Vikings Sweep the Season Series With the Packers

As Favre ran onto the field, boos reigned down from the stadium. This was not a shocker, as the week leading up to the game fans (and even the Mayor of Green Bay) were ready to voice their displeasure with Favre’s return to Lambeau Field.

As expected, Favre shrugged off the booing and went right to work. While running onto the field amidst a chorus of boos, Favre was smiling and gave a wink to his teammates, indicating that he was not going to let the fans’ emotions get in the way of his performance.

The game did not start off without adversity. With seven minutes to go in the first quarter, Favre and center, John Sullivan, miscommunicated on the snap and the ball was fumbled back to the Vikings’ 21-yard line. The defense stepped up, however, forcing the Packers to go three and out (capped off by Ray Edwards sack) at the 19-yard line.

From that point on, the Vikings found their groove. On the next play, rookie-phenom Percy Harvin took the kickoff back 77 yards all the way back to the Packers’ 14-yard line. On five of the next six plays, the Vikings played smash mouth football, by handing the ball off to Peterson who eventually plunged into the end zone on 4th and 1.

The second quarter started off with a familiar ring to it. On third down, Edwards posted another sack of Rodgers at the Packers’ 19-yard line, forcing a three and out. With fourteen minutes to go in the second quarter, the Vikings started their drive off at their own 49-yard line. With passes to Rice, Berrian and Harvin, the Vikings marched down to the Packers’ 12-yard line. On the next play, Favre hit Shiancoe up the middle for a touchdown.

For the remainder of the quarter, the defense stiffened, only giving up a field goal, which was set up by the botched snap. The Vikings pushed the score to 17-3 at halftime.

The third quarter started off with a bang. On a 3rd and 17 from the Vikings’ 30-yard line, Favre threw a strike to Berrian on a deep-in route for 19 yards. Berrian absorbed the vicious hit from Atari Bigby and held onto the ball.

The next play was one people are likely talking about at work today. On first down, Favre threw a deep ball to Harvin, who was surrounded by three defenders. A la Randy Moss, Harvin snatched the ball out of the air, spun and ran away from the defenders (who crashed into themselves in trying to tackle the speedster) for a 51-yard touchdown. The score was now 24-3 and the route seemed to be on.

At this point, I thought the Vikings were ready to put 40 points on the board and bring on the backups. I was sorely wrong, as after the Packers scored a field goal, Brian Robison fumbled a kickoff return that sparked a comeback.

With eight and half minutes to go in the third quarter, Rodgers hit Spencer Havner for a 16-yard touchdown. The Vikings went three and out on their next drive, to which the Packers responded with another touchdown pass to Havner. Now the score was 24-20 and the game was officially in doubt.

The Vikings responded like a championship team, with a touchdown. On the second play of the fourth quarter, Favre hit Jeff Dugan for a 2-yard touchdown in the flat. The Packers, however, did not give up. Rodgers responded with a touchdown pass of his own, finding Greg Jennings for a 10-yard touchdown on a perfectly thrown out route. The score was now 31-26, after a failed two-point conversion by the Packers.

Both teams were unsuccessful in scoring on their next two possessions. With four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Vikings delivered the knockout blow. On a 3rd and 11 from the Packers’ 16-yard line, Favre hit Berrian for touchdown, which pushed the score to 38-26.

Favre ended the game with four touchdown passes and zero interceptions (extrapolate this further, 7 touchdowns and 0 interceptions against the Packers in two games). As I stated in my pre-game analysis, the Vikings could not throw the ball 50 times and needed to be balanced on offense. Yesterday’s performance was typical of a Vikings win, with 28 pass attempts versus 32 rushing attempts. For a team built on the running game, this ratio will lead to more wins than losses. On Sunday, it proved to be too much for the Packers to handle.

The win not only pushed the Vikings two games clear of the Packers in the loss column, it was a psychological boost. The Vikings had not swept the season-series since the Tice era in 2005.

Although the game was not pretty at times, the Vikings showed their championship qualities by scoring when it mattered most.

[Shahaab Tehrani can be reached: shahaabt@yahoo.com]