It didn't get any bigger than this. In order to save their season and their head coach's job, the Vikings had to defeat the Green Bay Packers Sunday at the Metrodome. Quarterback Brett Favre had his favorite target from last season, Sidney Rice, back and was looking to find some holes in a Packer defense that has faced its share of injuries this season. However, it was Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers who took advantage of his opposing defense and ended up single-handedly destroying the Vikings, leading to a 31-3 Packers victory.
The Vikings have lived and died by Brett Favre this season, and on Sunday the quarterback took the team right down with him. As he has all season, Favre gave a fantastic effort, but most of his throws were wild and inaccurate. He targeted Rice 10 times, but was able to complete a pass to him only three of those times. This year it has seemed as if Favre is hesitant or even scared to throw the ball deep down the field, and this trend didn't change even with the addition of the best true wide receiver on the team. Favre's interception in the second quarter gave the Packers all the moment they needed in order to score the biggest touchdown of the contest, a pass to receiver James Jones. Running back Adrian Peterson had a nice day with 72 yards but did not have a noticeable impact for most of the game, as the Vikings were trailing by a large deficit at halftime. The offensive line had their hands full with the Packers pass rush, allowing seven hits on Favre and one sack by star Clay Matthews. Had the Vikings defense been able to show any ability to stop Aaron Rodgers the results would likely have been different, but they were playing from behind for most of the game, shifting their game plan from the running game, something that has been quite successful for them this season to throwing the ball, which has usually harmed rather than helped Minnesota.
Aaron Rodgers was able to do anything he wanted Sunday. Part of this was due to the inexperience of cornerbacks Asher Allen and Chris Cook, both of whom were exposed on touchdown passes. Rodgers had little trouble getting the ball to receiver Greg Jennings regardless of who the Vikings decided to assign to him, and the two connected for three touchdown passes. The defensive line tallied three sacks on the day, so it's hard to put the blame of Rodger's big day on the unit. It really comes down to the lack of skill in the Vikings secondary and the missed opportunities. Rodgers threw a ball right at safety Husain Abdullah only to have it go right through his hands. A few plays later the Packers took the lead for good on an 11-yard touchdown to Jennings, who easily evaded the coverage by Abdullah. Sunday was the first game one could notice the absence of cornerback Cedric Griffin. Starter Antoine Winfield has had a fine season, but the Vikings have struggled between Allen, Cook and veteran Lito Sheppard to find someone to cover the better receivers of the league. The at-times invisible defensive line has not helped, but the Vikings can't help but wonder how much stronger their secondary would have been with one of their more skilled players in the lineup.
Sunday's loss against the Packers was one of the most embarrassing in recent memory and the final nail in the coffin for coach Brad Childress. It was common opinion that most of the Vikings players had soured on Childress and were playing for the team instead of their coach. The rather cold and succinct Childress had never seemed like a real "player's coach", as there had been plenty of controversial moments between him and the Vikings players. It is almost assured that quarterback Brett Favre did not have confidence in Childress' ability to run this team, and there was always a question of who the real leader of the Vikings was. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier takes over as head coach of the team and will hope to reinvigorate his players the same way Dallas Cowboy interim coach Jason Garrett has. The 3-7 Vikings travel to Washington Sunday to face the Redskins.
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