In a strange way one would thing that any team that walks off the field with a W would be pretty happy. In this case the players may have been but that warm and fuzzy feeling didn't last to long once the players entered the locker room. As the players were giving each other high fives the coaching staff immediately lit in to the entire team. The silence was eerie as you would have thought the room was vacant except for one individual who is paid to coach this team. "Where is my damn defense and even better yet if there is any man who plays on the offensive side of the ball that thinks they had a good game outside of Dorsey Levens, I would sure like to know who the H that is!". The words that followed can not be printed as it would take a lot of editing and rewording to do so. To sum it up though let's just say the entire coaching staff let it be known that despite the win it was one of the ugliest and most undeserving wins they had witnessed.
Flash Back to the opening game vs the NY Giants.....Green Bay held a commanding 20-0 lead with midway through the 3rd quarter and the defense had allowed just over 100 yards of offense. Then over the final 22 minutes the Packers defense disappeared into oblivion giving up 244 yards of offense to the Giants and by games end losing a heart breaker 28-27 in a game that the Packer coaches feel they should have won.
Flash forward again to the Minnesota game...... Things got off to a rising start for
the Packers as they elected to receive after winning the toss. Fred Cox's opening kick off would find it's way into the hands of Basil Mitchell at the 12 yard line only to see the return team open up big running lanes and 88 yards later Mitchell was in the end zone giving the Packers a 7-0 lead that quick. Things didn't get any better for the Vikings as they would run 3 plays and force them to punt the ball back away. The punt by Mike Eischeid though never went forward as Gilbert Brown found a small open spot to block the punt and give the Packers the ball at the Vikings 28. Minnesota's defense though tightened up and seemed to know exactly what the Packers were calling and after going nowhere they would bring in Ryan Longwell to kick a 44 yard field and now put the Packers up 10-0. the irony of this was Green Bay had exactly only 1 yard of total offense but yet held a 10 point lead with all the credit going to the special teams. Minnesota seemed to show some life on it's next possession though and when facing a 3rd and 13 after Fran Tarkenton (24-45-273) had been sacked for a 9 yard loss by Keith McKenzie it looked as if the drive would stall. Tarkenton though had other idea's as he sent WR Gene Washington (3-67) on a deep route and the throw would be on the money for a 34 yard gain down to the Packers 21 yard line. RB Bill Brown then took the hand off on the next play rumbling all the way down to the Packers 3 after a 18 yard gain. Here though it would be the Packers D that would win the battle from here as the next 2 plays resulted in a 10 yard loss as Tarkenton found himself on his backside for a 7 yard sack and after a delay of game penalty they were now facing a 3rd and goal from the Packers 18. For the third time (Vikings allowed 6 sacks on the day) in this drive Tarkenton found himself again being sacked and it was McKenzie again doing the honors for a 10 yard loss. Cox's 45 yard field goal was never close and after what looked to be a scoring drive came up nothing but goose eggs.
In the second quarter Brett Favre (10-20-39) who had one miserable day behind center gave the Vikings their first score of the day when while being sacked by Jeff Siemon failed to hold on to the ball and Sieman found himself with it to take it in from 8 yards out to cut the Packers lead down to 10-7. Some say Favre caught a glance of a nearby journalist while going down and forgot to secure the ball. Cox missed his second field goal of the day later in the second that would have tied the game. With 1:53 left in the second quarter Green Bay got the big run it needed from Levens (25-120) after Antwon Edwards came up with a big 42 yard punt return that became a 57 yard gain after the Vikings were called for a face mask on the return. Levens then done the rest as on the first play he found a alley and took it to the house from 15 yards out giving the Packers a 9 point cushion once more as Longwell shanked the extra point that could have very well been the downfall of the Packers at games end. On Minnesota's next possession fate was cruel again to them as the Tark tried to run the ball himself by calling his own number and fumbled the ball away to the Packers at the Vikes 8 yard line. Feeding the ball to Levens to be on the conservative side to avoid a Favre brain spasm it resulted in a Longwell 20 yard field goal and a 19-7 halftime lead for Green Bay.
Every thing Green Bay got outside of the opening kick off return was one gift after
another from the Vikings. In fact to save the suspense the Packers offense on the day only netted 158 yards on the day and they never had to go further than 28 yards for a touchdown. Someone evidently made the Norse Gods mad leading up to this game. Speaking of that 28 yard touchdown drive it would happen around the halfway mark of the 3rd quarter when Brown took a short pass and took a vicious hit jarring the ball lose at their own 28 with McKenzie being the name mentioned again falling on the ball for Green Bay. McKenzie would receive the game ball on the defensive side after the game from the coaching staff and players. Green Bay would have to overcome a holding drive a few plays later before finally cashing in on a Favre to Corey Bradford 18 yard touchdown connection with 6:34 to play putting them up 26-7. One would think with just a little over a quarter and a half to go the fans would be counting down the W. Not with this Packer team though and to make that statement look at the flash back in regard to the Giants-Packers game from week 1.
