The Packers placed the franchise tag on Chad Clifton this week. It surprised me, because I thought it would effect the Packers salary cap immediately, but the Packers have until March 2nd to work Clifton's guaranteed franchise salary figure into the cap. Mark Tauscher restructed his contract this week for some additional room next year, and some more restructuring, along with some releases, are likely to create cap room.

It would be a shock if another team courts Clifton now, because it would cost a team two first round picks. Clifton is a solid and underappreciated player, but it will cost Brett Favre type money to resign him, which seems too steep. If the Packers have a certain amount of money allocated to sign free agents this offseason, however, it might as well be spent resigning Clifton because there are not any top free agents at the positions the Packers might consider upgrading.

Defensive End: The Packers could use a run stopping, pass rushing, every down playing defensive end, like the player they expected when they signed Joe Johnson two years ago. The only top player who fits that profile, another New Orleans defensive end Darren Howard, was given the franchise tag by his team so that effectively makes him unavailable. Miami's Adewale Ogunleye and Tennessee's Jevon Kearse are also free agents, but both are better pass rushers than run stoppers, and Kearse has had numerous injury problems. Ogunleye first got league wide notice this last season, so he might be a one year wonder.

Linebacker: If the Packers wanted to improve at either outside linebacker position, San Francisco's Julian Peterson would be an upgrade to either Nai'l Diggs or Hannibal Navies, but Peterson was tagged by San Francisco instead of Terrell Owens, so he is certainly not going anywhere.

Safety: Only one safety, Jacksonville's Donovin Darius, would be a clear upgrade over Antuan Edwards or Marques Anderson, but (reaccuring theme) Jacksonville placed the franchise tag on him for the second consecutive season. Carolina's Deon Grant is an unrestricted free agent, but he is a free safety and plays more like Darren Sharper than LeRoy Butler. Reggie Tongue is a free agent strong safety from Seattle, but it isn't clear that Tongue is any better than Anderson. Last offseason, two Butler like safeties, Lawyer Malloy and Rodney Harrison, both were free agents after their teams cut them, so maybe a player like them will be cut before March 2nd.

With the franchise tag on Clifton, the only two free agents who may get some early attention are Michael Hawthorne and Edwards. With the tight cap situation, it looks like the Packers are seeing what the market is for those two players and waiting until March to possibly resigning them. The Packers would be better off if both players returned next season, but neither one can afford to be paid starters money.

The NFL announced today that the 2004 salary cap is $80.5 million instead of $78.7 million as it was projected at the end of 2003. Any extra wiggle room under the cap is good news for the Packers. According to John Clayton on espn.com, the Packers were under the cap by $1.1 million as of Feb. 12th, so its likely the Packers are $2.9 million under the cap as of today. The bad news is Chad Clifton will have to be tagged as the franchise player by next Tuesday, and according to Len Pasquarelli of espn.com that would add slightly over $7 million to the Packers cap, unless a long term deal can be worked out. It seems highly unlikely that Clifton will have either the franchise or transition tag (its cap cost is slightly over $6 million) placed on him. Clifton is probably the best free agent offensive lineman available, if Orlando Pace and Walter Jones for the umpteenth years in a row are given the franchise tags by St. Louis and Seattle respectively, and still likely to command a $10 million signing bonus. It seems unlikely that the Packers want to give that amount of money to arguably their 5th best offensive lineman.

It was surprising to read that Mike Sherman, Mark Hatley, Reggie McKenzie, John Schneider, and Tom Rossley all went to see a private workout by Drew Henson. "This isn't necessarily a unique situation", Sherman told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal. Sure it isn't. Henson looked outstanding running the offense during his one year as a starter in Michigan, although he played with an offense loaded with future NFL players. Sherman has ran two drafts and came away with two potential stars in Javon Walker and Nick Barnett, so I would expect any trade for Henson to be a good decision. An article last month on espn.com made the argument that it would be a shock if Henson was traded, instead of drafted in the upcoming April draft, because he could only receive a small signing bonus based on Houston's rookie draft cap for last season, but the Journal-Sentinal had a quote from Houston GM Charley Casserly that made it sound like it was more important for Henson to choose his first NFL team than to receive a huge signing bonus.

It seems unlikely that Henson would choose team over money, but why else would Houston host the workout, and Casserly attend it, if it isn't possible that Henson would consent to a trade? I don't know much about Henson, but maybe his agent, Tom Condon, told Sherman that Henson would consent to a trade to play for the Packers? If it was a workout to showoff for the draft, why weren't the high drafting and quarterback starved teams like Arizona, Cleveland or Pittsburgh in attendance with their head coaches?

I haven't been anxious for Brett Favre to retire and I haven't wanted the Packers to use a high draft choice on a quarterback because then they would have two starting quarterbacks salaries on their salary cap, but a trade for Henson would allow them to have a quarterback with the talent of a high draft choice on the salary cap at a 6th round draft choice price, at least for a season. It is a unique and very interesting opportunity.

The Packers assigned 12 players to NFL Europe, but 10 of the 12 were signed just two weeks ago. Only Erwin Swiney and Derek Combs played any part on last season's team. Swiney might be part of the battle for the 3rd cornerback position, if Michael Hawthorne leaves in free agency, so it appears that Swiney is the only one of the 12 players who might make next season's roster. Certainly this is not as interesting as last season, when QB Craig Nall went to NFL Europe.

Apparently, Hawthorne thinks he is likely to get a big contract this offseason to be someone's starting cornerback. It is unlikely the Packers would sign Hawthorne to be a starter for next season since Mike McKenzie and Al Harris are both under contract for next season. Hawthorne might be right, he is tall (over 6 feet) and played well this season. Atlanta gave Tod McBride a multiyear contract last offseason, after McBride was the Packers 3rd cornerback (when healthy). However, Atlanta's pass defense was a disaster last season and it wouldn't be surprising to see McBride cut. Hawthorne has a few strikes against him because he is relatively slow for a NFL cornerback and he was released by New Orleans supposedly after clashing with coaches. Hopefully he doesn't get much interest from other teams and the Packers can resign him to a one year contract.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal had an article about Nick Barnett and how he felt guilty about his blown coverage on the 4th and 26 play vs. Philadelphia in the playoffs. Philadelphia had three receivers running routes on the play. Why would the Packers run a defense that required their middle linebacker to cover the slot wide receiver on a play 26 yards from the line of scrimmage? The more I read about that blown play, the more it sounds like that it was entirely the coaches fault.

Last offseason, left tackles Luke Pettigout and Flozell Adams each got around a $10 million signing bonus for a 7 year, $30 million contract. That is Chad Clifton's price for the Packers this offseason, although he might discount it due to his serious hip injury in 2002. Clifton should fire his agent if his agent doesn't ask the Packers for a $10 million signing bonus. I am really torn about resigning Clifton. He is a solid player on the best offensive line in the NFL and he is just a step below a Pro Bowl level, although only one season removed from a career threating injury. Generally, a team cannot let a player of his ability leave in free agency, but he doesn't play a skill position. The Packers could find a replacement for Clifton in free agency or the draft, but it is unlikely that his replacement would be as good as Clifton. If the Packers can afford it, although it would be the the Packers only significant move in free agency, then he should be resigned, but the Packers should not bust their cap just to resign him.

I expected Bob Slowik to be promoted to defensive coordinator, and it finally happened yesterday. I'm not too excited about hiring a guy who worked closely with Dave Wannstedt for 6 season in Chicago, but he wasn't working with a very talented defensive team either. Over those 6 seasons, the best players during it were probably defensive back Mark Carrier and the fumes of Richard Dent's great career. Plus, with the exception of the 1995 season, Chicago didn't provide much support on offense either. Slowik was defensive coordinator for the 1999 expansion Cleveland 2.0 but that season isn't even worth examining, because a 2-14 expansion defense should have the least amount of talent in the NFL. Slowik probably deserves another chance as defensive coordinator, to show what he can do with a more talented defense and more support from an offense.

Kurt Schottenheimer was a nice signing for defensive backs coach. He knows the NFC North since he was the defensive coordinator in Detroit last season, and the defense improved from 31st to 24th this season.

Ron Wolf took a new job as a personnel specialist for Cleveland. It sounds like Wolf will watch some film at home, give his two cents worth of advice regarding personnel, and probably get paid around $1 million per year for it. Its good work if you can get it. I'm wondering if this means Cleveland is determined to solve their quarterback problem, either through the draft or free agency, and want Wolf to help them with it.

A number of players have been signed since the last game of the season. None of the names are familiar to me, so I would consider them all minicamp depth, NFL Europe (if that will be around anymore) candidates, or practice squad possibilities. All signings will probably remain this way until Franchise and Transition players are named in mid-February and free agency begins.

2003 Packers In Review. I'm defenitely not using a letter grade system to review the Packers. That is as arbitrary as real school grades, and itdoesn't tell you all you need to know about someone. No pythagorean (if team X scores A points and allows B points, its record should be C-D) outcomes because it doesn't say much either. I will use rankings from Football Outsiders.com for some statistical analysis in this review and rank the units from best to worst, although the worst unit on the team was still league average.

Overall. The Packers were the 9th best team in the NFL, ranked according to the team's overall DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average). They were 14.9% over average, which doesn't predict anything when you realize the 18th best team in the league with a -5.8% below average team (Carolina) is going to the Super Bowl. Overall they were good enough to make the playoffs, good enough to beat any team in the playoffs (including beating the best team in the NFC, 5th ranked Seattle), but didn't make the plays when they needed it. Carolina and Philadelphia were both inferior teams overall, but both made big plays when it mattered. The Packers got few lucky bounces, it wasn't one of those magical years where everything breaks your way, and it just wasn't their year.

Run Offense. The best offensive line in the NFL was the best at opening holes for the running backs and the 3rd best at preventing negative runs with 80% of all running plays going for positive yards. Ahman Green was the main beneficiary with a 27.5 DPAR (Defense-adjusted Points Above Replacement) and the 4th back RB in the NFL. Overall the rush offense only ranks 12th because of all the fumbles, however, few if any fumbles occured over the last several games. Green, Tony Fisher and Najeh Davenport make up the best set of backs in the NFL. With the return of this entire unit in 2004, with the possible exception of possible free agent Chad Clifton, this unit could be the best run offense in the NFC in 2004 if the fumbles have stopped.

