1. Never underestimate a motivated Brett Favre.  He’s like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods – great on any given day, but a beast when he has extra reason to want to beat you.  He may have tried downplaying his desire for revenge on the Packers, but they way he played is proof of how much he wanted to show his former team what a mistake they made.  When Brett finally does retire – hopefully not any time soon – and wends his way to the Hall-of-Fame, don’t be shocked if his speech, like Jordan’s, turns into a bitter litany of people who had to pay for slighting him.

2. The pass blocking could not have been better last night.  The highlight was that long pass to Jeff Dugan where Favre had enough time in the pocket to pick out a new TV and iron a pair of Wranglers.  The run blocking, conversely, did not appear as dominating.  Second week in a row we had trouble generating a ground game against a 3-4.  I don’t need to mention that we’re facing the 3-4 again 3 out of the next 4 weeks.

3. Adrian Peterson had a bad game.  Yes he scored one touchdown – about the only running play all day that looked well-blocked – but his 2.2 yards-per-carry average was pitiful.  And he had one of the worst fumbles you’re ever going to see in a professional football game, getting stood up and stripped along the sideline (it looked like a mugging more than a tackle).  Peter King said it best on Twitter: “If you’re even a marginal NFL running back, you don’t give up a ball like Peterson just did.”

Maybe AD is the best player in the NFL, but he didn’t play like it Monday night.

4. The chemistry between Favre and the receivers seems to be coming along.  He found Bernard Berrian 6 times for 75 yards, including that sweet touchdown where they burned Al Harris.  He hit Sidney Rice 5 times for 70 yards.  He only found Percy Harvin twice but it was for 39 yards.  Favre had more yards passing against the 49ers but the passing game looked far crisper against the Packers, who are alleged to have a good secondary.

5. Charles Woodson got screwed on two penalties.  That should not have been defensive holding when he was fighting with Visanthe Shiancoe down the sideline, and it should not have been interference when he appeared to pick off the pass intended for Sidney Rice in the endzone (the INT would’ve been wiped out by an offsides anyway).

6. Everyone sort of expected Jared Allen to go off, what with Chad Clifton being out of the line-up, but I don’t know if anyone anticipated him going quite as crazy as he did.  One thing has become apparent about Mr. Allen:  he shows up in big games.  He made huge plays against Philly in the playoffs last year, and last night, he helped Brett get his revenge.

7. Brad Childress came very, very close to having a bad night.  First, he failed to get the red flag out in time after that goofy 1st down catch by Greg Jennings off Donald Driver‘s tip, missing a chance to reverse the successful 4th down play and give his team the ball back.  Antoine Winfield rendered that moot by intercepting Aaron Rodgers two plays later.  Then, that miserable 3rd down pass play call when the Vikings just needed to keep it on the ground and run clock.  Some are suggesting that Favre freelanced there but I don’t buy it.  I think Chilly was trying to stick the knife in and…it was idiotic.  Again, Chilly was bailed out, by Sidney Rice who made two good leaping plays on off-side kick attempts, keeping the Packers from completing an improbable comeback.

8. Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield put up superstar defensive performances, but the defense overall did not perform in superstar fashion.  It got way too easy for Aaron Rodgers in those tense final minutes when it seemed the Packers might pull out a miracle.  After the Jordie Nelson 33-yard touchdown catch, you could see Winfield mouthing, “What the hell was that?”  Our safeties are okay in run support but they are not good in coverage.  Thankfully, the Packers didn’t figure out how easy it might be to pass against us until it was too late.

9.  Is it just me or do Chester Taylor and Brett Favre look like they’re pretty good buddies?  Favre is always putting his arm around Chester and they did that butt-bump that ended up knocking Chester to the ground.  Does Chester also enjoy hunting and light lawn work?

