Season in trouble....send in Sherman!

By Majikman

We need a new Mike in town...one that will give us the wins we need. Time for some Sherman Action!

Wish The Pack luck today!

Viking Weak

By Majikman

Here's a fun clip for ya proving how awesome Viking fans are.
Watch the love here.

What was that?

By MF

Forgive me for questioning the preparedness of our favorite football team while I'm writing this a day late for being...unprepared. I spent a good deal of yesterday afternoon yelling at my tv and spent the evening yelling at my interweb router.

For the past few years me and the missus have been a one computer household. That one computer being an old Gateway laptop that is somehow kicking even after 3 years of grad school abuse, hundreds of posts and one totally awesome virus that made all the guys at Geek Squad think that I spend a lot of time on "those" types of sites.

So anywho, I set up the new desktop computer to go along with the ancient, cracked laptop and provide some versatility and two computer awesomeness for the whole family. Now when the wife actually has to use the computer for work I don't have to log off the fantasy football site. Also, after swearing that I would never get another Gateway because the cooling fan in these things sounds like a flipping 747 jet engine, I ended up with a Gateway desktop that also has a ridiculously loud and obnoxious cooling fan. Of course the desktop was free.

And of course the new computer shouldn't have caused much of a problem but my router decided that it wasn't doing more work for the same pay and shut down for a while. I then declared war on the router and, after way too much time explaining to Josh at tech support that the dsl modem was fine but the router was not I finally got things rolling again. But by then I was very sleepy.

Anyway, about the game. The Titans are an interesting team. And by "interesting" I mean "completely devoid of interest". They are, undoubtedly, the most average and least impressive 8-0 team I've ever seen. They do nothing exceptionally well (aside from Jeff Fisher's 'stache of course). They just do nothing exceptionally poorly either.

The Packers should have won this game by two touchdowns. I'll take bold and talented any day over solid and average, and the Packers are bold and talented. But there was something missing on game day, something that jumped out as soon as I heard it, and it pretty much sums up this loss for me.

That "something" lead to the bizarre handling of the timeouts late in the game. You remember, the early timeout when the Titans had the ball with a minute and a half to go? That one that should never have been called? Sure, Rob Bironas was kind enough to miss the kick at the end of regulation, but we should have lost at that point and we all know it. All because we gave them an extra timeout.

That "something" also figured into the game plan that seemed to say "Hey Titans, we're gonna give Aaron Rodgers a 2 step drop and then he's all yours" on more than one play. I understand that sometimes the playcall can get away with letting a blitzer come free, but 4 or 5 times a game?

The players seemed to be on the ball, other than a pair of Rodgers' turnovers late in the game and a few dropped INTs by the secondary I thought they came to play. The obvious "something" that lost this one for us? Mike III had a baby a couple of days ago. Apparently he didn't get much sleep because his playcalls, his bizarre drive to "go for it" without any rhythm for the game, his timeout choices, they all seem like something a very, very tired man would do. Or Mike Sherman. He did this stuff all the time. Now he coaches a minor league (college) team.

Coach Mike III, please get some rest.

Sterling Sharpe Commercial

By Majikman

I just got back from the way back machine and I brought this video as a gift. Enjoy.

Now we get to find out what the Williams Wall was made of

By MF

Pat Williams and Kevin Williams, the "Williams Wall" have both been caught taking pills known as masking agents for steroids. A 4 game suspension is likely, once they have a chance at appeal. We know the appeal will fail because the Vikings two specialties have always been losing and cheating. If you had gone with sucking and blowing as their two specialties that also would have been accepted.

Jay Glazer reported the story first for Fox but I prefer the local Minnesota reaction from the Star Tribune. Perhaps my favorite aspect of this is that so many Vikings fans hate Brad Childress as their coach that they're happy this is happening. The assumption being that Brad will lose all 4 games and finally get himself fired.

You can check out the local reaction here. For all of the concerns about Mike III and Teddy T I must say I'm pretty happy with these two when I get to read about the ongoing massacre of common sense that the Vikings braintrust engineers with every decision they make. I honestly think living in a town where the Packers are #1.5 is helpful because if all Packer fans compared our GM and coach to the local 11 they'd have a 100% satisfaction rating.

Pack vs. Colts-Awesome Awards

By Majikman

What a game! Let's break it down to find out what was truly awesome about this game.

Quarterback:
Rodgers was perfect once again. Cool, calm, and totally awesome dude. He plays with pain like Romo has a dumb name.




Receivers:
Come on, these guys were great. But to be super awesome you really got to earn it. If Jennings had 14 touchdowns then I would be impressed.




Running Backs:
This might be a stretch, but finally Grant found the end zone. And he looked a little better, right?





Defense:
Two huge touchdowns for our defense and they shut Manning down. Now if we could just shut off the ugly stick on his face.





Special Teams:
Didn't Crosby miss a field goal and an onside kick? Ah....who cares. Victory!





Coach:
Mix Master Mike did a perfect coaching job this week. He out foxed one of the lamest Viking coaches in history. He did coach for them, right?




Peyton Manning:
This guys knee sack must be killin' him cause he looks like Mario out there.





Lambeau Field Crowd:
Wow. Finally I hear some real noise from the fans. Keep it up and perhaps our home field will become a factor again. Kinda like the Thunder Dome, but without all of the hillbilly fans.



Great game Pack! As long as we don't lose next week I'll be fine.

