Not surprised re Frerotte

Interesting that my pools and my fantasy predictions are so off today. Because the following is one of my game keys from this morning:

• Interceptions. Gus Frerotte is Gus Frerotte. I will admit that I have a bias against Frerotte because he replaced a player I don’t think is any worse than he is. His QB rating is 77.6 and he’s thrown 8 picks to go along with his 8 TDs. Some might argue “well, 4 of those picks were in one game against Chicago” and then I would counter with “yes, and he lost that game for them”. He is not good and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Woodson or Collins have a pick or two or hopefully, 4 like the Chicago game.

Here was another game key:

• Keep 8 or more in the box to slow Peterson down. I have real concerns that today could end up being a 200 yard day for Peterson. He is so incredibly good – definitely let Frerotte beat us. I actually can see a stubborn and poor-football-minded Childress thinking he’ll try and surprise the Packers by opening up their passing game only to see Frerotte throw 3 picks and fumble thrice.

The Secondary

Is the best in the NFL.  Nobody is even close.  I agree with Joe Buck that the game should be out of hand for Minnesota right now.

Rodgers continues to be off – Frost just sucks

Yes, our O-Line sucks, but  the O-Line is not the only excuse. Rodgers is playing like crap.

Frost continues to suck. He’s punting indoors and has had virtually no pressure on his punts.

Offensive Line: Absolutely Horrible

I’m not going to get into too many posts during the game, but it must be said that our offensive line looks absolutely atrocious.  We should be down by five touchdowns.

And Andy’s right — the officiating is terrible.

Strahan just said – “that was not an illegal pass”

I agree – Humphrey was in the vicinity and they had no business calling. Total Naked Gun moment.

Get the ball to Ryan Grant

One player on our offense seems to be on a mission: Ryan Grant. Rodgers, frankly, kind of looks lost out there. I’m not sure if he’s just feeling off today or what. Right after taking the snap, he seems jumpy and his feet are going all over the place. He’s got to settle down and importantly, our terrible offensive line has to settle down and protect the guy. But Grant was running hard and looked quite good – and would have a bunch more yards if it weren’t for fake penalties against the Pack. There, Howie Long also just said that Grant is not being used enough. It seems every game, that I can remember, the Pack almost abandons the run in the 2nd quarter…and field position is not a legit excuse.

We’re very fortunate

Wow – if Frerotte weren’t the QB of the VIkes and CHildress the coach and all other things were equal, we’d be down by 30. I’m not sure Frerotte is done throwing picks either. He’s scared now.

Huge field goal at the end of the half. But something else very important happened – James Jones caught the ball. Jones is back and I believe he is a quieter player we missed – and Rodgers missed when he was out.

We have the momentum now.

Officiating horrible…just horrible

Unreal. I’m feeling a little like I did during the Ahmad Carroll years. As bad as Carroll was, everytime he was on the field there was a call against him whether he did anything or not. Similarly, right now, it seems because we’re the most penalized team in the NFL, the officials are just calling penalties on us whether they’re penalties or not. I still don’t understand the safety call at all. As Brother Steve pointed out, what if Tory Humphrey would have caught that ball? He was just a couple yards from catching it anyway. This is a classic Naked Gun officiating example – the newbie ref just making calls to get the crowd fired up. We’re probably 2 more bad calls from the moonwalk…

Game Keys – Minn

• Interceptions. Gus Frerotte is Gus Frerotte. I will admit that I have a bias against Frerotte because he replaced a player I don’t think is any worse than he is. His QB rating is 77.6 and he’s thrown 8 picks to go along with his 8 TDs. Some might argue “well, 4 of those picks were in one game against Chicago” and then I would counter with “yes, and he lost that game for them”. He is not good and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Woodson or Collins have a pick or two or hopefully, 4 like the Chicago game.
• Run at Brian Robison. Jared Allen is listed as doubtful so Robison would be the likely right DE replacement. Run at him and make sure he knows he’s being targeted. Not sure Allen is the greatest run defender anyway, but go at the new guy.
• As Leroy Butler said the other day (and we agreed), MM needs to get more creative using Ryan Grant – screens, misdirection plays, lining him up as a WR, let him play a 3rd down or two and bring Jackson in on a 2nd down or two, can Grant throw?…anything – just don’t keep his presence in the game so predictable. If MM can catch Minn off guard, this could well be the week Grant breaks a long one finally.
• Borrow a page from the Badgers (who had a WR rush for 168 yards yesterday on 8 carries, yes, a WR!!! – granted it was against a high school team). Give Jennings the ball on a reverse or line him up in the backfield. One thing I’m really liking about this year’s NFL is that lots of these kinds of plays are becoming more and more common as teams realize that defenses often have a hard time diagnosing such plays quick enough.
• Keep 8 or more in the box to slow Peterson down. I have real concerns that today could end up being a 200 yard day for Peterson. He is so incredibly good – definitely let Frerotte beat us. I actually can see a stubborn and poor-football-minded Childress thinking he’ll try and surprise the Packers by opening up their passing game only to see Frerotte throw 3 picks and fumble thrice.
• The Packers linebackers need to wake up. No, they need to freakin’ wake up. We’ve been critical of Poppinga for a long time due to poor play, but Hawk has been absent, Barnett has been awful  – Chillar’s decent pass coverage may be the only bright spot but his play outside of that hasn’t been too great.

Youth Ministers are….awesome

Next time you’re searching your mind for a metaphor to express that something has a high probability of happening, I suggest the following:

____________is like the chances of a youth minister at your church using the word “awesome”.