Pass defense. Only St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Dallas had better pass defenses in the NFC than the Packers. Its more impressive when you consider that the Packers pass rush recorded a sack on only 6.1% of pass plays which is only slightly above the league average of 6%. The pass blitz was rarely succesful and better execution on pass blitzes and stunts might greatly improve its success rate. Darren Sharper, Mike McKenzie, Al Harris, and Michael Hawthorne all were consistently solid, but not spectacular, in coverage. The linebackers were solid on coverage of the tight ends and running backs, with an exception in the San Diego game against Antonio Gates and LaDainian Tomlinson. Only Minnesota, St. Louis and San Francisco had more interceptions in the NFC than the Packers. Only Antuan Edwards and Hannibal Navies might leave from this unit, so it should be strong again in 2004 and they could be much improved with better pass blitzing.

Pass Offense. Brett Favre is either loved or hated. I appreciate that on 95% of plays, he is playing as well as any QB in the NFL, however, on the other 5% he takes risks that make him look like a rookie. So many NFL teams run such conservative offensive schemes, attempting perfect execution along with no turnovers, that their offenses are often anemic. Some teams look so much better in a hurry up offense that you wonder why they don't hurry up all the time. Favre is always running a hurry up offense, more often than not he is successful, but sometimes its a fiasco. Favre ended the season with his career best season completion percentage (65.4%), but he is likely to be remember this season for his jump ball interception in OT vs. Philadelphia. Favre's aggressive play created the most touchdown passes in the NFL (32) and the 3rd most interceptions (21). All those turnovers slipped his ranking to 16th among QBs and the pass offense to 11th. The offensive line was excellent in pass defense, allowing a sack only 18 times or 4.1% of their pass plays. There is room for improvement at wide receiver, Donald Driver was tops as the 25th best receiver in the NFL, while Javon Walker and Robert Ferguson were both top 40 and are likely to improve in 2004. The tight ends provided little to nothing all season, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Bubba Franks, David Martin, and Wesley Walls all return in 2004 and hopefully they can improve under a new tight ends coach. This unit should be excellent in 2004, maybe even better with improved receiver play, although Favre is unlikely to throw less than 20 interceptions.

Run defense. This unit only got better as the season went on, due in large part to the signing of Grady Jackson. The Packers were the 5th best run defense on carries under 10 yards, however, they were below average at stopping runs for negative yards (20th) and preventing runs over 10 yards (22nd). Overall they were 11th in the NFL. The Packers were poor run blitzers last year and Edwards had some trouble tackling, the game in Chicago comes to mind. Maybe improvement by Marques Anderson as a run blitzer and a full season for him in run support will improve both areas. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Packers look for a new strong safety, the Packers briefly flirted with Sammy Knight last offseason, but I would be surprised to see wholesale changes on the defensive line and at linebacker.

Special Teams. With the exception of Ryan Longwell, who is perfect from within 45 yards on field goals and perfect on extra points, this entire unit could be revamped. Overall the unit was average and the 12th best unit in the NFL. Josh Bidwell is a free agent and I wouldn't expect him back, unless at a league minimum salary. Antonio Chapman had some moments as a kick and punt returner, but was not a factor. Davenport might be an exciting kick returner in 2004, if he is given the job, after watching him as a kick returner over the last few games. The kick coverage is desperate for a gunner to make an impact.

The most important decision the Packers make this offseason is hiring the team's next defensive coordinator. Dave McGinnis is getting a lot of mention, along with assistant head coach Bob Slowik and linebackers coach Mark Duffner. McGinnis would seem preferred, because he is a former head coach, but his defenses in Arizona were never very good although there were many excuses for it. Is the roster best suited for the type of defense McGinnis perfers to play? I have no idea. It should be a 4-3 defense, because the Packers aren't deep at linebacker, but other than that the defense appears to have the size and speed (although not much speed at cornerback) to play many different defensive schemes. I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Sherman is looking for a coordinator with a past or future plan to generate an improved pass rush. As long as the players listen to and work hard for the new coordinator, he should be successful with the Packers.

It was an ugly game, but Carolina beat Philadelphia with a bit of luck. Carolina's luck was most prominent last week when St. Louis's Jeff Wilkins missed an OT field goal, a kick I would imagine Wilkins makes 49 out of 50 times, but Carolina created their luck this week when they knocked Donovan McNabb out of the game. Philadelphia was a 4th quarter team in 2003 and both times they played the Packers, McNabb led Philadelphia back in the 4th quarter. Without McNabb, Philadelphia didn't come back in the 4th quarter vs. Carolina, although maybe Koy Detmer would have led a late touchdown drive if Duce Staley hadn't run the wrong route near the goal line. With the exception of Dallas, who Carolina clobbered in the first round, all the NFC playoff games were close, and it easily could be the Packers in the Super Bowl. The Packers weren't robbed of a Super Bowl appearance, they deserved to lose to Philadelphia, but they could have won that game on numerous plays. Although I don't know if any NFC team could beat New England right now, and I'm expecting Carolina to get crushed like Atlanta in 1998 or the New York Giants in 2000.

Speaking of Atlanta, Ed Donatell has a new home in Atlanta where he will be the defensive coordinator in 2004 for new head coach Jim Mora, Junior. Donatell has his work cut out for him because Atlanta will switch from a 3-4 to 4-3 defense this offseason and will try to improve from a 30th ranked defense. Donatell is a good coach, but when you coach an average performance out of a talented defense with few injuries, you are likely to be fired. Maybe Donatell is being fired for having a young Packers defense. Comparing the Packers defense to New England's defense, player by player, both defenses have comparable talent, however, New England's defense has far more experience and much better results. However, some teams rely too much on veterans, for example Oakland in 2003, and have bad results. I don't think Mike Sherman needed to fire Donatell, but it might be a good idea to bring in a new coach to get more production out of a solid defense on paper.

I didn't know Jeff Jagodzinski was the tight ends coach until Sherman fired him. Jagodzinski had one thing in common with Donatell this season, he coached an underachieving unit, and both men were fired. Just as with the defense, maybe bringing in a new tight ends coach will make that group more productive.

Packers 17, Philadelphia 20. The most depressing loss in recent memory. Many games have moments when a team could win a game if they had made this play or the other, but this game had several moments when victory could have been snatched from the jaws of defeat. If Mike Wahle hadn't tripped Ahman Green on 4th down on Philadelphia's 1 yard line. If Mike McKenzie and Marques Anderson had covered Todd Pinkston in the end zone. If Javon Walker had stood up and run into the end zone instead of getting up to celebrate. If Mike Sherman had trusted his offense to make a 4th and 1 with 2:30 left in the game, except he was probably shell shocked after Wahle's earlier trip of Green on 4th down, and not had given Donovan McNabb another chance to win the game. If Bhawon Jue had covered Freddie Mitchell instead of leaving him wide open at the first down marker on 4th and 25. If Brett Favre hadn't thrown that awful interception in overtime. Favre's interception will get all of the attention, but if the Packers had executed a single one of these plays correctly, they would have won the game. Except for Wahle being pushed into Green while Wahle was pulling on the play, every other play I mentioned was either poor execution or a poor decision, and not because Philadelphia outplayed the Packers on the play.

So many players had great game for the Packers. Nick Barnett, Ahman Green, Brett Favre (except for the interception), the entire offensive line, Grady Jackson, and of course Robert Ferguson. In the end, all it did was keep Philadelphia from leading in the game until the final play. If the Packers have played Philadelphia for about 125 minutes this season (2 games plus OT), then Philadelphia has led for about 2 of the 125 minutes, but has beaten the Packers both times.

It was a duplicate of Philadelphia's earlier win in Green Bay. The Packers outplayed most of the game, but Philadelphia kept it close, waited for the Packers to make their mistakes and then made big plays when given the opportunity.

In this game, Philadelphia had little production from their running backs and the Packers pass coverage was often excellent. McNabb ended up with big passing numbers and Philadelphia ended up with big rushing numbers, but both are deceiving stats. McNabb had some success passing, but often couldn't find an open receiver and took a sack (8 sacks in the game). The pass coverage was excellent on the plays when McNabb took off and ran too, but the Packers were woefully unprepared to stop McNabb from scrambling on the busted play. The Packers did a lot of stunting, with defensive linemen running parallel to the line of scrimmage and then running at McNabb to try and generate pass pressure, but it created big holes for McNabb to run through. Philadelphia's defensive blitzing was excellent, especially in the 4th quarter and overtime when it forced Favre's interception.

I am hoping that the Packers decide/are able to keep this team together and take another shot at the Super Bowl next year. This team is so close to putting it all together, with three straight playoff appearances, and it finished strong at the end of the season, the loss in Philadelphia ended a 5 game win streak, which is a strong indicator for next season.

Packers 33, Seattle 27. This was a very close game played by two very similar teams. Both teams have great run offenses but struggled to run the ball. Both teams have great a pass offense and a struggling pass defense. The Packers gained 2.4 yards/carry to Seattle’s 2.3 yards/carry. The Packers had 319 yards passing to Seattle’s 300 yards. There were few penalties and no turnovers until the last play of the game. Seattle could have won the game if Maurice Morris or Koren Robinson hadn’t missed/dropped touchdown passes or Ahman Green’s crucial 4th down carry had been ruled a fumble, but any missed opportunity or mistake was amplified by the similar ability of the two teams.

First Quarter: Seattle was hurt by dropped passes all game long, but the Packers had two crucial drops in the first quarter. Robert Ferguson dropped a 2nd down pass after a penalty that effectively ended one drive and Antonio Freeman dropped a 3rd down pass that would have been 1st down yardage in Seattle territory. Seattle had one successful drive, Shawn Alexander actually had a 17 yard carry but only had 28 yards on 19 carries for the rest of the game, and the Packers had a successful goal line stand in the first quarter although Alexander was very effective near the goal line for the rest of the game. Grady Jackson was fantastic getting into Seattle’s backfield and making plays in pursuit up and down the line of scrimmage. Aaron Kampman was excellent holding his position on run plays, and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila did much better on run defense this game instead of pushed out of the way like he did in the first half against Seattle back in October. Packers 0, Seattle 3.

