dd80forever
15 years ago

Up and over
Vikings have outperformed Packers in off-season, too

By Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Nov. 2, 2009

Eight weeks into the National Football League season there is one thing you can say with certainty:

The Minnesota Vikings are a better football team than the Green Bay Packers.

The 38-26 loss the Packers suffered at the hands of the Vikings Sunday at Lambeau Field closed the argument. It also may force the Packers to accept that the Vikings have more talent and have done a better job building their team for a Super Bowl run.

Most people who witnessed the game would find that hard to dispute.

"I'm not going to compare us to the Vikings other than to say that they beat us yesterday and a few weeks ago," Packers general manager Ted Thompson said Monday. "We have to do some things to improve a little bit. The whole point of the NFL season is your growth and your improvement during the course of the season and we hope to do that and get better."

Thompson conceded that the Vikings (7-1) are a better team than the Packers (4-3) right now, but he was not willing to hand them the NFC North title yet. Reminded that only two of the Packers' 10 victories since 2008 have been against teams that had a winning record at the time (Indianapolis and Chicago in '08), Thompson said the process of getting to be a great team isn't easy.

"A season is like a game and a game is broken down into plays," Thompson said. "Sometimes you get knocked down and you have to get back up. The whole point in the NFL is that you have to get back up. We lost a game, and now we have to get back up and get ready for the next one.

"I have faith in these players and faith in these coaches and faith in this organization. I think we have a good group of guys and I think we're going to do better."

But will they be better than the Vikings? No one would be willing to bet his house on that today.

The team that beat up the Packers both home and away arguably has also been outperforming the Packers during the past couple of off-seasons. The Vikings have added at least one big-time player each of the last four years and are to the point now where they may have as many as 11 players selected to the Pro Bowl this year.

Here's a year-by-year comparison:

2006: The Vikings added perennial Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson and reliable kicker Ryan Longwell in free agency. The Packers added Pro Bowl cornerback Charles Woodson and defensive lineman Ryan Pickett in free agency and drafted wide receiver Greg Jennings.

2007: The Vikings drafted all-pro running back Adrian Peterson and budding star receiver Sidney Rice and signed starting tight end Visanthe Shiancoe in free agency. The Packers didn't draft a single player who has made an impact as great as Rice (Justin Harrell was the first pick) and acquired running back Ryan Grant in a trade.

2008: The Vikings traded for Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Allen and signed receiver Bernard Berrian in free agency. The Packers signed backup linebacker Brandon Chillar in free agency and drafted one player with special talent, tight end Jermichael Finley, who is a backup.

2009: The Vikings signed future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and drafted Percy Harvin, who has proved to be a dynamic returner and receiver, and right tackle Phil Loadholt, who has started seven of eight games. The Packers signed free agent offensive lineman Duke Preston (cut in training camp) and drafted nose tackle B.J. Raji, who has had no impact, and linebacker Clay Matthews, who has star potential.

It doesn't take a football genius to figure out who has been doing the better job acquiring talent. When asked Monday if he thought the Vikings were more talented, Packers coach Mike McCarthy admitted he was impressed with their lineup.

"Everybody has got talent," McCarthy said. "I think they've got a lot of really good players. I respect the ability of their players over there. I think it's very obvious. Their quarterback has made a big impact. That's something, that quarterback productivity, they haven't had in the last three years that we have played them.

"I think Percy Harvin, from a field-position standpoint, has made an impact, and their defense has been a staple over there for the last couple of years. They are a different team than they have been the last couple of years, there is no denying that."

The Packers, it seems, are a different team with the same old problems.

The transition to the 3-4 defense has been relatively smooth, but it has not produced the results promised. Yes, the Packers rank tied for fourth in total defense (283.4 yards per game allowed), but if you took away performances against the horrible Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns, the Packers would rank 21st (338 per game).

The offense, meanwhile, ranks ninth in total yards, but is on pace for 71 sacks, which would shatter the club record for a single season (62) and would put quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the top three all-time among individuals.

The loss to the Vikings Sunday exposed problems that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Sunday) or Detroit Lions (Nov. 26) might not be able to exploit, but the Dallas Cowboys (Nov. 15), San Francisco 49ers (Nov. 22), Baltimore Ravens (Dec. 7) and Pittsburgh Steelers (Dec. 20) definitely will.

