Stuff They Said: The Packer Week Edition Part Two

It’s Packer week again. Normally a time for healthy smack-talk. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a smack-talk gap right now between the 7-1 Cheesies and 3-5 Purple. Hard for a Viking fan to have much confidence going into this match-up, knowing Old Number 4 is back near the top of his game, and that the Packers sport such a ferocious defense.

Of course, there are certain people you can count on to talk-trash no matter what. Like Darren Sharper. Reality never got in the way of him running his vaunted blabber-hole. Darren touched off a tiny, good-natured little smack-match with his buddy Number 4 with some comments he made on Monday about Favre’s high, arcing bombs:

"Some of the throws he’s making, I just hope he tries that against us. Those 50-yard balls over the middle of the field, we’ll see how much success he has."

Yeah – the Vikings always defend those deep passes. Like they did against Devin Hester.

When asked if he’d heard about Sharper’s comments, Favre said:

"I was hunting, I had better things to do. … But I did see his comments. Well, if it’s in his direction … I threw one to him the first play of the game the last time. I don’t intend to but the last time I checked that is his job [to intercept the ball]."

Yes, Brett – it’s his job. As it’s your job to hawk acid-reflux remedies while your wife humps her book and whatever else she happens to be promoting at any given moment. You guys should seriously just start your own home shopping network. Sell lots of pain medication and eyeliner.

It’s not all negativity between Packer and Viking players though. Packer right-tackle Mark Tauscher, a former Badger stand-out who is having a Pro-Bowl season, said the following about his old Wisconsin teammate Brooks Bollinger:

"I just remember he stepped in when we had lost two really tough games, and we had to go to Ohio State. We were a senior-laden team, and here’s a redshirt freshman coming in, and he just brought a different dynamic to the huddle. He was incredibly mobile, and I really felt like coming in right off the get-go he was a great leader. I’m sure as he evolved there, his leadership was incredible."

So there you have it – Mark Tauscher endorses Brooks Bollinger. Who else is with me and Mark?

Brad Childress? Here’s what he had to say about Brooks:

"You probably saw his quote, “It’s great to get in there because I thought I was back at Wisconsin, and it’s pretty easy when you’re handing off to Ron Dayne or Adrian Peterson.” He does a good job of managing our offense, and then he made a couple of good throws as well."

He does a good job of managing our offense when he’s actually in. Which is only after Tarvaris Jackson and Kelly Holcomb have been injured. This week they’re both injured, and neither will likely be able to play. That means it’s Brooks backed-up by Koy Detmer, who said the following about his role in the offense:

"I feel good about going out there and executing. Turn around and hand it off to Adrian."

It ain’t that easy I’m afraid Koy. Occasionally you have to miss a slant to Bobby Wade or bounce one off Troy Williamson‘s hands as well. Only then does the offense become truly kick-ass. Unfortunately, it’s kicking its own ass…

And then there’s Antoine Winfield, who missed the Chargers game, which turned out to be the Vikings’ best all-around defensive game of the season. Antoine is still not sure he will go on Sunday. He would like to, of course, if only to get another shot at Donald Driver, a guy he had a little smack-war with before and after the last game.

The smack has been toned-down between Driver and Winfield this week, but Driver did manage to get in a comment about the way the Vikings cover him:

"Those guys played two-man. Basically, what that is, is that Winfield plays over me, and then he’s hoping that if I beat him, then he has help over the top. Every time I caught the ball on him, he had (Darren) Sharper or (Dwight) Smith right there."

So Winfield’s a puss because he has safety help? That’s called not wanting to get beat deep Donald – not a bad strategy considering that the Packers have no running game, meaning we don’t need our safeties for run support and can just leave them over the top.

Winfield was apparently in no mood to get anything going with Driver. He said:

"I’m not going to go back and forth on that. I love going and competing against him. He’s one of the best receivers in the league. He makes me elevate my game when I see him on Sundays."

Let’s hope Antoine’s in there this Sunday.