Second Quarter: Both punters struggled because of the cold weather, Josh Bidwell had two early touchbacks and Tom Rouen couldn’t get any distance. William Henderson made an unbelievable catch right off the defender’s hip and it set up a field goal. Seattle’s receivers were able to get separation on the Packers secondary all game and Robinson, Itula Mili, Darrell Jackson and Bobby Ingram were open often. Matt Hasselbeck was very accurate and at least half of his 20 incompletions were drops. There is nothing worse than watching the officials take points off the scoreboard when they ruled Hasselbeck didn’t fumble (tuck rule!) and Nick Barnett, who had a great game, didn’t score a touchdown. Brett Favre and Javon Walker are a great deep pass combination. Favre is never right on target with Walker, few NFL quarterbacks hit their receivers deep in stride, and Walker is excellent at adjusting to the ball. Bubba Franks has caught zero or one pass in 8 of the last 10 games, but he gets behind the safety with no help deep in the end zone for probably his longest catch of the season. I expected Franks to be a serious threat deep over the middle this season, and this was the first time I saw it work. The defense was fired up after the touchdown and got its only real sack on Hasselbeck all game on Seattle’s first play, and it caused a fumble to kill the drive. Packers 13, Seattle 6.

Third Quarter: Mike Holmgren’s Packers teams always made successful adjustments at half time. Seattle’s offense is no different. Seattle had the ball 6 times in the first half and scored 6 points. In the second half, Seattle had the ball 4 times and scored 21 points. All the drives were long, consistent drives and it was a very impressive performance from Hasselbeck considering he did it all without much help rushing from Alexander. Of course he had some luck too when he threw a perfect pass right to Packers linebacker Hannibal Navies, who didn’t catch the ball, allowed it to bounce off of him, and was caught by offensive lineman Steve Hutchinson. Favre threw the ball up for grabs a few times, and I wish he would stop doing that. He threw it up once for David Martin, and Martin should have caught it. Favre has been throwing it up once or twice a game all year and usually it gets picked off, but not today. The Packers secondary fell apart short as receivers keep getting open, but no long touchdown passes. Mike McKenzie is trying to play through his injury, but it is obvious he is a step slower with his injured toe. Packers 13, Seattle 20.

Fourth Quarter: I have no idea how Randall Godfrey failed to tackle Green on 4th and 1 on Seattle’s 3 yard line. My best guess is a combination of strength by Green and bad angle by Godfrey. The next drive the Packers ran and passed the ball to get to Seattle’s 20 yard line, and then proceeded to run the ball 5 times for 20 yards and a touchdown. After this outburst for 4 yards/carry, the announcers reminded everyone that it is obvious that the Packers are built around running the ball with Ahman Green. Uh huh. Green is a top 5 running back in the league, but Favre’s 319 yards passing were much more important than Green’s 66 yards rushing. This team is built around Favre and he is very productive in this offense. Green is the best complimentary player Favre has ever played with, but Green is still the compliment to Favre. Watching the Packers last touchdown drive, I thought it was great that the drive took so much time off the clock, but it didn’t leave the offense enough time to score on its last drive. The Packers secondary never looked worse in the game than the 59 yards it allowed on 4 pass attempts in one minute. With about a minute and a half left, Seattle was down to the Packers 8 yard line. It was a great goal line stand until Barnett committed pass interference in the end zone. Walker made a great reception, but Ryan Longwell hasn’t kicked for distance all year and especially not in cold weather. Packers 27, Seattle 27.

Overtime: Apparently Hasselbeck was wrong, because Seattle didn’t score. Both defenses looked sharper in the overtime, which was really surprising after both defenses allowed a combined 3 touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Both teams had unsuccessful drives until Hasselbeck threw the interception to Al Harris that he returned for a touchdown. Holmgren looked upset in the post-game interview that Hasselbeck called an audible on the play. I remember a game in the mid-90s in Minnesota when backup Packer quarterback T.J. Rubley (he was the third string QB who came in after Favre and Ty Detmer both got hurt) threw a game ending interception on an audible, and Holmgren had him cut the next day. Holmgren won’t cut Hasselbeck, but he might want to in anger and it’s a good thing that Holmgren doesn’t have his GM powers anymore. The Packers corners haven’t jumped too many short routes this season, whether it is conservative play or lack of speed to jump the routes I don’t know, but Harris played that one perfect. Packers 33, Seattle 27.

Annual Ron Wolf rumor alert. Miami is reportedly interested in talking to Ron Wolf about becoming Miami's General Manager or as a consultant. He is finishing up a 3 year consulting contract with the Packers, but I'm not sure what he did. With Mike Sherman, Mark Hatley, and Reggie McKenzie in the front office, I wouldn't imagine Wolf had much input on player personnel decisions over the last 3 years. I read interviews with Wolf over the last 3 years about how he dislikes all the travel a GM is required to do, because airports are more crowded and busier places with too many delays. I wouldn't expect Wolf to come back for another GM position, but maybe he sign on as a who-knows-what-he-is-doing consultant. He lives in Maryland, maybe Dan Snyder would ask him to rebuild Washington's team? I wouldn't mind seeing Ron Wolf back in the NFL as a GM, although I don't think Snyder deserves any favors.

Arizona 18, Minnesota 17. Yes, the Packers played Denver and won 31 to 3, but Arizona needed to win for the Packers to make it due to the NFL's bizarre rules if 3 teams tie for a playoff spot. If Minnesota would have won, then 1 of 4 teams (Dallas, Minnesota, Seattle or the Packers) would have been robbed of a playoff spot, and all three teams were deserving, until Minnesota blew it in Arizona. Ironically, Minnesota, Seattle and the Packers are all very similar teams (great offenses with weak defenses). In the end, defense decided the outcome of the playoff spots because Seattle's defense contained Jeff Garcia on Saturday after San Francisco's offense had looked unstoppable in the previous 2 games and Minnesota's defense couldn't stop Arizona's offense with the game on the line. The Packers defense didn't have much to do with this outcome because Denver played their last regular season game like it was a preseason game.

At this point, no team should be favored to win the NFC playoffs. St. Louis has a championship defense, but Marc Bulger is injured, he commits too many turnovers, and Marshall Faulk is not running the ball well right now. Philadelphia has a good run offense, but Donovan McNabb has not played the best football of his career in the playoffs of the past two seasons and their run defense is very weak. If Philadelphia ends up playing Dallas or St. Louis, they have a good chance, but they would be in trouble vs. Carolina, the Packers, or Seattle. Dallas's offense has really struggled as teams have shut down Terry Glenn and Troy Hambrick. Carolina really reminds me of Atlanta in 1998 (great run offense and solid but not great defense) but their pass offense isn't as good. Carolina's special teams and clock consuming run offense will have to carry them. Seattle looked very bad in Green Bay on October 5th and they were playing better football at that time, while the Packers were really struggling. The 2003 Packers didn't collapse at the end of the season like the 2002 Packers, so I wouldn't expect the same result as last year's playoff game vs. Atlanta. Seattle and the Packers are very similar teams, both well matched to exploit each other's weaknesses although both teams weaknesses, notably their pass defenses, have played much better in recent weaks. Seattle's formerly weak run defense did a great job at San Francisco vs. a quality run offense. This will be a very close game.

First Quarter: Perfect first drive: Brett Favre was 6 for 6 and completed passes to 6 different receivers, although Denver should have intercepted the ball in the end zone. Denver was able to run the ball a little early on, but Jarious Jackson was far too inconsistant. Jackson's early struggles reminded me of the mid-90s Favre who was usually inaccurate in the first quarter because he was so excited. Ed McCaffrey had a horrible first half for Denver as Darren Sharper and Al Harris got in two big hits on him. Packers 7, Denver 0.

Second Quarter: Typical game for the Packers defense: early in the game the defensive line is shoved around, but as the game goes on it gets stronger. This defies most convential thinking, usually the offensive line wears down a defensive line. It is probably due to the quality depth the Packers have at defensive line and a good rotation scheme by the Packers coaches. Extra bonus: Kenny Peterson returned for the first time in a few weeks, and this only improves the line. Jackson is getting better as he calms down, but his horrible pass intercepted by Al Harris on a busted play got him benched. Danny Kanell came in and he isn't horrible, but he doesn't make any big plays either. The only bad plays by Favre in recent weeks is his insistence to get Wesley Walls involved in the offense. Walls has made some big catches, but teams know Favre wants to throw deep to Walls. Favre's first pass after the Jackson interception was a long pass to Walls that was intercepted. After the great first drive, Favre only completed 6 more passes the entire game and the Packers found the rest of their success with the run offense. It was very surprising to see Ryan Longwell miss a field goal within 45 yards, but it happened today. Packers 10, Denver 0.

Third Quarter: Without Jake Plummer at quarterback, Denver's offense is just bad. Kanell didn't commit many turnovers, his only interception was an end of the half hail mary pass in the end zone, but they just can't keep any drive going. With Favre's post first drive struggles in this game, the offense only got going once Denver's defensive line got worn out. Denver gets on the board, but Ahman Green's big 47 yard run sets up an easy touchdown run as the Packers offensive line did a great job setting up a huge running lane over the left tackle. After the long kick return, Denver has a chance to answer right back but...Packers 17, Denver 3.

Fourth Quarter: Denver turns the ball over on downs when the Packers run defense made a great goal line stand, and Kanell couldn't throw it in either. Then Green's huge 98 yard run: the run blocking, especially by Kevin Barry who sealed off the right side for a huge hole was great, solid blocking by the receivers because the Denver pursuit by the secondary was slow to react, and speed by Green to run past the 2 Denver defensive backs who had a shot near the end zone. Adrian Madise had a great kickoff return for Denver in the 3rd quarter but botched catching the ball on the 4th quarter kickoff and the Packers got their first special teams touchdown of the year. The game was on fumes after that point as both teams backups (and backups of backups) entered the game. Packers 31, Denver 3.

Packers 41, Oakland 7. Did Oakland go to the Super Bowl last year? The Packers added an exclaimation point to an awful and disappointing season for Oakland by embarrasing them on national TV. When the Packers don't turnover the ball on offense and their receivers are able to get a step or two on their defenders in coverage, the Packers will destroy lesser teams like Oakland. Brett Favre statistically had the best game of his career, and good luck to him on what is sure to be a difficult week for him after the sudden death of his father Irvin on Sunday night.

The NFL has continued to make the tiebreaker formula a complete screwup. If Seattle wins, Dallas loses, and the Packers win, the Packers could miss the playoffs depending on the outcome of the Baltimore/Pittsburgh game. Huh? I read ESPN's website and the first tiebreaker is head to head and the Packers beat Seattle earlier in the season, so how can Seattle be tied with the Packers under any circumstances and make the playoffs while the Packers sit at home? I am not asking for an interpretation of the rules, but asking under whose twisted logic does that make any sense. How can Seattle overcome the #1 tiebreaker, head-to-head, by beating the Packers or Dallas on the #6 tiebreaker, strength of schedule? Why?

I'd expect the Packers are focused on winning next Sunday, and that job got a little easier with Denver clinching a wild card spot. Denver can't win the division and Clinton Portis is still hurting, so their should be no incentive to play him next weekend.

