A bounce here and a bounce there

Chalk this one up as another game where if you change just one play the Vikings get a W.

• Detroit - FG hits the upright
• Kansas City - botched TD call by the refs gives Chiefs a W

Green Bay this week, I'm telling you IF...

• Purple Jesus would have rushed for 200 more yards
• Bollinger would have hit open receivers
• Childress called a better game
• the Defense didn't go into hybernation
• and if Brett Favre wasn't a tool

We would have killed the Packers. It is at times like these that I can't help but echo the sentiments of Redskins LB, Randall Godfrey...

"That was blatant disrespect. I hope we can see them again, definitely."

That's right I can't wait to see the Packers in the playoffs (if they even make it)! We'll show them!

On a side note be sure to post your best caption on The Nose Bleed's Blog.

GRADES

Offense (F) - playcalling, execution, blame whoever you want but the KAO is bad, the game plan was bad and the players asked to execute it were bad.

What bothers me most is the mind set. Other teams face the Vikings and come up with a gameplan that is intended to exploit our defensive weaknesses. Green Bay came in with screens, draws, shovel passes and spread formations to exploit our pass defense and make it hard for our LBs to get to Favre. It worked great.

What the KAO does is run our stuff and run it over and over and over again. If the opposing defense stops it, we keep running it. This works great when the other defense can't stop us (see San Diego and Chicago games). But it is awful when the other defense thinks to stop Purple Jesus. When they do that we seem to be unable to adjust and come up with alternative plays that might work.

There are many who are upset that we kept running to the right side of the line. You may recall that we did this in the first Green Bay game as well. Childress commented at that time that we were doing it because the coaching staff thought Kampman often rushed upfield so we could run by him and get PJ into the 2nd level. It really wasn't successful then and it clearly didn't work this week, but did we adjust? Nope. The gameplan said that would work so by golly it is going to work.

Defense (C) - a lot has been made of Ryan Grant getting 100 yards. I'm not too concerned. I didn't see this as a total breakdown on run defense. Grant had 2 plays where there were defensive breakdowns on the first drive. After that he had 77 yards. 2nd half was 13 carries for 27 yards.

I know the defense gave up 34 points and nearly 500 yards, but I pin this loss on the offense. The defense got WAY more camera time than the offense did. Time of possession was doubled in the Packers favor. This defense is designed to give up plays in short yard increments. If teams are capable of putting together a 12 play drive that ends in a TD more power to them, more often than not they'll make a mistake and have to punt. When Brett Favre is managing an excellent gameplan things will be tough on this defense. What would really help is the offense making a first down or two.

Hopefully THIS will make you feel better!