Mike III's Domination Machine: The Return

By MF

Some thoughts from today's game on CBS...

Jim Nantz and Phil Simms always seem to broadcast a game like they're in the clubhouse chatting with the bartender before heading out for the back nine don't they? They always come off sort of bemused at what's going on with the game like they've had a bloody mary or two and now all they can remember was that great drive on 7, so they're always eager and happy despite the fact they're broadcasting a blowout.

For further evidence of this just check out Nantz's comment after Don Lee scored on a quick pass right up the seam in the second quarter. Nantz comes up with the gem "Donald Lee scores and instead of doing a Lambeau Leap, he did a Lambeau Lee!" Tell me, who says that except for a slightly tipsy guy having a good time with his friends?

The only difference between him and you is your friends would mock you for hours for saying that and Phil Simms treated it like a fart and ignored it... Also, he has used more styling products on his hair than you have hairs on your head...and he's rich...and slightly famous...Okay, frankly you are not a good comparison for Jim Nantz. Way to go and ruin the whole premise of my argument. Jerk.

I kind of like the blood red of the Red Zone indicator deal that CBS employs. A) It makes real life look more like a video game, and how could that ever be a negative? B) The red looks awesome. Just a great color there. Truly. I can't decide if I should stop rambling about color choices or keep going until I get some ads from HGTV or something here.

The Run Game

The playcalls continue to be run-heavy. I'm assuming this is due once again to Aaron Rodgers' bum shoulder because Ryan Grant clearly hasn't earned this sort of trust. His 33 carries last week were great and helped us control the game, but 2.7 yards a carry isn't going to do it most weeks. Grant had an early fumble that somehow, magically, Korey Hall recovered to keep an early drive going but was otherwise solid.

A second straight game with more than 30 carries, and this time for more than 100 yards AND his first TD of the year makes me happy. Grant, just by being a vague threat, made the Colts honor the run and they got bit on a number of playaction passes as a result. Since Rodgers can only throw it 25 times a game apparently it's handy when they do go well.

I just want to reiterate something. When Grant gives us something, anything, this offense looks like it can be big time. That's a good feeling going into the bye.

The Bold Choices

Clearly the coaching staff came into this one thinking that their defense wasn't going to be up to the challenge. I'm not necessarily arguing with that assumption mind you, but Mike III's choices were bold and thoughtful and I liked them all, despite the fact that they didn't always work.

After our initial drive, and 3 points off the leg of Mason Crosby, we went for an onsides kick in the 1st quarter. It caught the Colts completely off guard, but the ball went out of bounds. At this stage in the game that's just a 5 yard penalty, so no real harm was done. I really liked the aggressiveness, even if it was because we felt the Colts were going to score whether they went 80 yards or 40.

In the 2nd quarter the coaches again went for the throat. This time, on 4th and 1 near midfield, Ryan Grant picked up 7 on the stretch to the right side. The drive ended with a touchdown and a 10 point lead for us. This team always seems to respond when challenged, I wish coaches did it more often.

As further evidence of the "Challenge = Success, Safe play = Disappointment" corollary I give you our clock management at the end of the half. With about 20 seconds to play we decided to run the clock down to 8 seconds and have Crosby try a field goal. It was just a 36 yarder, but it seems that anytime we just stop trying and say "Crosby will hit it" we virtually guarantee that he will not, in fact, hit it. He pulled it wide left. Instead of being up 20-7 against a team that scored 3 td's in 5 minutes just a few weeks ago we went into the half up by 10.

The Defense

I don't know if the guys on D looked at the gameplan and thought "hey, screw this, they're basically saying we suck right now, let's go show 'em!" but man, they showed 'em. Johnny Jolly and Colin Cole swatted down at least 3 Peyton Manning passes at the line. I love it when this happens. The QB just gets that "who farted" look on his face when he realizes the wasted opportunity, the camera man always seems to fight off a seizure to keep the play in frame and I get to watch 300 pound individuals jump around like little kids. It's awesome.

With just about 6 minutes left in the game Chuck Wood was sitting in his own end zone, clearly upset with Aaron Rouse. Rouse had, at the last moment, jumped in front of Chuck and his man to try for an interception but then dropped it. I can't read lips but I'm fairly confident Chuck may have mentioned something like "Say, fellow, if you are not certain that you will intercept the wayward pass from Mr. Manning in the future please stay the heck out of my way, as I have Heisman hands and would surely have caught that ball."

Just about a minute later Rouse jumped a pass to Anthony Gonzalez in the end zone and returned it 99 yards for the score. This pretty much sealed up the game, even with the Colts ridiculous scoring bursts, and was the perfect response to Chuck's concern.

Much earlier in the game, the first drive of the second half to be exact, Nick Collins took a tipped ball from Reggie Wayne and returned it 60 yards for a TD as well. It's impressive that, despite all the injuries and shuffling and whatnots that this D continues to be a threat to score. I've been disappointed in them for a lot of things this year, but this trend is nice. We have actual playmakers in the secondary.

The Unnecessary Shot

Do you think that Derrick Frost went to his teammates this week and gave them a fiery speech? I mean, the dude is a punter who has a really, really difficult time punting well. So, instead of actual learning how to kick maybe he just convinced the fellas to play so well that his services wouldn't be needed til the 4th quarter? I'm just spitballing here but it makes some sense right? I mean, it's not like he still has the job because of his punting ability right?

The Win

Green Bay 34 - Indianapolis 14