10.  I have never been so appalled by a TV announcer’s performance as I was by Jon Gruden‘s last night.  The fawning over Brett Favre passed well beyond unprofessionalism and into the realm of the surreal.  The sad thing is that the alleged old-pro announcers, Ron Jaworski and Mike Tirico, seemed to find Gruden’s slupring hilarious.  I hope someone at ESPN sits down and has a chat with Gruden, and tells him to at least feign objectivity.  Nothing during John Madden‘s long tenure as a Favre-lover came close to the display Gruden put on.

If there’s one thing that should be giving Viking fans a touch of indigestion right now (besides all those injuries in the secondary), it’s the recent play of Gus Frerotte.  There’s little question that Gus saved the season when he took over for Tarvaris Jackson – I shudder to think where we’d be right now with T-Jack still at the helm – but he seems to have degenerated lately, and against the Packers last week he was flat out awful.  It was nice, for awhile, feeling like we could win because of our quarterback and not in spite of him – but now we’re losing that confidence in Gus.  He needs to play well today and give us back that good feeling about him.  He needs to find Bernard Berrian, who was completely taken out by Al Harris and Green Bay.  And he needs to find Visanthe Shiancoe who once seemed like a joke but now seems like an under-utilized weapon.

Of course, the offense will still run through Adrian Peterson, who took a big step last week in establishing his legend as an NFL player.  Adrian’s will to win seemingly overwhelmed the Packers.  He seems indomitable – and if the rest of the team can take on that personality, it will be a very hard team to beat the rest of the season.  But Adrian didn’t beat the Packers single-handedly, even if it seemed that way – he had lots of help from an offensive line that seems to be coming together at just the right time (it did make a big difference having Bryant McKinnie come back), and he had lots of help from Chester Taylor who has become a dangerous weapon as a receiver out of the backfield.  The Vikings finally seem to have worked out how to use their backfield tandem – pound away with Adrian, knowing you’ll get the occasional big run, and throw to Chester any time you need a big first down conversion.  The Moss/Carter combo used to be the one to give defensive coodinators nightmares, but now it’s Peterson/Taylor that sends them reaching for the Maalox.

Again, I will offer no game prediction.  Tampa’s home dominance would seem the main point in their favor.  And it seems a lot to ask for Adrian to take over a second straight game and make it his own, so Frerotte and the defense had better play well.  I worry a lot about the state of our secondary with all those injuries, Darren Sharper looking over-the-hill and Cedric Griffin looking incredibly vulnerable.  I fear Garcia will tear us to pieces with short passes – but I feared that against Aaron Rodgers last week and the pass rush made him look confused and helpless.  Garcia, however, has loads more experience and pocket presence than Rodgers.  We’re going to need a big game from Jared Allen and company to keep that Tampa passing attack from getting in a groove.

A win for Minnesota would be their third in a row – and that would probably vault them into favorite status in the division with six to play.  And a huge road victory would go a long way toward establishing confidence.  I wouldn’t go so far as the call the Vikings a playoff team if they win today – let’s just say, if they beat the Bucs, it will be a lot harder to doubt them.

There’s no such thing as an easy win for the 2008 Vikings.  Even when they seem to have a game well in hand…well, something always has to happen to make things tight.  And so it was for today’s game with the Packers:  The Vikings went up 21-10 in the third after Gus Frerotte hit Chester Taylor in the flat, and Taylor made a great move on the linebacker and raced 47 yards for the touchdown.  Not only were the Vikings well ahead on the scoreboard, but they were dominating the stat sheet too.  The defense spent the first half harassing Aaron Rodgers, even forcing the quarterback into a pair of safeties.  And though Ryan Grant was able to rattle off a couple of decent runs, the back was not much of a factor.  And then…yes, there’s always got to be an “and then” for this Vikings team.  And then Gus Frerotte got picked off by Nick Collins who returned it for a touchdown, making it 21-17.  And then, after a stalled Viking possession, Will Blackmon returned a punt 65 yards to make it 24-21.  As fast as you could say “What the frack just happened?”, the Vikings had squandered all of their hard-won lead.

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