First Quarter: Oakland was amazingly consistent (bad) the entire game. Rick Mirer proved he can't throw the ball accuarately over 10 yards. Oakland passed on 4 of their first 5 plays, although their run offense is their strength, and after a Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila sack they punted. Favre started off the game by immediately abusing Oakland's secondary, who was the worst secondary I have seen this season. Oakland was blitzing, keeping their linebackers and strong safety close to the line of scrimmage to stop the run, and Favre picked their secondary apart. Oakland's secondary was only credited for 2 pass defenses the entire game. Favre completes a long pass to Robert Ferguson who just ran by Philip Buchanon who gave a five yard cushion to any receiver he faced all game. Buchanon is having a terrible season, and his confidence must be shot by this point. Wesley Walls made a great touchdown grab, but I have no idea how Oakland's strong safety Derrick Gibson missed intercepting or knocking the ball down. Oakland 3 and out; the Packers defensive line got a great push on the line of scrimmage all game long and Grady Jackson was great in the first quarter. Antonio Chapman had a nifty return, spinning out of a tackle and gaining some yardage. Chapman had a promising game, he even had a punt return for a touchdown although it was called back because of two illegal blocks that sprung him on the return. The Packers had a lot of penalties on offense in the first quarter, but none of them mattered including a holding penalty that set up a 3rd and 12. Tony Fisher and the offensive line ran a perfectly executed screen pass to convert on it, and the next play was Javon Walker's first touchdown pass as he ran by Buchanon (again) for the catch. Oakland answers with a touchdown drive by running on 5 of their next 6 plays including the long touchdown run by Charlie Garner. John Madden started talking in general about the poor tackling in the NFL after watching Garner's run, and Madden was right, the Packers tackling was awful on the play because Darren Sharper, Al Harris and Marques Anderson all missed tackles. It was one of the few bad plays by the defense all game. Packers 14, Oakland 7.

Second Quarter: The Packers move the ball easily over 50 yards on their next drive, but it stalls on a 3rd and 4 on a rare Favre incompletion and leads to an easy Ryan Longwell field goal. Oakland 3 and out. Mirer isn't accurate enough to sustain drives by passing, so without an effective running game or big plays on offense, Oakland can't go anywhere. Oakland had some success running the ball in previous games, with a league average 17th ranked run offense, but they were so far behind they had no opportunity after the 1st quarter to exploit it. Oakland doesn't have much speed at receiver, and except for all the passes Jerry Rice caught in garbage time in the 4th quarter, the Packers secondary did a great job keeping with Oakland's receivers. Ferguson makes a great catch on 3rd and 9 while he was falling out of bounds. Then the long underthrown bomb to Walker, where the two Oakland defenders (including Buchanon again) ran past the play while Walker had great ball awareness. Oakland 3 and out. Ho-hum, another long pass to Walker sets up David Martin's first touchdown catch since September. Oakland gets the home crowd excited by making their first 1st down of the quarter on a long pass to Rice, but Mirer is sacked twice in the next 4 plays for a turnover on downs. A hail mary to the end zone is actually defended by Oakland (probably one of their two pass defenses in the game) to deny Favre his 5th touchdown pass of the half. Packers 31, Oakland 7.

Half time: Shaq! Oh that ABC synergy!

Third Quarter: Any hope Oakland had for a better second half was immediately crushed on a long kickoff return by Najeh Davenport. Great burst of speed by Davenport, but a great job for the kick blocking with a huge hole for him to run through. Favre throws 3 of his 8 incompletions on the drive and Longwell kicks another easy field goal. After Rice's long catch and fumble, I missed most of this quarter, but Mirer's interception to Michael Hawthorne (who has been a fantastic early season pickup) ended his game as he was replaced by Rob Johnson. By this point, the Packers are handing the ball off a lot with an occasional Favre pass to keep Oakland honest. Packers 34, Oakland 7.

Fourth Quarter: I watched all their was to watch in this quarter, which was a lot of passes by Johnson, eventually replaced by Tee Martin, and a lot of Packers runs. Johnson looked awful, and it is appropriate that Johnson is sacked (he is the NFL all time leader in sacks/attempts) on the first successful cornerback blitz I can remember the Packers executing in weeks. Apparently the cornerback blitz is only successful against sack magnets like Johnson. Favre throws a 40 yard bomb to Donald Driver, who I can't imagine was the first option on a pass play in a blowout. Antonio Freeman gets a catch on 3rd down to convert, and on the next play Ahman Green has his easiest run of the game on an untouched touchdown run. Finally Oakland gets sick of watching Johnson after he throws one of the worst interceptions I have seen all year. Johnson is trying to throw to Jerry Rice on a quick slant, but he double clutches as he sees Hawthorne standing 5 yards deep right in the path of the pass, then Johnson throws it anyway right to Hawthorne! Johnson should not have been cut after the game, but immediately after he threw that pass. Martin has some success for Oakland at quarterback, like it matters, but Aaron Kampman gets a highlight reel moment when he sacks Martin, forces a fumble, and recovers it himself. Packers 41, Oakland 7.

I am not a big fan of the Pro Bowl. It is an afterthought to the NFL season and it seems even more irrelevant than the other professional sports league's All Star games if that is possible. I'm sure the league makes money off of it, but its sure to cost good teams money too when it comes time for a team's Pro Bowl players to negotiate their next contract. Nonetheless, its a good way for the league to give some congrads to the players who had excellent seasons, and to some deserving Packers.

Ahman Green was an easy selection. The top 3 NFC rushing leaders to this point were selected and Green is #2. Maybe Brett Favre was a surprise selection for some, but I think it was obvious. Favre is having a great season and he is playing as well as he ever has ever played. Marco Rivera might have gotten the nod because once an offensive lineman gets selected, it seems like he is selected ever year, but it also is a selection to respect a great offensive line.

The choice of Pro Bowl alternates was a little strange. Mike Flanagan was selected, but the NFL could have just as easily selected all the non-Rivera starting offensive lineman as alternates. Nick Barnett was a surprise, but he has played great and deserves it. Bubba Franks has been a forgotten man the last few weeks, and has not made an impact this season, but he was selected. William Henderson has been great and could have been named starter, although I don't have any objection to naming Fred Beasley as the starting fullback. Ryan Longwell has been automatic all year within 45 yards and deserves the selection. Mike McKenzie and Darren Sharper have been the two best players in the Packers secondary, but it is unusual to see two members of a secondary ranked #26 in the NFL be selected as alternates. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila is a surprise since he hasn't been very good against the run, he was so much better last year at consistently speed rushing on passing plays, and he is tied for 8th among NFC defensive ends with 7 sacks.

I read on packersnews.com that Mike Wahle was upset that he didn't get select, even as an alternate. All starting five (Chad Clifton, Wahle, Flanagan, Rivera, and Mark Tauscher) offensive lineman have been excellent this year, all of them deserve recognition, but I do agree that Wahle has stood out among the starting five. Primarily on running plays where he pulls to lead block, because he always makes a great block and it is intimidating for a linebacker/cornerback/safety to see a giant 6'6" 307 lbs. lineman bearing down on you. If you wanted to single out a game for Wahle (although it was a group effort along with Flanagan and Rivera) it would be the Tampa Bay game, when he was dominated Tampa Bay's high paid defensive tackles (Warren Sapp and Anthony McFarland) and opened huge running lanes.

Overall it was great to see so many Packers get recognition. Now I just want to see them win their last two games.

Packers 38, San Diego 21. This was the biggest win for the Packers all season, because it came the same day as a Seattle loss and a Minnesota loss. For the first time since early in the season the Packers control their own playoff chances because if they win out they have the wild card at least, and are tied for the NFC Central lead. Its a mixed blessing, because the Packers run offense is regressing and it hasn't looked dominant the last three weeks. The first 4 games after the bye week, the run offense looked like the best in the NFL, but defenses appear committed to stopping the run and they are hoping for a Brett Favre interception or two (or three...). The Packers offense seems to stall, and turn the ball over, anytime it calls too many pass plays in a row. San Diego is a bad team, they appear to have several players on their lines and their defensive secondary who shouldn't be starting in the NFL, but LaDainian Tomlinson is the most impressive and dangerous player I have seen in the NFL this season.

First Quarter: I missed the first touchdown drive, but Donald Driver caught 2 passes on the way to his best game of the season and Ahman Green had his 2nd longest run of the game (9 yards) on his way to the touchdown run. Green broke Jim Taylor's single season rushing record, but it took him many rushes to get the 40 or so yards he needed for it. San Diego had a great opening drive thanks mostly to Packers' penalties. This was the second game in three weeks, the Detroit game on Thanksgiving is the other one, where the refs made questionable calls for big yardage for the Packers opponents. The pass interference call against Mike McKenzie was especially weak because both players were going for the ball. But the defense held near the goal line and started the bend but don't break theme it played with most of the game. Penalties were a big part of the quarter, keeping the first San Diego drive alive and killing a subsequent Packer drive. Packers 7, San Diego 3.

Second Quarter: The penalties continued into the 2nd quarter as the refs were working on a quota or something. Someone named Antonio Gates started catching a bunch of passes. Gates caught passes in each quarter and probably had his first 100 yard receiving game of his career. The good news is that Gates and Tomlinson were the only productive offensive players in the game for San Diego. San Diego's big and expensive wide receiver, David Boston, had an unimpressive game and made his biggest contribution in the game on a fumble off his knee that Marques Anderson recovered. Anderson always seems around the ball. San Diego pins the Packers down at their 3 yard line, but Green runs them out of the tight spot and a San Diego penalty helps on a 3rd down play. Wesley Walls catches a pass on 3rd down that is just short of the 1st down marker and forces a punt. Walls has seemed to have a catch in each of the last couple of weeks that is just short of a 1st down. San Diego should have scored on their next drive, but Darren Sharper has a great leaping interception while on a blitz that stops it. With only 1:25 left in the quarter, Favre runs a great 2 minute drill and throws a perfect touchdown pass to Driver, diving towards the front end zone marker, and it is thrown to a place that only Driver could catch it. Packers 17, San Diego 3.