Trailing 26-7 the Vikings got hot while the Packers defense went into stealth mode and was very rarely seen in the final 22 minutes of this game. It all started with the Vikings next possession following the Packers touchdown that put them up by 19. Fran the man all of a sudden acted as if he was throwing balls at dummies like on the practice fields. John Gilliam was the first receiver to benefit from the absence of the Pack secondary as he took a beautifully thrown ball over his left shoulder for a 52 yard gain to the Packers 28. Tarkenton then found his legs and scrambled for 17 yards to the 11 on second and 10. Dave Osborn (4-18) who had very limited running room today went for 10 yards down to the 1 and within a toe nail of actually getting in on it. Brown then was credited with a 1 yard run and a touchdown to cut the lead back to 26-14. With the momentum clearly now in the Vikings favor that would be switched back to Green Bay due to another one of those nasty turnovers deep inside their own territory. It would also be another sack by the Packers to set up yet another fumble by Tarkenton at his own 11. Jude Waddy was there to fall on it for Green Bay. After the next 2 plays netted a negative 7 yard loss for the Packers it appeared that they would have to settle for a field goal here.
Facing a 3rd and 17 from the Vikings 18 it would be Levens who came up roses as
he took the delay draw and went in untouched that seemed to take the sail right out of the Vikings. With a 33-14 lead this game seemed to be settled. Tarkenton again though answered with a awesome display of radar technology as he found the Packers stealth hidden defense to rip them apart. He would use less than 3 minutes of the clock to drive them 67 yards in 8 plays with the final one resulting in a 26 yard touchdown hookup with Washington. Just like that the score was now 33-21 with 8:44 to go. Favre though didn't like having a 12 point lead and tried to get cute with one of his famous I will just fling it passes. His flare pass that was intended for Levens fell right into the hands of Siemon who returned it 4 yards to the Packers 34. The hair now was standing on every packer fan in the world. With 6:14 to go though and facing a 4th and inches at the Packers 13 they kept the field goal team on the sidelines and wanted nothing less than a touchdown. The problem was though for one of the very few times since the early part of the 3rd quarter the defense appeared on the field to stop Oscar Reed for no gain turning the ball over to the Packers.
With no intention at all of allowing Favre to throw the ball again in this game Levens took the load but with 3:53 to go the Packers punt team had to come on the field. The Vikings was going to send everyone they could and try to get the big play. This time it worked as the punt never had time to get off as P Louie Aguiar was standing in his own end zone when and unidentified special teams player swatted the ball like it was a fly and it landed right into the hands of Jim Marshall for a Vikings touchdown. The irony now was that the Packers had seen a 33-14 lead evaporate into just a 33-27 lead. With 3:44 to go and the Vikings having all 3 time outs left the Packers desperately needed some first downs. They would pick up 2 along the way and forcing the Vikings into using all of it's remaining timeouts. From their own 41 Aguliar again was called upon to try to pin the Vikings deep and force a long game ending touchdown drive. The rush again was on but this time no assignments were missed and Charlie West called for a fair catch setting Minnesota up at it's own 24. With over a minute and a half left there was still plenty of time for the Vikings to make that incredible comeback. Tarkenton went into action and didn't seem to be one bit worried as he would later say he never felt more confident. Facing a 4th and 5 at the Packers 34 with just 34 seconds left everyone just knew the curse of the Giants would strike again against the Packers. After all up this point over the final 21 minutes the Packers defense had been lit up for 228 yards. Surely 5 more yards shouldn't be a problem. The controversy of the game would come down to this call, or more precisely the spot of the ball. What appeared to be a Viking 1st down after Tark had completed the short swing pass to Brown it was now all going to come down to the spot vs the chain. If the Vikings got the first down then they still had about 3 more plays at the end zone, if the Packers got the spot then the game is over and the Packers win. As the chains stretched the verdict had been made. By just inches and I do mean inches the Packers would stop the Vikings igniting many boos from the Vikings faithful but joy on the Packer sidelines.
Flash to the locker room again. After the tongue lashing by the coaches the players know that if they expect to contend for a playoff spot they had better find an offense that can produce more than 158 yards a game and secondly the defense needs to learn how to close out games by using the same mental toughness approach they do for the first 40 minutes of it.
--submitted by Bill Vogt--
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