Confessions of a Polluted Mindset – No Laundering Needed

My source inside the Vikings organization tell me the Vikings saved some money this week by not needing to have Sam Darnold’s jersey laundered. Look, I watched a lot of Sam Darnold when he played for the Jets. I liked him coming out of college and would always tell my Giants fans friends that he would be a better quarterback than Daniel Jones. He has a strong and accurate arm when he can comfortably step into throws, When he’s under pressure is when it all falls apart and the interceptions and fumbles happen. The fact that the Packers could not make him even slightly uncomfortable in the pocket in the first half was like handing them 28 points, and that’s just what they did.

As for the other quarterback in this game, Jordan Love was erratic, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone considering the rust & not 100% knee he played the game on. Love did start to find his way in the second half – not coincidentally when the Packers started going uptempo. There were still some mistakes (he could have easily had two more interceptions on those long throws to the end zone), mostly related to trying to do too much, where patience would have served him better, but I can forgive all of that. Overall, from the mistakes to the frantic late game drives and comeback attempt, Love perfectly demonstrated why he is much more like Brett Favre than Aaron Rodgers (as a person, he’s not like either, and that’s probably a good thing). And right on cue, this tidbit from ESPN Stats: Jordan Love is the first Packers player to throw four TDs and three INTs in a game since, you guessed it, Brett Favre in 1999.

The challenges and reviews were so one-sided yesterday, they challenge flag should have been purple. Note, I’m not complaining about the decisions, they were mostly justifiable – the one exception in my eyes was the catch by Wicks where he had his hand under the ball when it touched the ground.  That’s supposed to be a legal catch, but it wasn’t called that way.

Coming into the game, I would have bet the house that against this particular team, if the Packers had the option, they would choose to take the ball first. It seemed like a no-brainer to me that you would want to try to get up on the Vikings and make them do something they haven’t had to do this year – play from behind. Matt LaFleur disagreed with me. I have no idea why.

Place kickers around the NFL are doing amazing things – it could be the “Golden Age” of field goal kicking – everywhere except in Green Bay, of course. Narveson is the only kicker in the league that has missed a field goal under 40 yards. Seeing Packers castoff Greg Joseph go five for five for the Giants this Sunday was just rubbing salt in our wounds. Austin Siebert, who was available when the Packers claimed Narveson, is currently 10 for 10 on field goals and 9 for nine on extra points in three games for the Commanders. That’s like dumping an entire salt mine on our wounds.

Meanwhile, Daniel Whelan had two punts in the game that traveled over 70 yards in the air. Having to punt is not necessarily a bad thing for the Packers – field position is often a big factor in winning games.

There were some clueless moments during the TV broadcast of this game. One was when LaFleur had his hissy fit.  The broadcast team went on and on for minutes, showing multiple replays of Romeo Doubs falling short of the goal line as if that was what LaFleur was mad about.The second was the announcer yelling TOUCHDOWN after Melton recovered the muffed punt. I mean, you do this for a living and you don’t know it can’t be advanced? Really?

If you are going to compliment the defense on anything (hard to do after a horrendous first half), it would be that they held the Vikings to a field goal in the second half and managed to force three punts, including getting stops on two third and ones and a fourth and one. That is not something we’re used to seeing from a Packers defense. 

Despite the penalties, inaccurate passing, drops, interceptions, fumbles, missed field goals, and minimal pass rush, the Packers came THIS CLOSE to completing an incredible comeback. I don’t know about you, but that gives me some comfort that the talent is there on this team and they can make a Super Bowl run if they can just learn to stop beating themselves.

Go Pack Go