Third Quarter: The defense couldn't get off the field, and Favre didn't help matters by going 0 for 5 with 1 interception for the quarter. The run offense wasn't much better with 1 carry by Green for -2 yards. Although with all this time, San Diego only scores once in the quarter with a field goal. San Diego, however, has the ball for 3 drives in the 3rd quarter and 2 of the drives end by the Packers goal line (including a touchdown scored just after the start of the 4th quarter) and 1 drive ended when Chukie Nwokorie forces a fumble on a sack. Nwokorie did a great speed rush move around the left tackle and it was the only play that stopped San Diego in the quarter. The secret to San Diego's offense is to make sure Tomlinson has the ball a lot. Its a pretty good strategy. If Tomlinson got better blocking and wasn't hit so much at the line of scrimmage, he would be lethal with his speed and strength in the open field. Packers 17, San Diego 6.

Fourth Quarter: In the first 3 minutes of the 4th quarter, San Diego scores 2 touchdowns and takes the lead. Tomlinson scores both touchdowns. San Diego runs a great play with Tomlinson motioning out of the backfield, he moves into the slot, and forces some poor linebacker to try and keep up with him. On the 2nd touchdown of the quarter, Tomlinson is in the slot, gets about 3 yards of cushion (you can't give him any cushion but if you don't he'll blow by you so its a lose or lose situation), and runs right through and by the entire Packers secondary. The Packers are quick to respond with a great kickoff return by Najeh Davenport, running past and through a couple of players, and Favre throws a great deep pass down the field to Robert Ferguson. Unfortunately, by this point the Packers defense has spent most of the 2nd half on the field, but it doesn't hurt their play. I have been critical of blitzing by the Packers, but it worked perfectly on the next fumble by Drew Brees. LB Hannibal Navies blitzed, while NT Grady Jackson busted up the middle right by the offensive guard and forced the fumble. Then Navies, who was in the backfield because he blitzed, fell on the ball at the 1 yard line of San Diego. Green caught a pass in the flat for a touchdown on the next play. This was the best blitz play of the season, and the blitzer didn't even force the pressure (directly) or got a sack. San Diego scores 2 touchdowns in 3 minutes, and the Packers answer back with 2 touchdowns in 3 minutes. San Diego's next drive is killed by a holding penalty on 1st down. Then Green has his longest run of the game, 33 yards, and Favre finds Ferguson for his 2nd touchdown and Favre's 4th. San Diego drives down to the Packers goal line again, but they can't punch it in. For the game, San Diego was at the Packers 15 yard line or closer on 5 drives and only scored 13 points. Packers 38, San Diego 21.

It is ironic that Brett Favre isn't getting any MVP press this year like he did last year, although I think he is having the best season of his career this year. He is tied for the lead in touchdown passes and has the best completion percentage of his career, although he is without a Pro Bowl caliber receiver and he has played much of the season with a broken thumb on his passing hand. He just broke Cecil Isbell's record set in 1942 with his 23rd consecutive game with a touchdown pass (thanks Jeff Sanford for pointing that out to me). He is running the offense as well as he has ever done, and is spreading the ball out to every eligible receiver, except backup tackle Kevin Barry, in the passing game.

This year is different from 2002 because the Packers aren't running away with their division and Favre has thrown a bunch of interceptions. Quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning and Steve McNair are more deserving of the actual award, but Favre deserves to be part of the discussion. He isn't going to pile up the big touchdown number he had in his MVP seasons, but the Packers running game is so much better this year then it was in 1995-1997 that Mike Sherman isn't calling all those short touchdown passes to the tight ends this season like Mike Holmgren used to call, and Sherman is letting Ahman Green run the ball in. His total passing yards are down (for his standards) but that too is a consequence of the great run offense. Here is to hoping Favre hears a lot of praise in the off season for his outstanding performances in 2003.

Packers 34, Chicago 21. This was not a game I was ever worried about. The Packers record against Chicago over the last 10 years is heavily in the Packers favor. Even when Chicago went 13-3 in 2001, 2 of their 3 losses were against the Packers. The Packers offense never got on track, especially the running game, but the Packers defense forced multiple big turnovers that killed Chicago.

The bigger news was the resurrection of Minnesota, with an impressive victory over Seattle. Minnesota dominated Seattle, Minnesota had no turnovers while forcing 3 Seattle turnovers, and Minnesota looked like the team that started the year 6-0. Minnesota is a streaky team, and I wouldn't be surprised if they won out despite one of their remaining games is against Kansas City. With Seattle's loss, however, Seattle has proven they can't win on the road, 1-5 so far, with two away games at St. Louis and at San Francisco, that I can't imagine them winning. With a probable win at home against Arizona, Seattle would finish 9-7, and the Packers won their game against them this season. So I think the division title is out of reach, and the goal is taking the wild card from Seattle or slumping Dallas. Dallas failed to complete a single pass to any wide receiver the entire game last Sunday, which is unbelievable. Dallas's remaining schedule isn't a killer (at Washington, home against the Giants, and at New Orleans), but they have lost 3 of their last 4 and have lost ugly the last 2 weeks. With both projected NFC wild card teams slumping, the wild card should be the Packers goal.

First Quarter: Najeh Davenport has become my favorite kick returner. He is strong and can't be taken down by an arm tackle, but he has enough speed to break a long return if he can get past the initial wave of coverage. The first possessions of the game for both teams were anemic, with 5 rushes and 1 incomplete pass between them, no first downs, and 2 punts. The next Packer possession was a typical scoring drive for them this year; a couple of runs, Brett Favre completing passes to multiple receivers (4 different receivers on this drive alone), but Wesley Walls came up just short on a 3rd down pass. I was hoping Mike Sherman would go for it, because I was expecting a Josh Bidwell touchback punt and only a 25 yard net advantage, but Sherman elected for the touchback. This is the second game in a row where the offensive line didn't dominate and the Packers had trouble running the ball. I don't know if teams are doing a better job of scheming against the Packers run offense or this is a drop off in play, but this isn't the same team running the football. The pass completion to David Terrell on 3rd and 9 was disappointing, but its unusual for Chicago to throw passes downfield. The 61 yard touchdown pass to Marty Booker on the next play was very unusual. Mike McKenzie personally took responsiblity for the play, but he was in a really tight spot; he was trying to cover a receiver known for catching passes short and he had no deep help. Unfortunately, Favre answered Chicago's long touchdown by handing them another long touchdown on a pass interception returned for a touchdown. It looked like Favre was trying to throw the ball away out of bounds, but he should have known he was still between the tackles and it would have been grounding even if his pass had made it there. He was probably frustrated by the lack of success the offense had in the quarter. Speaking of Monday Morning Quarterbacks, Favre's commercial where he walks around and second guesses everyone on the street for Mastercard is hilarious. Packers 0, Chicago 14.

Second Quarter: The Packers do get on track during their next drive. Ahman Green finally has some success (5 carries for 22 yards on the drive) and Favre completes passes to 3 different receivers. The drive stalls at Chicago's 6 yard line, but the field goal is the start of 34 unanswered points by the Packers. After a 1st quarter where Chicago didn't play like Chicago (forcing turnovers, pushing the ball down the field with long passes), Chicago reverts to form with a fumble on the kick return. The Packers' drive stalls immediately but now its 14 to 6. Actually, Chicago doesn't stop throwing long passes, Booker catches a long pass and later in the quarter Justin Gage should have had two long receptions, but one was called back on a gift offensive pass interference call against Gage and Gage dropped one in the end zone. If Gage had caught a long touchdown pass at the end of the 1st half, who knows how this game might have turned out. After Booker's last long catch of the game, however, Chicago stalls on 3rd down as Cletidus Hunt gets a sack. Hunt has been great the last few games, providing the interior pass rush that the Packers had expected from him all year long. Right now, teams cannot single team Hunt on passing downs and expect to contain him. Robert Ferguson caught 7 passes in the game, but his first catch wasn't until the middle of the 2nd quarter. Ferguson caught a 20 yard pass on a 1st and 15 for the Packers on their 22 yard line, which must have been a soul crusher for Chicago's defense. Javon Walker got his first catch on the drive too, with a touchdown catch that was very similar to Booker's touchdown catch because Walker ran by the cornerback, Charles Tillman, down the side line and Tillman's deep help was late. It was great that this catch came against Tillman, because Moose Johnson had been doing the commentating and he had been talking about how soft the Packers were playing and how tough Chicago was hitting. He had been especially fond of Tillman up to this point, and I don't remember Moose mentioning Tillman's name the rest of the game. Darren Sharper says thanks to Chicago for a hail mary interception at the end of the half, and he returned it to the 50 yard line, and he was probably only one or two players away from breaking it for a touchdown. Packers 13, Chicago 14.

Third Quarter: Another bad kickoff coverage by the Packers. Jerry Azumah, although unable to make a tackle on defense and fumbled an earlier kickoff, returns it to the Chicago 43 yard line. After one 1st down conversion, Chicago is already in Packer territory. Its like the special teams is missing that one great special team tackler who seems to be in on every play. Ferguson and Torrence Marshall have had good individual games on special teams, but not consistently. Luckily, McKenzie gets his first interception of the game to end the drive. The Packers have had so much success on offense this season because they can move down the field consistently by running or passing the ball. In this game, and last week in Detroit, the Packers have been unable to move the ball by running. This next drive stalls because the running game doesn't provide anything (3 carries for 5 yards), but the Ryan Longwell field goal gives the Packers their first lead. Chicago does nothing on their next drive, and the Packers next drive does little but the stupid late hit by Michael Haynes on Favre is the big play and sets up a 45 yard Longwell field goal. Longwell has been very valuable this season, because any kick by him within 45 yards of the goal posts has been automatic. He is one of the most accurate kicker in the NFL, although his leg isn't very strong. Packers 19, Chicago 14.

