, especially from Rodgers who was seen yelling about the tortoise-like pace with which the officials were spotting the ball when he wanted to go to the hurry up offense. Carey went under the hood as the Vikings, notably Jared Allen and head coach Leslie Frasier were seen yelling that the officials couldn’t review the play after the challenge flag was thrown.

In a season that has seen its share of convoluted calls, blown calls and flat out awful calls when Carey reappeared the Packers braced themselves for the worst. Did McCarthy’s challenge negate the review? Was Jones’ knee down? Did the ball cross the plane of the goal? Was it a touchdown? A fumble? A penalty? Whose ball is it and where???

No one could excuse Carey if he ran out of the stadium at that point. Even the boisterous purple clad denizens of the Metrodome were stilled to a silence when Carey returned to the field, turned on his mike, and then…

Paused. Just enough for effect as the fate of not just the Packers and Vikings but Bears hung in the strained balance.

As Carey fumbled over his words his first ruling was that he had received a signal via a buzzer he wears that the play would automatically be reviewed which came prior to the act of McCarthy’s ill-advised challenge. He then correctly ruled Jones was down and the ball was over the goal, thus a Packer touchdown but also that a 15 yard penalty would be enforced on the kickoff.

As the Vikings and their faithful howled in protest the Packers breathed easier.

From that point the game became an old-fashioned NFC North slugfest between two heavyweights throwing haymakers in the center of the ring. Ponder was sharp in guiding the Vikings back into the lead after the Packers tied it up on a drive that was aided tremendously when veteran CB Tramon Williams lost his cool and his head an took an awful away from the play hands to the face penalty against Michael Jenkins as the Packer D rose to stop the Vikings short of the goal line. But Rodgers was even better marching the Packers down the field to know the game at 34 when he found Jordy Nelson in the end zone with 2:54 left.

Ponder’s poise, once a significant minus for Minny, grew and the Vikings will now be a force to reckon with come Saturday night. Ponder guided Minnesota into field goal range for super-legged Blair Walsh who finally ended the classic with no time on the clock. If there is a silver lining to a loss such as this it is in knowing that the Packers will keep on playing while the Bears are sent packing for the year.

For their efforts Green Bay and Minnesota get to do it all again on Saturday night, only this time it will be in Lambeau Field and not in the comfort of a fast track Dome. Home field is truly an advantage for each team and is good for a one touchdown swing. The Packers had the luxury of playing the last game of the year knowing they had a margin for error. Now the real fun begins, and most of the Packers have already been there. Minnesota my just spent themselves in this war of attrition and Peterson may find the footing much more treacherous than the dry Dome home.

For their part the Packers will need to start much faster than they did in Minnesota. Their tackling has to get better or it will be another short playoff. One other area of concern on the defense was the inability to shut the Vikings down on 3^rd and long situations. Ponder’s grip on the ball could be far more tenuous outside and if Rodgers can get his offense untracked earlier it could force the Vikings into trying to match the Pack point for point.

The Pack also lost rookie DT Jerel Worthy to what appeared to be a knee injury late in the game. WR Jarrett Boykin made a catch to extend a drive but as he was peeled over backwards his knee and ankle were also injured. Clay Matthews also had a moment that shook the Packers. As Matthews chased down a run away from him with his blazing speed he leapt to make the tackle, grabbed on and landed hard enough on his back to warrant being helped from the field. While Worthy and Boykin will most likely be out Matthews’ injury will not keep him from the rematch in round one, good news for the Green Bay faithful.

While the Vikings have improved the difference between a qualifier and the actual playoffs will be enormous and too much to overcome. For Green Bay it was a painful lesson, but one from which they can rebound. The Packer coaching staff will break the film down and show the plays, missed assignments and tackles as well as the lack of discipline and they will light the fire under a few backsides on defense.

Stopping Peterson is all but impossible. Containing him better is possible however. The Packers defense forced Minnesota into the down and distance situations they wanted but did not seal the deal when needed. That is an area where improvement will be needed. The tackling has to get better as well. For the offense they put enough points up on the board to win. While the Vikings can no longer be discounted their sense of urgency will be tough to resurrect on 6 days’ rest. Yes… the Vikings made the playoffs.

But the Packers will be the team that moves on. Experience will carry the day and in Lambeau the 7 point swing goes the other way in favor of the Packers.

 

 

 

 GREEN BAY  27  

 

 

 

 

 

 Minnesota  13