Vikings Win Again, and They Didn't Even Have to Play

Well, the Vikings won this week without ever stepping on the field. Both the Bears and Packers fell this week. And they didn’t just fall, they collapsed and sucked it up against the Cardinals (a so-so team), and the Buccaneers (a terrible team).

The Bears let Kurt Warner come back from a five-interception game (jokingly referred as that week’s best Jake Delhomme impression), to have a five-touchdown game. Meanwhile poor Matt Leinart showed again, that despite two-and-half-years to mature behind Warner, he’s still no better for it. At this rate Warner doesn’t have to worry about losing his job in the near future.

Of course say all you want about Favre, but no quarterback in history has the ability to go out on the field and look like the most awesome guy to ever throw a football and then on other days completely implode. Favre has had one or two incidents of utter implosion, but Warner has him beat. In fact ,Warner has the ability to look awesome and terrible at the same time! Last year, in the Cardinals game where Favre threw six touchdowns, Warner had something like five turnovers yet still directed four second-half touchdowns and had nearly 400 or over 400 yards passing.

I don’t think I even have to say anything about the Packers’ loss—that speaks for itself. So, by and by the Vikings had a huge win this week without even playing; heck, they don’t need to these days. So here is the fallout as I see it:

Seems that this is the straw that broke the camel's back for most Packers’ fans. At least it would appear that way from the online reaction to this latest loss to a winless team.

I am seeing on a large scale, fans that formerly were still standing by Ted Thompson, now ready to lose it and get a fresh start with new management. Possibly with Mike Holmgren, who expressed interest in managing a football franchise in the future when he retired from coaching.

Of course it's also Mark Murphy, the guy that insulted Brett Favre by attempting to bribe him to stay retired after Thompson pressured him out in 2007. All this drama goes back years though. Packers’ fans should be upset at the run they could have had without Thompson's strange and inept leadership style.

His first act was to get rid of Pro-Bowl guards Wahle and Rivera, which led Favre to get the crap sacked out of him the next few seasons (Thompson's subtle way of trying to end the legend's career?). Looking back, I am still shocked Favre survived those years, might be why we won't see the 49-year-old Favre flicking touchdown passes.

Then he blew a first-round draft pick on Rodgers, a great quarterback but a move made way too prematurely. Thompson jumped the gun on moving to a post-Favre era.

Then, of course, there is the way they completely ignored the various attempts Favre made to get them to use free agency to put together a ready-made veteran team to make a run for his last few seasons. That's the ultimate disrespect in my mind. It was selfish, yes, but Favre deserved it. He deserved his chance to lead a good team to some Super Bowls. Heck he shared an agent with Randy Moss, it doesn't take a genius to know he had some inside dealings and knew Moss would have liked to go to Green Bay.

And what does Thompson do? Effectively gives Brett Favre a big F.U. and skips getting the one-and-only Randy Moss, so he could draft another one of his hopeless second-string talents with a fourth-round draft pick.

I just want Packers fans to imagine it: A fantastic two-to-three year run with maybe a pair of Super Bowls.

Teams collapse. That's pro football. But in the NFL you make your run at what you can get now, and if you can get that kind of team you go for it. You don't say, "Oh, I think I'll skip those two Super Bowl runs so I can build up for five seasons from now." Rebuilding is a great medicine, but it’s a bitter medicine and only taken in desperation. Thompson started rebuilding from scratch instead of working to put the finishing touches on a veteran Super Bowl team for the then and the now.

That’s why I found Mark Murphy’s statements about being annoyed with Favre’s constant attempts at team management and trying to give input so funny. Favre obviously knows what he’s talking about, the Vikings have found out that having him on a team is the closest you can get to having a coach out on the field directing things as he plays. I can’t think of any NFL player that can read offenses and defenses better than Favre, nor one that can pick up sacks or call audibles as well. When he retires I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come back and start coaching a team, he has the knowledge and the leadership and the drive to do it and he has always done it on the teams he plays for.

So, in hindsight, the Packers probably would have been better off letting Favre work with the management in building the team up, after all this was the guy leading it. They’d have almost certainly had a much stronger run these last few years.

What's more is that it appears that Thompson's choices for rebuilding have done absolutely nothing to help the team. It's four years in and this Packers team is still utterly lacking depth at the lines, despite a multitude of talent at linebacker, corner, receiver, and quarterback. And it becomes constantly more apparent this is not a well-coached team, which also goes back to Thompson.

Now, to briefly dive into the Favre controversy, there are certain undeniable talents he has that Rodgers doesn't. One is his frankly unparalleled pocket presence. As some Green Bay players, (or might have been coaches), said after the last game, they avoided most blitzes because of Adrian Peterson, but they still mixed in a few.

Only the thing was, Favre caught them and redirected blocking, one player was literally saying it was like he had a sixth sense, they weren't even showing the blitz yet and he would be pointing out blocking to the line so that they would pick it up.

Of course the Vikings don't do anything special to get their sacks, Frazier rarely puts heavy blitzes in, they get most of them with their D-line, which is unarguably the best in the NFL. I mean name me a line comparable to Kevin Williams, Pat Williams, Ray Edwards, and Jared Allen.