Fourth Quarter: It really surprised me that Chicago never dedicated themselves to running the football. The Packers have had problems stopping the run early in games and have not been a great run defense in general. Chicago's only success vs. the Packers in Chicago earlier this season was when Anthony Thomas ran the ball, but he only got 9 carries in this game and Chicago threw twice as much they ran (40 to 20). Unless Thomas has a fumbling problem, Chicago is just asking for trouble because it is inevitable that Stewart will make a bad play throwing the ball and they should want to keep those mistakes down to a minimum. Although Chicago is only down by 5 points, their first drive of the 4th quarter is primarily passes by Stewart. Chicago has success on this drive passing, Stewart is 5 of 7 for 63 yards with a 3rd and 8 at the Packers 16 yard line, but on his 8th attempt McKenzie jumps the short route on the sideline and intercepts the ball for a 90 yard touchdown return. This effectively ends the game, and Favre throws a 2 point conversion to Bubba Franks for an exclaimation point to the turn of events. After this play, Chicago doesn't call another running play the rest of the game, although over 9 minutes remain. I don't know why, but Chicago drives into Packer territory on the next drive but decide to punt instead of going for it on 4th and long. Maybe they are hoping the Packers turn it back over quickly and fortunately for Chicago this happens after two runs and an incompletion followed by a weak punt by Bidwell. Desmond Clark had a couple of nice catches in this game for Chicago, however, his fumble on the second play of their next drive kills it. The Packers just continue to run the ball and the clock, Green hasn't fumbled the ball since his disaster a few weeks ago vs. Philadelphia, so this is a pretty safe strategy. Bidwell has a nice punt to pin Chicago down to their 10 yard line, which leads to a three incompletions by Stewart, and a 4th down attempt that ends in a Stewart sack on his 1 yard line for a turnover on downs. Grady Jackson got the sack, and he has been a great pick up for the Packers. He isn't dominanting, but he gets some pressure up the middle and has held the middle of the line well against the run. With all the defensive line injuries, if they didn't have Jackson for the defensive line rotation, the run defense might be a lot worse at this point. Green easily runs the ball in on his second attempt and the game is a blowout. Azumah has a little redemption for his earlier fumble and poor tackling in the game with a long kickoff return for a touchdown, to cap off a poor game for the Packers special teams, but its too little too late for Chicago. With under 2 minutes left, the Packers go for it on 4th down to try and run out the clock but fail to convert it. Two weeks ago, this would have been a gimme but it isn't today. Chicago's last drive is a turnover on downs again, as Stewart fails again to get anything going. Chicago should turn to Rex Grossman next week to see what he can do. Packers 34, Chicago 21.

Packers 14, Detroit 22. Ugh. 3rd down conversions and turnovers. In the first half, the Packers defense couldn't get off the filed and Detroit was 4 for 7 on third down. In the second half, especially in the 4th quarter when the Packers had 2 fumbles and 2 interceptions, the Packers offense couldn't stop turning the ball over. The only good news was that Minnesota got crushed in St. Louis and their remaining schedule is tough; home against playoff bound Seattle (although Seattle can't win on the road), at Chicago (winners of their last two games), home against 11-1 Kansas City, at Arizona (Arizona sucks, but they are 3-2 at home and almost beat St. Louis in Arizona). All of those games will be tough for Minnesota, so an 8-8 record for them to end the season is very possible. The Packers would have to win 3 of their last 4 to finish 9-7 and win the division, and considering they had won 3 of 4 prior to the Detroit loss, it is very possible too.

First Quarter: The first (and only) touchdown drive by Detroit was very discouraging, Detroit was able to run and complete several short passes to move down the field, but the Packers defense only got better as the game went on. Najeh Davenport has become my favorite kickoff returner; he has speed in the open field and he has size to run through arm tackles that smaller returners, like Antonio Chapman, might get stopped by. The Packers drive to the Detroit 40 yard line, but they are forced to punt. The next Detroit drive looks stalled until Mike McKenzie gets an personal foul for shoving the Detroit receiver after the play out of bounds. It was a weak call, but McKenzie did slightly shove the receiver in the back. The Packers had 3 personal fouls (one on Aaron Kampman was offset by one on the same play by Stockar McDougle, although Kampman did nothing to deserve it while McDougle did) and this one made a big difference. Detroit was able to end the quarter with a nice field goal drive. Packers 0, Detroit 10.

Second Quarter: The rushing stats for the Packers look feeble in this game (16 carries for 52 yards) but the Packers did have some success running the ball in the first half, before abandoning it in the second half. A nice Ahman Green run, along with a rare downfield pass to Wesley Walls, led to a great grab by a Bubba Franks for the touchdown. After Franks had a bad game vs. San Francisco, it was good to see him have a solid game against Detroit. Unfortunately, Detroit answers with a long 8 minute drive. Joey Harrington had a very good first half, completing 11 of 12 passes (many on this drive). The ball is not bouncing the Packers way this season, and it is a big reason the Packers are 6-6. All the teams with winning records this season can probably point to a couple plays this year when the ball bounced just right and won them a game here or there. In this game, the Packers had 2 huge 4th quarter fumbles that Detroit recovered, while Detroit had 3 fumbles (including 2 on this drive alone) that easily could have been recovered had a Packer been in the right place at the right time, but the ball just didn't bounce their way. This drive also had another stupid personal foul (plus the phantom foul on Kampman) and led to a field goal. This was the last drive of the game where Detroit looked competant on offense, and had it led to zero points and the Packers could have recovered either fumble and turned it into any points, the entire game would have been different. The Packers try to answer but the first drive with 2:30 left in the half leads to a rare Brett Favre sack when he looked confused and ran into a sack, and a second drive that just ran out of time. Packers 7, Detroit 13.

Third Quarter: My mistake, Detroit had another competant drive in the game, this one to start the 2nd half, but a holding penalty killed it in Packer territory, and Detroit punted. Now the Packers start to go pass happy. Detroit's defensive line was tough on the day, and the Packers offensive line probably had its worst game of the season, but after several great rushing games in a row, the Packers only ran 2 times for 5 yards in the quarter. Favre completes 4 out of 5 passes before Dre Bly intercepts the ball at Detroit's 32. This was the second week in a row where a defensive back just muscles a receiver out of his way for an interception. The receivers can't be this passive and have to fight for the ball. This was the 1st of 5 turnovers in the half, and 4 of the turnovers were in Detroit territory. The Packers had several opportunities but the constant turnovers killed them. Fortunately, Detroit's offense begins to struggle and on the next drive Favre connects with Javon Walker for Walker's second big touchdown catch in 2 weeks. The Packers are leading for the first and last time in the game. The next three drives are 3 and outs followed by punts, including another lucky fumble for Detroit when Harrington has the ball slapped out of his hand but Detroit recovers it. Packers 14, Detroit 13.

Fourth Quarter: If the Packers never turned the ball over in the 4th quarter, Detroit would have never scored again, as 3 turnovers led to 3 Detroit field goals, and the Packers would have won a field position battle. Also the running game went MIA as they only rushed 3 times for minus 3 yards in the quarter. The quarter starts with a Walker fumble and Detroit recovery, which leads to a long field goal after a Detroit 3 and out possession. After a Packer punt, McKenzie intercepts Harrington for Detroit's only turnover of the game, but on the very next play Favre fumbles the ball and Detroit recovers. Detroit gets a nice Shawn Bryson run to get in field goal range for another long made field goal. Davenport has another great kickoff return, but then for the 3rd time in 4 drives, the Packers turn the ball over when Bly makes a great jump on an out route. Bly went for the interception, he would have been burned badly on an out and up, but he gambled and won on the play. Detroit has some success on the next drive, enough to get into field goal range, but everything Harrington throws is short, there is no chance at a big play, and as soon as Harrington throws a couple of incompletions (which is inevitable) the drive is dead. Harrington slumped badly in the second half, and if he can't complete over 60% of his passes he will never be successful in Steve Marucci's offense. But the drive leads to another Detroit field goal. After all these turnovers, and 3 Detroit scores in the 4th quarter, the Packers are still only down by one score (touchdown and 2 point conversion). The Packers get another drive going and they are in Detroit territory with over a minute left in the game, but a defensive player rushes untouched to Favre on a blitz, Favre throws up a prayer, and Robert Ferguson misplays the jump ball and Detroit's Doug Evans turns around at the last second for a gift interception. Evans was beat but Ferguson completely missed the jump ball. There was no reason Ferguson shouldn't catch that ball. The Packers are able to get the ball back because they used all 3 of their timeouts on Detroit's last possession, but there just isn't enough time, although on the hail mary, the ball was slapped down in the end zone, and it almost bounced right into Tony Fisher's hands at Detroit's 5 yard line (he was just a step too late), where he could have walked in for an easy touchdown. But nothing bounced the Packers way in this game. Packers 14, Detroit 22.

Packers 20, San Francisco 10. THIS was the best game of the year for the defense, replacing the Tampa Bay game as the previous best game. They held San Francisco to 192 yards and 3 for 12 on 3rd downs. Brett Favre threw 3 interceptions to give San Francisco some hope, but those 3 turnovers only led to 7 points. The score looks like this was a close game, but it was not close.

First Quarter: After the great run defense (they only allowed 73 yards on 21 carries all game) keys a 3 and out, Favre connects to Javon Walker on the first side line bomb I can remember working all season. Favre throws at least one of these passes a game, but this one worked, in large part to the single coverage on Walker. The next San Francisco drive dies in Packer territory in large part to Cletdius Hunt. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila got the sack, but it was caused by Hunt. Hunt had several big plays in San Francisco's back field, generated a pass rush all game, and easily had his best game of the season. Unfortunately, Favre throws a pass too high for Bubba Franks and Zack Bronson is in the right place at the right time to intercept it. Although they start at the Packers 20 yard line, the drive stalls and Todd Peterson, San Francisco's third kicker of the year, misses a gimme 28 yard field goal. Franks ends the quarter with a holding penalty to call back a first yard run by Ahman Green. Packers 7, San Francisco 0.

Second Quarter: Franks did not have his best game, as another pass intended for him is intercepted. Although San Francisco has great field possession again, this time at the Packers 22 yard line, 2 penalties and 2 incompletions push them out of field goal range and they have to punt. At this point I am thinking the game is over if San Francisco has the ball twice on 1st down at the Packers 20 yard line and they come away with no points. The passing game keeps leading to interceptions, so the Packers run 7 times in a row. What was amazing was that San Francisco knew they were going to run, because backup tackle Kevin Barry and backup fullback Nick Luchey were in as extra blockers on multiple plays, but they just ran it right at them. On the 25 yard run by Najeh Davenport, he had a giant running lane. The two passes Favre attempted were both completions and Robert Ferguson had a fantastic catch on a pass throw behind him and then he spun around after he caught it to cross the plane of the end zone just before falling out of bounds. San Francisco responds with a nice looking 6 minute drive which leads to a gimme field goal that Todd Peterson actually makes. Last week in Tampa Bay, the Packers ran an awful 2 minute drill at the end of the first half, but this week they did everything right. They ran and pass the ball successfully, ran all the time off the clock, and Longwell kicked a short field goal. Packers 17, San Francisco 3.

