Wins, Cars and Dead Rodentia

Sorry there's no game recap this week. MF had a busy week. Bought a car and picked it up on Monday, watched the game and then slayed a field mouse that had decided our house was a nice place to live. The mouse thing may not seem like much (mostly because it isn't) but the lady of the house considers mice to be on par with dragons so getting rid of one takes on a bizarre level of importance.

So, rather than the full game recap, here are some thoughts from the Monday Night game. Let us know whether you agree or disagree and all that. That's part of the fun.

The Monday Night Football Breakdown

MNF has greatly improved in many areas this year. Mostly this is due to the absence of Joe Theismann and the addition of Ron Jaworski. Jaws is articulate, not particularly full of himself (which is saying something for a former QB) and actually explains the game in a way that's interesting for avid watchers and inexperienced folks (read: wives).

The statistical breakdowns, pass tracking systems, etc are all fun to look at and (just barely) add to the presentation of the game. In all, it's pretty dang good and makes the game feel like an event.

Unfortunately MNF still has a few negatives. These were on full display in Denver. I'm generally ambivalent towards Tony Kornheiser during the game (he doesn't bring anything to the table but he doesn't take much away either) but his pre-game essay is always borderline retarded.

Tony K, Jaws and Mike Tirico basically had a 3 man gang bang of all things Favre. The only thing gayer than that sequence is a pink mesh t-shirt. Which we've all seen before, but still...I mean, the reason there is a backlash at all on Favre is because of this sort of hero worship. This just in...Tony Romo, Tom Brady and the rest also enjoy playing the game. It's not that crazy.

It pains me to say this but the worst part of the broadcast was Deanna Favre's montage. I like Deanna, I'm happy she's trying to raise awareness for breast cancer, but I don't need two montages AND an interview with her during the game. I just don't. At one point Tony asked Deanna what her conversation was with Brett after his father passed away. Why? Does America need to know the answer? This sort of stuff just gets me queasy. It borders on the infatuation people have with Britney Spears forgetting her underwear or LiLo drinking too much. Just let the man play football. Let the woman raise awareness, but don't get into the personal stuff please.

Also, "he's my Brett, our Favre" is just painful. That should be played during a family reunion or something, not a football game. Moving on.

The Actual Game

The intros were actually entertaining tonight. Dre Bly decided to forgo giving out the lineups for the Denver Defense and just talked about the game plan. I'm a little disappointed he didn't bust out a telestrator and show how they were going to get pressure up the middle on Favre.

Nick Barnett handled the intros for the Packer D and did two things fantastically well. One, he called Poppinga "Brady, the swarmin' mormon". Two, he seemed to be wearing a Bill Cosby sweater with a gold chain. 1986 comin' at ya bitches!

Finally, Mark Tauscher called Favre "Vinny Testaverde's father". Thank you all for making what is usually an awful sequence somewhat entertaining.

Denver scores on a TD pass to their Tight End, Scheffler. The Denver offense looks okay, but the Denver offense PLUS Atari Bigby giving up huge plays/penalties? Now that's just awesome.

Green Bay 0 - Denver 7

First play from scrimmage after the TD and Favre hits James Jones 40 yards downfield. JJ cuts it back across the field for another 35 or so and a touchdown. Wow. Pretty deep ball from Favre, great catch and run by the rookie. Over Champ Bailey no less. We're tied at 7 and it looks like the Offense isn't going to roll out the ugly junk we've seen the last few weeks.

Green Bay 7 - Denver 7

Denver gets to the Green Bay two yard line and fumbles the snap. Looks like a guard was pulling and just swatted it out of Cutler's hand. Barnett pounced on the ball as if it were an old jazz record in the basement. Nice work.

On the drive John Lynch had to leave the game. The Packers caught Denver with only 1o men on the field and got a first down. Then they rushed to the line and caught them with 12 men. Later they forced Denver to call a timeout because they again had too many men on the field. Do "genius" labels expire on coaches after 5 years or something? Shanahan can't get anything right. The Packers kick a field goal.

Green Bay 10 - Denver 7

DeShawn Wynn started the game. Ran once for 1 yard and is now hurt. I wonder where this "lack of toughness" label comes from? I mean, he's been nothing but a man for us. 40 carries a game? No problem. Ryan Grant is running very well at the moment. We again fail to score a TD but a short Figgie isn't a bad concession.

Green Bay 13 - Denver 7

Denver has the ball for what seems like the entire third quarter. The only point of interest is that they have a receiver named "Glenn Martinez". Since Glenn is currently #2 in the "most whitest names" behind "Tad" I'm a little surprised there's a "Martinez" following it.

Hey, can we get an intern to go buy some more quotation marks from Office Max or something? I used up all of 'em in that last sentence.

Green Bay 13 - Denver 10

Maybe it's the beer talking (it isn't) but it seems like we've been in control of this game the whole time and yet we're only up by 3. These are the games that, when you lose, you feel like you were completely blindsided. But then you look back and realize you just weren't paying attention. I do not like these games.

The 4th quarter results in more flags (we're in the 20s now). That makes for a rough game. Ryan Grant has become our 1st 100 yard rusher on the season. Good to see we got that out of the way.

Denver drives with no timeouts and fails to convert on third down from our 4 yard line. Elam and the special teams group rush on to make the field goal as time expires. Overtime!

Green Bay 13 - Denver 13

Weird damn game. Offenses moving the ball all over the place and yet it's tied at 13. No turnovers by the Packers, just one for Denver. We won the toss, let's score here and go home. I don't know if the D can stop Denver again.

Okay. That was pretty much the coolest thing ever. On the first play from scrimmage Favre hits Greg Jennings 50 yards down the field. GJ takes it the rest of the way for the touchdown. Dre Bly didn't address how he was going to handle a simple go route in his breakdown of the D when he had the chance. Caught you napping Dre! It's pandamonium!

Green Bay 19 - Denver 13