"We're 4-3 for good reason," McCarthy said. "I think we have not handled two prime-time games very well. I'm confident that we'll learn from these experiences. I thought we would have learned more from the first game up there to this one. We had some repeated mistakes; that's frustrating and something that we take with full accountability as coaches.

"We have to look at our preparation because it did not get from the practice field to the game field for whatever reason. But I think these are definitely experiences, these two games against the Vikings, I think these are experiences that we can draw from."

One of those experiences is playing a game against a better team.


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Mucky Tundra (20-Jun) : GB-Minnesota 2004 Wild Card game popped up on my YouTube page....UGH
beast (20-Jun) : Hmm 🤔 re-signing Walker before Tom? Sounds highly questionable to me.
Mucky Tundra (19-Jun) : One person on Twitter=cannon law
Zero2Cool (19-Jun) : Well, to ONE person on Tweeter
Zero2Cool (19-Jun) : According to Tweeter
Zero2Cool (19-Jun) : Packers are working on extension for LT Walker they hope to have done before camp
dfosterf (18-Jun) : E4B landed at Andrews last night
dfosterf (18-Jun) : 101 in a 60
dfosterf (18-Jun) : FAFO
Zero2Cool (18-Jun) : one year $4m with incentives to make it up to $6m
dfosterf (18-Jun) : Or Lions
dfosterf (18-Jun) : Beats the hell out of a Vikings signing
Zero2Cool (18-Jun) : Baltimore Ravens now have signed former Packers CB Jaire Alexander.
dfosterf (14-Jun) : TWO magnificent strikes for touchdowns. Lose the pennstate semigeezer non nfl backup
dfosterf (14-Jun) : There was minicamp Thursday. My man Taylor Engersma threw
dfosterf (11-Jun) : There will be a mini camp practice Thursday.
Zero2Cool (11-Jun) : He's been sporting a ring for a while now. It's probably Madonna.
Martha Careful (10-Jun) : We only do the tea before whoopee, it relaxes me.
wpr (10-Jun) : That's awesome Martha.
Mucky Tundra (10-Jun) : How's the ayahuasca tea he makes, Martha?
Martha Careful (10-Jun) : Turns out he like older women
Martha Careful (10-Jun) : I wasn't supposed to say anything, but yes the word is out and we are happy 😂😂😂
Mucky Tundra (10-Jun) : I might be late on this but Aaron Rodgers is now married
Mucky Tundra (10-Jun) : Well he can always ask his brother for pointers
Zero2Cool (10-Jun) : Bo Melton taking some reps at CB as well as WR
Zero2Cool (10-Jun) : key transactions coming today at 3pm that will consume more cap in 2025
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : Jaire played in just 34 of a possible 68 games since the start of the 2021 season
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : reported, but not expected to practice
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : Jenkins has REPORTED for mandatory camp
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : I really thought he'd play for Packers.
buckeyepackfan (9-Jun) : Packers releasing Jaire Alexander.
Mucky Tundra (8-Jun) : (Context: he wants his defense to create turnovers)
Mucky Tundra (8-Jun) : Giants DC Shane Bowen tells players to “be a damn pirate."
dfosterf (6-Jun) : Semper fi !
Cheesey (6-Jun) : This is why I have so much respect for those that have gone through battles
Cheesey (6-Jun) : I can't even imagine what that would have been like
wpr (6-Jun) : "Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?"
wpr (6-Jun) : Facing a line of machine guns 2 time medal of Honor recipient, First Sergeant Dan Daly told his men,
wpr (6-Jun) : Another detachment went into the Belleau Wood.
wpr (6-Jun) : On the 6th the Marines took Hill 142 but suffered terrible losses.
wpr (6-Jun) : It’s time to remember dfoster’s Marine brothers in Belleau Wood. The battle went on from June 1-26. Nearly 10,000 casualties.
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : Nick Collins and Morgan Burnett have signed with the PACK
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : he won't be wearing #12, maybe he will wear number two
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : He will fail this season, should have retired
Mucky Tundra (5-Jun) : Thus the cycle of Hall of Fame Packer QBs going to the Jets and then the Vikings is broken
bboystyle (5-Jun) : Rodgers to steelers on 1 year contract
Zero2Cool (5-Jun) : It's the cycle of civilizations. Get lazier, lazier, softer, softer and vanish.
Martha Careful (5-Jun) : great point. every aspect of society, including art, culture and sports has degraded.
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Green Bay sweep meant something to society about stopping pure excellence. We have the tush push now
dfosterf (4-Jun) : We old Martha.
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