Third Quarter: More running Packers. Why not when your top two rushers Green and Davenport are averaging over 5 yards per carry, and 3rd string running back Tony Fisher isn't too far behind at 4.2 yards per carry. Longwell has been accurate all season on field goals, but he can't get enough distance for a 45+ yard field goal and his 49 yard attempt falls short. San Francisco answers with a 3 and out series and Antuan Edwards stuffs Terrell Owens (he tackles him around the waist, lifts him up, and slams him to the ground). Edwards is solid in coverage, apart from a poor week 1 vs. Randy Moss, but he hasn't been too good in run support, which is very important for a strong safety. For example, Anthony Thomas ran over and around him a few weeks ago in Chicago. So to see Edwards come up in run support and make a big run stop on 3rd down is a very promising sight. Unfortunately, Darren Sharper got hurt during the series. San Francisco can't get anything going on offense until Favre throws his 3rd interception of the game, when Mike Rumph plays the quick slant perfectly and cuts off Antonio Freeman on the route. Favre should have seen Rumph sitting there, but he probably thought he could squeeze it in. This leads to San Francisco's touchdown drive, when on 4th and short, Marques Anderson, Sharper's replacement, takes a bad angle on deep coverage of Owens and Owens runs past Anderson at the 5 yard line to catch the ball in the end zone. Anderson is great in run support, but his problems in coverage have led to him falling behind Edwards on the depth chart. You could see Al Harris talking at Anderson after the play. The Packers run, literally, out the clock on the quarter. Packers 17, San Francisco 10.

Fourth Quarter: The Packers ran the ball 16 times in the quarter and passed only twice. They had the ball for literally 13 minutes compared to 2 minutes for San Francisco who only had 8 plays (with 4 incompletions and 1 interception). San Francisco couldn't stop them from running the clock out and Edwards (what a great game for him!) jumped a corner route by Tim Rattay to intercept the ball with almost 6 minutes to go. The Packers just ran out the clock for the last 6 minutes, went 3 for 3 on 3rd downs on that last drive, including a great 3rd down run by Favre (of all people) to end the game. Packers 20, San Francisco 10.

Packers 20, Tampa Bay 13. As Darren Sharper commented after the game, they have to figure out why they are winning in Tampa Bay and Minnesota this year, but keep losing close games in Green Bay. If the Packers had won their two close defeats at Green Bay this season to Philadelphia and Kansas City, then it is likely the Packers are being talked about as a favorite for the Super Bowl at 7-3. This doesn't say as much about the Packers as it does about the parity in the NFC this season. Brett Favre had his worst game of the season (although the first half of week 1 vs. Minnesota was his worst half game of the season) but the defense had its best game. With the exception of the two big Thomas Jones runs, the Packers defense dominated Tampa Bay's offense.

First Quarter: After Tampa Bay's first punt, Antonio Chapman had a great punt return to start the drive at the Packers 47. Special teams and defense needed to make more plays, and both units delivered this week, although Tampa Bay is one of the weakest special team units in the NFL. The Packers only had two good looking drives in the game, where they passed and ran the ball effectively, but both drives ended with touchdowns. On their second drive, which led to their first touchdown, Favre completed 4 passes on the drive (he only completed 13 in the entire game) and 3 of them were on 3rd down. Ahman Green is already getting good yards running the ball. The difference between Green this season and past seasons is his production in the first halves of games. Tampa Bay had three drives in the first quarter, didn't convert a single 3rd down, and had one of the more laughable drives of the NFL season when they had three penalties in a row that resulted in only 3 penalty yards because they were pinned back so far against their end zone. Packers 7, Tampa Bay 0.

Second Quarter: Najah Davenport comes in to spell Green a couple times, 3 rushes in the first half, and every time he came in even I knew it was a running play. He gained no yards on his 3 rushes. I thought the Packers were being too obvious with their personnel packages, but in the second half it turned out to be a setup as they start running pass plays with Davenport in the backfield. A turnover! After only 2 turnovers in the last 4 games, a fumble recovery is big news. The Packers forced 3 turnovers in this game alone. Unfortunately the great field position only leads to a field goal. Thomas Jones second run of the game is a 61 yard explosion. Jones ran to Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila's side and the linebacker on that side (Na'il Diggs?) is blocked out of the play. Its bad news, but remember its only one of three big plays for Tampa Bay on offense all game while the rest of the time Green Bay dominated them. And the Packers hold them to a field goal. Great kickoff return by Davenport, of all people, leads to a field goal. With about 7 minutes left in the second quarter, Tampa Bay converts its only 3rd down of the game, and the drive ends in a punt. After Nick Barnett (What the heck is he doing so far down the field in coverage? Well it worked) intercepts Brad Johnson, the Packers spend the rest of the half confused: Are they going to try for one more score? Are they going to run out the clock? The Packers call a time out while Tampa Bay is trying to run out the clock, Mike Sherman is shown on the sidelines shaking his head in disbelief, and after a couple of 3 and outs on offense, Tampa Bay gets great field position on a bad Josh Bidwell punt and two Keyshawn Johnson pass completions later, Tampa Bay gets a gift field goal. Packers 13, Tampa Bay 6.

Third Quarter: Tampa Bay starts the half out with a rerun of Jones's big run over Gbaja-Biamila and Diggs's side which leads to a Keenan McCardell touchdown against Mike McKenzie. It seemed like a good start to the half for Tampa Bay, but their offense didn't do much after that drive. McCardell ran a nice route and Johnson put the ball right where it was needed, and McKenzie couldn't do much about it. Gbaja-Biamila hasn't been an obvious problem against the run this season until these two big Jones runs, and I don't know if its a problem or just well executed plays by Tampa Bay. The rest of the quarter is filled with drive killing penalties and failed 3rd down conversions. Favre threw an interception on a deep pass to Donald Driver on the type of forced pass he hadn't tried to throw in weeks. Everyone was covered on the rollout, but instead of throwing the ball away, he tried to force it into double coverage. Favre does make a great 3rd down completion to Robert Ferguson at the end of the quarter from the end zone which sparks a dominant 98 yard touchdown drive, so all is forgiven. Packers 13, Tampa Bay 13.

Fourth Quarter: Touchdown! Nothing sucks the life out of an opponent like a 98 yard almost 10 minute touchdown drive. Almost all of the plays were runs, and Tampa Bay just couldn't stop the Packers. Favre only threw 4 passes on the drive, all completions, and 3 of them were on 3rd down. This is the best run offense in the entire NFL right now. Favre only attempts 2 more passes on the next 2 drives. Tampa Bay has 3 more chances to get some offense going, but they can only manage 42 yards on the 3 drives and the last drive ends with a Sharper interception on a hail mary pass. Packers 20, Tampa Bay 13.

Packers 14, Philadelphia 17. Ugh. This was a defeat snatched from the jaws of victory type of defeat. The Packers had more yards on offense (307 to 282) and had the ball longer on offense (31:15 to 28:45), but they were killed on return yards (46 to 159) and turnovers (3 to 0). The Packers defense has only generated two turnovers in the last four weeks, and the special teams have been outperformed on kick returns (253 to 424) over the last three weeks. The Packers offense continues to make big plays, but unless the defense and special teams contribute big plays, the Packers will continue to lose close games. Although a 7-9 record might win this division (if Minnesota can't beat San Diego, who can they beat?) and the Packers get a Chris Berman inspired Bay of Pigs matchup next week with equally desperate Tampa Bay.

First Quarter: Fumbles. Its hard to blame Brett Favre with his broken thumb, but he just couldn't grip the ball in the rain with his cast on. Favre shouldn't have been benched, but I found myself considering the possiblity. On a team with no margin for error, Favre's fumbles were as deciding a factor as any in this game. The Packers start the game by running successfully. After watching Ahman Green struggle in the first half of games over the previous 3 years, and now to watch him succeed all game long is exciting. They started with a two fullback set, but the Packers were successful running without that alignment too. Unfortunately Favre's fumble on the first drive effectively kills the it, and Green's fumble on the second drive kills an even more promising drive. Philadelphia can't run or pass the ball, and Donovan McNabb got really lucky when he got hit on a pass and his dying quail wasn't intercepted. These two turnovers lead to punts, but Philadelphia is lucky not to be down by 6 to 14 points at this point. The Packers also got their lone sack when New Orleans castoff Grady Jackson and Jacksonville castoff Larry Smith generate more pass rush than any other high paid defensive lineman for the Packers. John Madden just seemed to ramble at times (e.g. "Philadelphia drafted TE L.J. Smith because they thought he could fill the TE/WR type of receiving position..." duh!), but Madden noticed the slick black elbow pads Green was wearing during Green's two fumbles, and Green didn't fumble the rest of the game once he removed them. Packers 0, Philadelphia 0.

Second Quarter: The Packers had as many critical penalties in the first half as they had all year up to this point. TE David Martin had a rare offensive pass interference call in the first half to call back a first down, and WR Robert Ferguson (I believe) had a holding penalty that called back another one. Favre's second fumble kills the first drive of the quarter. Philadelphia's offense is still comatose. Madden calls it again when Madden says that Nate Wayne, who was in statement game mode to prove the Packers made a mistake with him, has forced a turnover every time he has played on MNF. The second drive of the half in Philadelphia territory ends with a turnover, when Wayne makes the best one handed catch of the night for either team. Al Michaels is explaining how this is a Gold package game for former Milwaukee season ticket holders tonight and I am wondering if the Packers are trying to get their Milwaukee season ticket holders to turn in their tickets. Its hard enough to go to a Monday night game and then to work the next morning, but by the time the Milwaukee area residents fight traffic and get home its probably Tuesday afternoon. Why do the Packers schedule Gold games for Monday night? Luckily the Wayne interception only leads to a missed field goal. Philadelphia gets a chance to run the clock out for the half and let their inept offense regroup, but they can't even do that. The Packers offense finally puts together a drive without a turnover, Favre completes a couple of passes, and Green runs loose on a screen pass for the touchdown. Packers 7, Philadelphia 0.

Third Quarter: Philadelphia gets the ball first and changes the tone of the game. They still can't run (yet) but McNabb completes a few passes for the easy field goal. The Packers have a nice answering drive, but they run it one too many times, and a big negative loss on a 3rd down carry puts it out of Ryan Longwell's range, and he misses his first field goal of the season. This quarter is consumed by the first two long drives. MNF decides to show some great sauercraut footage and lets Madden do commentary about the sauercraut production workers techniques. Plus the ever exciting Turducken reference. I might have missed the thrills, but I didn't see any shots of the horsetrailer tonight. Packers 7, Philadelphia 3.

