Week 16 Game Recap: Minnesota Vikings 7, Green Bay Packers 9

What you need to know

Minnesota Vikings

QB Tarvaris Jackson looked a bit shaky as is to be expected in his first NFL start. Whenever it takes someone 20 passes to throw for 50 yards, that’s not a good sign. Jackson did show some good signs, such as arm strength and physical strength, and he never looked scared.

RB Chester Taylor was unable to take advantage of a porous Green Bay defense, as the Vikings really concentrated on getting Tarvaris Jackson on track.

Green Bay Packers

In what may have been his final home game, QB Brett Favre went out with weak statistics but a win nonetheless. He led Green Bay on a game winning touchdown drive mere minutes after nearly handing the game away with interceptions on successive passes in the third quarter (one of which went for a touchdown the other way).

WR Donald Driver was extremely active from beginning to end. He was clearly Favre’s favorite target, and he appeared to be fighting and clawing for every last yard he could get out there.

TE Bubba Franks made several potentially costly mistakes, most of which you rarely see from a long-time veteran in the league. With rumors of Franks’ demise in Green Bay imminent, it certainly appears to be time to start looking for his eventual successor for 2007.

What you ought to know

QB Tarvaris Jackson, Pass: 10 - 20 - 50 - 0 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 5 - 23 - 0

Jackson didn’t look very good, but perhaps just as importantly he didn’t look terrible either. He simply didn’t take a lot of shots down the field, a fact he acknowledged in his postgame comments. His passes were a little bit inconsistent, something that is to be expected from a rookie making his first career start in late December in Lambeau Field. Oh, and in a game that fans are jacked up for to possibly see Brett Favre’s last career start at home. So, considering the conditions, Jackson could have played a lot worse. On the plus side, he connected with nine different receivers, he turned the ball over just once, and he showed impressive arm strength on a deep ball to Troy Williamson early on. On the negative side, he averaged just 2.5 yards per pass attempt and didn’t come close to leading anything resembling a sustained drive. On the last potential game winning possession, Jackson made several mistakes including taking a sack and failing to get out of bounds on a scramble. It’s clear that Jackson has impressive physical tools, but it may take awhile to harness them. He has a lot of strength when he runs, and did a great job of avoiding sacks even when he was seemingly wrapped up. But he seemingly will need some time to master the QB position in the NFL, and it seemed more than a bit odd that HC Brad Childress wouldn’t have leaned more heavily on the running game considering the circumstances.

RB Chester Taylor, Rush: 15 - 49 - 0, Rec: 3 - 18 - 0 (3 targets)

Taylor didn’t play a crucial role here, as the Vikings seemingly wanted to know what they’ve got in rookie QB Tarvaris Jackson. Minnesota never got into a running rhythm, and Taylor never was able to really get it going. His long run of the game went for just 11 yards, and he had a lot of one and two yard runs that basically accomplished nothing. With no real threat of a passing game to worry about, the Packers were able to focus on stopping Taylor. And with Minnesota running the ball at predictable times, there wasn’t much opportunity for Taylor to break many big gains.

WR Travis Taylor, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (6 targets)

Taylor caught one pass in the first half that was negated by a penalty, but that was his only first half target. When Troy Williamson found himself in the doghouse after another drop, Taylor became the primary threat again. He was targeted a team high six times with Williamson getting no action. Despite the extra looks, Taylor managed just one reception. Of course, he also had a 42 yard grab late in the fourth quarter that was negated due to a penalty, par for the course with the Minnesota passing unit in this game.

WR Troy Williamson, Rec: 1 - 1 - 0 (2 targets)

Williamson was thrown to just twice all game long. The second pass thrown to him was a nice deep pass down the seam. Williamson reached up for the ball far too early, tried to re-adjust for it, and allowed it to bounce off his shoulder pad for an incompletion.

TE Jermaine Wiggins, Rec: 1 - 4 - 0 (3 targets)

Wiggins caught just one pass, and didn’t make any kind of impact on the game one way or the other.

PK Ryan Longwell 0 - 0 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 1 points

Longwell had just one kick attempt, an extra point that he converted.

MIN Rush Defense

While the numbers will say they shut down yet another good running back, Ahman Green was actually somewhat productive early on. Granted, Green Bay pretty much abandoned the running game and took to the air (50 times), and Green’s YPC wasn’t all that impressive either, but he wasn’t just completely taken out of the game either.

MIN Pass Defense

For the most part, the Packers relied on the short passing game to move the football. And it proved successful, to a point. Once the Packers got near the end zone, the Minnesota defense did a solid job of tightening. Four times Green Bay moved the ball in the first half, and four times they came away with nothing more than a field goal attempt (and two of those missed). Minnesota was also helped along by several costly drops by Green Bay receivers, most notably WR Greg Jennings and TE Bubba Franks. The only times the Vikings ever came close to giving up defensive touchdowns, Franks ensured it wasn’t going to happen. The first time, Franks caught a pass from Favre and rumbled his way towards the end zone only to fumble the ball away at the one yard line. And later, RB Ahman Green took a short screen from Favre all the way down to the four yard line. But that was called back because Franks had held a Minnesota defender during the play. Both interceptions were also a product of being fortunate more than anything, as WR Greg Jennings twice ran the incorrect route and allowed easy interceptions on the Vikings’ side. CB Fred Smoot took one of those interceptions all the way back the other way for a touchdown and tried to do a “Lambeau Leap”, but was knocked to the ground before having beverages poured on him. Minnesota helped make their own fortunes at times, as CB Antoine Winfield didn’t create any turnovers but was seemingly around the ball all night long.

