Thrown into the Fire

This preview for the Packers at the Vikings was delayed due to College Football, the World Series game tonight, and from playing a lot of Arkham City. Some news before we get to the x-factors for the game. Sam Shields will be out for this game with a concussion (for some reason he didn't go down after picking a ball off instead he got WOO-Hit in the end zone) so Jarret Bush will take his place in the starting lineup. Chris Cook today got arrested for Domestic Assault and will probably miss tomorrow's game because of it. That makes the Vikings secondary very thin since he was already taking the place of Antoine Winfield. Before I get to the 7 factors for this game I got to say this game scares me because the Vikings in recent history have been a thorn in our side especially in the MetroDome.

Here are the 7 factors that will determine the outcome of this game.
1. The Crowd/Dome factor: Our young offensive line has to handle the noise that the crowd can generate. Cut down on false starts that put our offense in long 3rd downs to convert. If we can get an early lead we can take the crowd out of the game and as we learned from the movie GLADIATOR if Ponder wins over the crowd he gains his freedom.
2. Jared Allen: He leads the league in sacks with 10 this year and is notorious for being a Packers' QB killer. One year in just two game against the Pack he had 6 or 7 sacks which was half of his total for the season. Marshall Newhouse and Bryan Bulaga will have to kept him off of Aaron Rodgers or the Packers offense will have trouble moving the ball during the game.
3. Vikings' secondary: They will have a tall order in front of them trying to stop Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, James Jones, Jordy Nelson, and Randall Cobb shorthanded. The Packers WRs as we found out this week will be extra motivated because for every drop they have to buy the other 4 WRs a $100 best buy gift card. This matchup will determine the game if the Vikings DB's can contain the Packers WR's then the Vikings can stay in the game if not it will be as blooded as GLADIATOR for the Vikings secondary.
4. Jermichael Finley: Erin Henderson this year has had trouble covering TE's down the middle and this week he has to cover the physical mis-match that is Jermichael Finley. If they double Finley then it gives Jennings, Jones, and Nelson one on one matchups they can abuse like Chris brown did to Rihanna. If they only single cover him he will make Erin his bitch in this game. How the Vikings decide to cover Finley will determine where Rodgers goes with the ball.
5. Adrian Peterson: The Packers will have to stop ALL Day or Rodgers will be sitting on the sidelines a lot on Sunday because the Vikings will give us a heavy dose of Peterson. AP is the heart of the Vikings offense and if we can cut off the blood supply to the heart then the other organs of the offense will fail because the heart is not pumping out the needed supply of blood.
6. Christian Ponder: who the title of this post is referring to. He will be making his 1st career NFL start against Dom Capers and his defense. From watching him in college a lot ponder can run as well as throw the ball so Capers will have to remember that when calling blitz's this week. Ponder looked good in mop up duty last week, but this week he faces a defense preparing for him and only 1 rookie in recent history has beaten the defending super bowls champions. This week as his shadow he will have Clay Matthews Jr. chasing him for 4 quarters all over the field. I think he will do well but make normal mistakes for a rookie in his 1st NFL start.
7. Aaron Rodgers: Once again he is the #1 projected Quarterback in fantasy football this week on espn and yahoo. He will have to shake off the fog that happened in the 2nd half last week. He should be able to put up big numbers this week and keep his NFL record for consecutive games with a 100+ QB rating going this week. I projected he will throw for 325 yards this week and 3 TD's.

Before I go I will leave you with my prediction for the game and will talk to you again next week with my thoughts on the outcome of this game.

Packers 31 Vikings 20

The 183rd Meeting of Bears vs. Packers

WHAT THE FUCK??!!?? was going thru my head when Johnny Knox had the whole side of the field to himself except for our punter Masthay on the greatest play that didn't count this weekend. How the HELL do you not know where the ball is being kicked just look the Fuck UP!
Thank you Corey Graham for holding Jarrett Bush on that play because if that play had counted I would have starting throwing shit at my local sports bar and probably been banned from there this weekend. I will now go to my thoughts on the start of the game because I'm becoming worked up just thinking about the fake punt return.

I was a little distracted at the beginning of the game because the finishes of Bills/Patriots, Browns/Dolphins, Texans/Saints, and Vikings/Lions were all on the TV's around me. We started the game with four straight first downs completions to Greg Jennings and ended the drive with Jermichael Finley's 1st TD of the season. The 2ND drive was looking as good as the first drive until Bryan Bulaga went down with an injury and didn't return for the rest of the game. Marshall Newhouse took his place and it changed the game plan for the next few drives because we couldn't run our normal offense since we didn't trust him to protect Rodgers looking deep down the field. Our Defense looked good we didn't sack Cutler as much as everyone thought we would, but we forced him to throw early and Morgan Burnett picked him off twice. We did get timely sacks including Jarius Wynn getting 2 sacks. We held Matt Forte to 2 yards rushing on 9 carries for the game and after we went up 14 nothing with another TD for Jermichael Finley you could see the Bears gave up on the running game. Our pass defense from the first two weeks then showed up allowing Cutler to make it 14-7, we exchanged field goals to make it 17-10 at the half .

In the 3rd quarter, our defense from last year showed up not allowing Jay Cutler one completion the whole 3rd quarter. Ryan Grant's former self reemerged to give us a running game with 92 big yards while James Starks who was the man the first two weeks had a horrible game ending with negative rushing yards. To close out the 3rd quarter we added a field goal and started a drive that lead to Jermichael Finley's 3rd touchdown of the day in the opening stages of the 4Th quarter to make the lead 27 to 10. It was looking like a blowout until James Starks fumbled the damn ball and Cutler hit Kellen Davis on the next play on a blow coverage for a TD to make it 27-17. We coverted a huge 3rd down play for a first down to kill some clock but after gaping the middle of the Bears secondary with Finley and Jennings all day like a porn star's ass with a cock Brian Urlacher made a huge pick to drive up my blood pressure. Our defense man'd up and no points came out of that pick by Urlacher. For the 1st time this year we did not allow a 400 yard passing game against us (it was only 302). We stopped the Bears for the rest of the game which brings us back to the fake punt return. How the Fuck do you not know where the ball is going to be kicked unless Masthay just murdered it off the wrong side of his foot. I digress because I'm worked up again about that play and watching the AL wild card be decided as I write this.

A quick review of my 3 big factors to the Packers winning the game. #1 Rodgers was able to hit the home run down the field and take advantage of Bears secondary. #2 We didn't kick the ball to Devin Hester, of course the Knox play did happen but we already discussed that play at length. #3 We held Matt Forte to 82 total yards well under the 15o total yards benchmark I said would determine if the Bears would win or not. Those are my thoughts on the 183rd meeting between the Packers and the Bears. I leave you until I post my preview of the Denver Broncos visiting Title Town later this week.

Finley has his coming back party all over the Bears secondary

Very happy we held on at the end and either before MNF or after MNF I will give my full thoughts on the game.