Fourth Quarter: The Packers first drive this quarter was really wasted. Three passes for 1 yard and punt. The passing game hasn't been working and the running game has been so why three passes? I don't know. Great tackle by Antuan Edwards (I think) stops Todd Pinkston from a first down on the next drive. The Packers respond with a run-run-pass-punt drive and then Philadelphia gets really lucky. McNabb uncorks another dying quail "long" pass but Mike McKenzie isn't playing the ball, he runs past James Thrash and slips, but Thrash is paying attention and goes back to the ball for the big play. If Favre had thrown that pass this season, it would have been intercepted. It is just one of those years. McNabb runs in for the short yardage touchdown. But Green makes up for his two fumbles and rips off his second big play of the game on a 4th down 45 yard touchdown run. The defense comes up big after a big kickoff return by Thrash, but then the Packers do the same thing Philadelphia couldn't do at the end of the first half; get first downs and run out the clock. McNabb dusts off the forgotten Duce Staley and Chad Lewis on four plays that take it down to the Packers 12 yard line. Edwards had Staley wrapped up on the screen pass, but he missed the tackle, and I am left wondering if Marques Anderson was playing safety whether he makes the tackle and changes the outcome of the game. Then Madden has another lucid moment and notices that Bhawon Jue is playing at cornerback for an apparently injured Al Harris. Jue has given up game winning touchdown passes before this season (Kansas City) and he is burned by Pinkston for Pinkston's first touchdown catch of the year and only the second touchdown caught by a wide receiver this season for Philadelphia. Nice. Additionally, Jue was one of the problems in the Arizona loss this season, and I don't think the Packers can afford to rely on him anymore. The Packers almost get back into field goal range again, but the football slips out of Favre's hand on the last chance pass and the game is over. Packers 14, Philadelphia 17.

Mid season review. Although the Packers' record, 4-4, indicates that they are an average team, only the special teams can be considered NFL average.

The offense has been outstanding: 3rd in the NFL with 365.8 yards/game and 3rd in the NFL with 28.8 points/game. The balance between the running game (154.3 yards/game) and the passing game (211.5 yards/game) is outstanding. Stopping Ahman Green from running should be the focus of every opposing defense, but only St. Louis has really shut down the running game all season. I think this is Brett Favre's best season. He doesn't have numbers comparable to his MVP seasons, but ever since the first half disaster in week 1 vs. Minnesota, he has made few mistakes and he has been very consistent. Favre often struggled at certain places in the past; Minnesota, Dallas and Tampa, but this season it hasn't mattered where he has played, and he has spread the ball around and moved the offense down the field.

The defense had a disappointing first half season: 30th in the NFL with 357.9 yards/game and 24th in the NFL with 24.1 points/game. They have had problems in pass coverage, generating a pass rush, creating turnovers, and getting off the field (teams are 46% on 3rd down against the Packers). The pass coverage was good against a great pass offense in Minnesota last week and might have turned a corner with the return of Antuan Edwards from injury and the promotion of Michael Hawthorne to the nickel cornerback. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and Cletdius Hunt have not played up to their big offseason contracts, but neither of them are hurt and it wouldn't be surprising to see both of them have a big second half season. Nick Barnett has had an outstanding rookie season at middle linebacker, but he appeared hurt at the end of the Minnesota game. The Packers have to find a way to generate a consistant pass rush with a four man rush. The nose tackle position is a concern with Gilbert Brown playing through an injury and backup Rod Walker having problems with a bad knee, but the Packers picked up Grady Jackson this week to provide some depth. Unfortunately Minnesota was 6 for 12 on 3rd down last week and the Packers forced no turnovers.

Special teams had one bright spot, Ryan Longwell, who has not missed a field goal or extra point all season long. The punt return and kickoff return blocking seems to be getting worse as Antonio Chapman has seem less effective on returns in recent weeks. Still they are playing better than last year, but they can't let the special team unit regress.

The next two games are favorable for the Packers. They play Philadelphia at Lambeau and although Philadelphia has won three in a row they are not a dominant team, and the injuries are starting to pile up for them. Then the Packers travel to Tampa, where Favre has often struggled but I don't expect him to struggle in Tampa this year. Tampa has followed each win with a loss every game this season. Last week Tampa lost, this week at Carolina they should win, then they should have the corresponding loss to the Packers in Tampa in the following week. Added bonus: Tampa is 1-3 at home this year.

Packers 30, Minnesota 27. Are there two more evenly matched teams in the NFL this season? They have played twice, each team has won once, while the Packers have scored 55 points to Minnesota's 57. The Packers have the #3 offense and the #30 defense. Minnesota has the #3 offense (both the Packers and Minnesota have so far averaged exactly 365.8 yards/game on offense) and the #29 defense. The biggest difference is in the record; Packers 4-4 and Minnesota 6-2. The Packers score a point more per game but allow almost 4 more points per game, and Minnesota has forced more turnovers and has 18 interceptions to the Packers 9. Both teams offenses seem to be improving each week and both defense seem to be getting worse. This was a very close game.

First Quarter: The first Packers drive was excellent and it was a sign of things to come. Ahman Green ran for 45 yards on the opening drive on the Packers way to running for 261 yards for the game. I thought it was a bad sign that such a great looking drive stalled in the red zone, and the Packers had to settle for a field goal. Minnesota responded with a great drive of their own. The Packers defensive line was stood up and blocked out from making any plays, especially on the touchdown pass to Randy Moss when Daunte Culpepper had enough time in the pocket to wait for the play to develop and to finish reading a novel. The Packers defensive line got better as the game went on. It reminded me of their game vs. Seattle when the Packers defensive line was shoved around in the first half but got better as the game went on. In this game, the Packers pass rush just got better each quarter. The long touchdown catch was the only big play Moss made in the game. Donald Driver got a big play on a reverse and I can't remember the last time the Packers got a big play on a reverse. Driver also caught a touchdown pass on the drive, but Robert Ferguson was flagged for an illegal shift (while in motion he was weaving around like a drunk walking a white line) which negated the touchdown and the Packers settled for a field goal. The rest of the quarter is good defense by both teams, which was quite unusual for this game, and three punts. Packers 6, Minnesota 7.

Second Quarter: Minnesota's run defense continues to break down and Green and Najeh Davenport run for 33 yards on 2 carries. Brett Favre spread the ball to three different receivers on the drive and Green catches the touchdown pass on a quick pass coming out of the backfield and Green beats the defender to the corner of the end zone. Minnesota punts again, and by this point the Packers pass defense is playing very well. After the 43 yard touchdown pass to Moss, Minnesota only has 4 passes for over 10 yards the rest of the game and the longest was a 24 yard pass to Nate Burleson. Minnesota has killed the Packers with big plays in the past so this was an essential part of the win on Sunday, but the Packers defense couldn't stop the run and they couldn't stop Minnesota on 3rd down (Minnesota was 6 for 12 on 3rd downs). The Packers have another great drive but it is stopped by a Favre interception. Minnesota outcoached the Packers on this play; Minnesota blitzed to force Favre into a hot read and Corey Chavous was playing right in the throwing lane. Favre didn't see Chavous, he should have seen Chavous, but Minnesota blitzed to give Favre no time to read the field. Turnovers have killed the Packers this season, but this was the only turnover and it was meaningless. There was 6 minutes left in the half and Minnesota was guaranteed to get the ball back anyway. The Packers have had turnovers on offense kill them on offense, but the offense was almost perfect in this game and the lack of turnovers caused by the defense didn't cost them this game, but this is still a problem for the defense. Minnesota scored the touchdown on the drive, but the way they were successful running the ball, they might have scored on the next possession anyway. Minnesota had a nifty touchdown pass to Jim Kleinsasser when Kleinsasser did a great job of fake blocking and then turn to catch the short pass. Fortunately the Packers had enough time to retake the lead for good before half time with a two big plays by Green and Tony Fisher (all the Packers running backs, Green, Fisher and Davenport, had a great game) and a touchdown pass to Javon Walker wherein Walker made a great move on his namesake, Denard Walker, to run in for the touchdown. Packers 20, Minnesota 14.

Third Quarter: The bend but don't break defense quarter. Even when the Packers had a great defense with Reggie White in the mid-90s, the defense was successful because it didn't allow touchdowns and it forced turnovers, but they had trouble preventing teams from running up and down the field. In this quarter, Minnesota had the ball for about 12 minutes, but only came up with two field goals. The Packers often allowed a good gain on first down, and had trouble stopping Minnesota on 3rd down. Culpepper was 3 for 5 on third down in the quarter, but those two stops were huge. I was worried that these long drives would leave the defense exhausted in the 4th quarter. Packers 20, Minnesota 20.

Fourth Quarter: This touchdown drive started in the third quarter, but was played mostly in the 4th quarter. The Packers converted both of their 3rd downs on the drive, including a rocket pass and great catch by Walker in the end zone for his 2nd TD catch. The first 3rd down conversion was short yardage, but a 1st quarter drive was stopped when Green tried to rush on 3rd and short, so the Packers went to using William Henderson out of the backfield on a pass. The Packers had a key 3rd and short on their next drive too and threw a quick slant to Walker for the first down. On the best day the Packers have had running the ball in almost 20 years, it was interesting that they converted two crucial 3rd and shorts by passing the football. This quarter was the opposite of the 3rd quarter because the Packers had possession for most of it. With over 10 minutes left in the game and Minnesota down by 7 points, Minnesota's first drive in the 4th quarter died when they passed on three consecutive downs and had to punt. The Packers defensive line must have been worn out by this point on run defense, so this play calling might have cost Minnesota the game. The Packers pass rush, keyed by some great effort by backups Larry Smith and Chukie Nwokorie, started generating pressure on Culpepper. The Packers also had to start blitzing and although it forced Culpepper to hurry, it did not force any sacks or turnovers. The Packers last drive of the game used up almost 7 minutes and was 10 rushes to 1 pass, but the Packers run offense was so effective, including one 3rd and short converted on a Green run, that it set up the field goal that put the game out of reach. Ryan Longwell made 3 field goals and he made it look easy. The Packers special teams did not have a great game today, few quality returns and Minnesota had almost double the Packers return yards, but Longwell's 3 for 3 on field goals was a difference in the game. Minnesota scored a late touchdown but the resulting onside kick failed and that was it. On Minnesota's last touchdown drive, Nick Barnett hurt his ankle at a point earlier in the 4th quarter but he was still limping around on this drive. He probably should have been pulled. At one point, both Mike McKenzie and Al Harris blitzed from the corner, but Culpepper stepped up to avoid them and McKenzie and Harris collided with each other. Culpepper almost fumbled Minnesota's week 1 victory away to the Packers, but in this game he had no turnovers. Both quarterbacks had great games and Culpepper avoided his usual turnovers and Favre his usual Metrodome jinx. Packers 30, Minnesota 27.