But Rodgers is a great quarterback. His coaches just aren't providing him with a system to avoid these sacks.

It's like McCarthy really doesn't learn anything from these losses. He makes no adjustment to his system, he keeps moving ahead like eventually he’ll force his offensive line to suddenly become a Pro-Bowl protection unit. He doesn’t provide the short-outs and screens to relieve the pressure; he doesn’t provide the receiver and the route that Rodgers can just dump a ball away to if pressure is heavy.

Their offense works astonishingly well when those center-field slants and flies and in-and-outs have time and that deep group of speedy receivers spreads out a defense and Rodgers threads the ball where it needs to go. But the big point is that defenses catch on to that and they’ll just continue to add more and more pressure to shut down the passing at its source.

They know, quite frankly, with that group and Rodgers' accuracy, they can't beat the offense down the field. The Vikings have short throw-away guys; Favre can throw lots of screen options or hit Percy Harvin for a quick pass to get rid of the ball.

The biggest difference it seems is that McCarthy has refused to develop a short passing game to deal with high-pressure instances, which is a huge blunder; he just can’t do that, his line is not good enough and that is a fault of the coaching staff.

I actually see a huge improvement in Aaron Rodgers this year. He’s working more to find receivers, he’s looking for second and third progressions, he’s not as completely dependent on Donald Driver as he was last year, progress is being made.

Now, he still doesn’t make use of Greg Jennings like Favre did for years, and he doesn’t have the same pocket presence. That’s obvious. Favre managed with virtually the same line two years ago.The reason is he’s neither as fast at whipping along his progressions as Favre is, nor he is as good as Favre is at pulling out a quick and convincing pump-fake ,and then with that extra second spinning around and finding the open crease.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Rodgers' has the talent, the one thing I don't see in him yet is the leadership, that ability to overcome adversity and pull out signature victories, which seems to be Favre's strong point.

Though a full comparison between the two of them deserves an extensive article comparing them, and comparing when Favre had his weakest years and why, and what Favre could have done had he been a Peyton Manning or Brady or Brees, constantly surrounded by that much talent on both sides of the ball (Marques Colston by the way is perhaps the biggest steal ever out of a draft, gotta hand it to the Saints for going out and finding the players they need, Bush, Sharper, Brees, Colston, etc).

As it is the Vikings won this week and they didn’t even have to play.

That whole team must be happy to see their two main division opponents implode, both falling to 4-4, and both looking utterly awful. Meanwhile they got a godsend in this perfectly placed mid-season bye-week, giving Berrian, Harvin, Favre, and Winfield time to recover and lick their wounds.

Now they get to come out the stall kicking and making a major statement as they have a trio of home games against the horrible Lions, the slightly better Seahawks, and the mediocre Bears.

Favre’s record in home games is one of the best in NFL history, and the Vikings have played far better at home than they have on the road. That crucial three-game streak is what they get to focus on now.

They get to put up huge numbers, prop themselves up as the major contenders this year, and then be ready to make a possible run at 15-1, with the Bengals being the only dangerous challenge they face and they get to face them at home.

It has been a perfect year so far. The Vikings have definitely done good to keep Favre fresh and as the chemistry has grown stronger the sacks have grown less frequent and the team has looked better. Favre looks really comfortable and natural wearing purple, sitting in that pocket changing around blocking, calling audibles. Even Berrian, behind the game in getting incorporated into this offense, despite being its best speed threat down the field, is starting to get back into the flow.

Most importantly, he seems to have the respect from these players now as a team leader. They are playing as a team. There's no locker-room tensions or unhappiness like with the Jets, where neither side ever wanted to be with each other. Even the other QBs don’t seem to have any resentment. Favre called Jackson T-Jack when talking about almost not starting during the Green Bay game. If anything Jackson is getting an opportunity to develop his abilities, he’s getting the chance to get more experience before stepping up to the big time. They’re not only playing as a team, people are really having fun and beyond respect, Favre is actually getting along and having fun with these guys (Peterson, Harvin, and Rice) and that’s possibly the most important thing in football.

We’ll see how well they roll out of the gates into the second half of the season, but don’t be surprised to see domination. They could have beaten the Steelers, only two improbable defensive miracles in a row stopped them. As long as they don’t make those mistakes and find ways to punch the ball in more, they’ll be unstoppable, as they finally succeeded in shutting down a strong offense late in the game during that game.

At this rate, the Vikings will be talking about picking up Terrell Owens at the end of the season and setting up an even more potent passing attack for Favre next year, if, as Wyglif thinks he will, he comes back for his best John Elway impersonation (except Elway wasn’t playing this well at the end of his career). 

What’s more is I’m happy Favre’s came back this season. It helped me come across the single funniest football quip I’ve ever seen, (hopefully you guys agree with me), When a few weeks ago someone stated, “The City of Green Bay doesn’t own the Packers anymore, Jared Allen does.”

Oh, and Favre will be mailing Ted Thompson the news stories when he wins a fourth MVP award, along with an autograph.