QB Brett Favre, Pass: 26 - 50 - 285 - 0 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0

Favre now has two options. Either this game finally convinced him that he’s not the player he once was and it’s time to hang em up, or it angered him to the point of wanting to come back and not go out that way. In what was initially a very hyped event in Green Bay, the game itself was a dud – thanks in no small part to Favre’s own problems. For one thing, 285 yards is a big total but it took him 50 pass attempts to get there. And while he had to deal with at least four dropped passes (and likely many more that should have been caught), Favre himself didn’t look great. The two interceptions were partly his fault, though WR Greg Jennings has to accept at least as much responsibility for failing to go where the route was directing him to go. And Favre also nearly salvaged a bad fantasy game by coming close to a touchdown, only to see TE Bubba Franks fumble a reception into the end zone at the one yard line. Favre went through long stretches of game where he was simply terrible (in the third quarter, he was 1-9 for 13 yards and both interceptions), but then he’d look like the brilliant Hall of Famer he is (such as when he completed a perfect fade pass to Ruvell Martin on the eventual game-winning drive.

RB Ahman Green, Rush: 18 - 42 - 0, Rec: 4 - 27 - 0 (5 targets)

Neither team really established any semblance of a running game, although Green Bay certainly had some early success. The numbers don’t fully back it up, but Green looked good running the ball early on. He was quick and elusive in the backfield, and had several decent mid-length runs. For whatever reason, despite the slick conditions on the field, each coach opted for more of an air it out approach, which really hindered Green’s opportunities for success.

WR Donald Driver, Rec: 9 - 99 - 0 (19 targets)

If this was Brett Favre’s last game in Lambeau Field, he was certainly going to rely on his most trusted weapon, and that would be Driver. He was the target of 19 passes from Favre, and he was the only one of the top three Green Bay targets that didn’t drop at least one pass. Driver was continuously Favre’s outlet, and it was clear the rapport these two have even when things aren’t going too well offensively. The QB always knows where Driver is, and whenever a situation is breaking down, that’s the guy he looks to. That was never more evident than this game, as Driver hauled in a game high nine receptions for 99 yards. He briefly left with an apparent shoulder injury after making a tough diving reception, but soon returned thereafter.

WR Ruvell Martin, Rec: 3 - 69 - 0 (3 targets)

Martin did the majority of his damage on one reception late in the fourth quarter. Brett Favre lofted a perfect pass down the left sideline to Martin, who hauled it in at the Minnesota 27 yard line. That catch helped set up the game winning field goal by Dave Rayner.

WR Greg Jennings, Rec: 1 - 2 - 0 (11 targets)

Jennings saw extensive action in the game, but could do almost nothing with it. At times, it appeared as if his head really wasn’t in the game. He dropped the first pass he saw all game, a deep ball that could have been caught. Later, he dropped a pass over the middle. And twice he was the target of Favre passes that were intercepted by the Vikings. Obviously, Favre must accept some blame for throwing the passes, but it was clear on both occasions that Jennings simply ran the wrong route. Favre had a microphone on him during the telecast, and at one point told his coach that Jennings stopped running (with the implication being that he didn’t finish his route). After the second interception, Jennings was not thrown to again.

TE Bubba Franks, Rec: 5 - 43 - 0 (8 targets)

Franks had one of the worst games played by an NFL player in quite some time. The lowlights: he dropped successive passes early on, he fumbled a ball out of bounds, he fumbled at the goal line to cost his team a touchdown (and almost the game), and was called for a holding penalty on what would have been a first down screen pass to Ahman Green that would’ve set up first and goal at the four. Instead, the Franks hold backed the team up to the 27 yard line, and Dave Rayner’s 44 yard field goal bailed out Franks.

PK Dave Rayner 3 - 5 FG, 0 - 0 XP, 9 points

Rayner salvaged a potentially horrific performance by connecting on the game-winning field goal from 44 yards out. He had earlier missed from 38 yards out after slipping during the kicking motion and having it blocked. And later, he bounced an easy 34 yard kick off the left upright. The game winner was right down the middle, and was made with ease.

GB Rush Defense

Curiously, despite the fact that they were starting a first time quarterback in a hostile emotional environment in poor weather in a game that remained close the entire way, HC Brad Childress chose to throw the football 20 times while running just 23 (just 15 with starter Chester Taylor). The Vikings were never able to establish a running game, mostly because the Vikings never really tried to establish a running game. Taylor wasn’t awful, averaging over three yards per carry. But he certainly never broke any big gains, with his long run going for just 11 yards. Minnesota was never near the end zone offensively and rarely got into any short yardage situations, so it’s tough to get a read on how well the Packers defended the run. About the best evidence we have that they did a good job is the fact that Minnesota didn’t record its second first down of the game until the third quarter and finished up with just three total.

GB Pass Defense

The Vikings barely attempted to throw the ball any further than five yards downfield, so it’s tough to get a real gauge on how well Green Bay played in this aspect. The one thing that really helped Green Bay’s defense along was the offensive penalties called against Minnesota. By halftime, the Vikings had just 38 total yards of offense but had already piled up 40 yards in penalties. A penalty also negated a long 42 yard pass midway through the third quarter, so don’t let the numbers fool you into thinking the Packers shut them down. One thing that was certain is that QB Tarvaris Jackson should have been sacked more frequently than he was, but Green Bay defenders didn’t do a great job of wrapping him up during sack attempts. One player who had no such difficulty was Aaron Kampman, who added three more to his league-leading tally of 15.5 on the season. LB A.J. Hawk blew a golden opportunity for an interception and touchdown return when he dropped a ball intended for TE Jermaine Wiggins that hit Hawk right in the hands.