The Packers really stunk this week. After the loss to Dallas last week there were positive things to point to, a feeling that the Packers played decent against a very good team. This week, the Packers played poorly against a weak team.

After the first drive, the offense was terrible. The O-line was porous, the running game was anemic, the  receivers were impotent, and the quarterback lily-livered. On the other side of the ball, the rush was pedestrian, the linebackers, with the exception of Poppinga, were weak, and they played on their heals all game. The only bright side was the secondary.

The secondary was worked over by injury, with Harris and Bigby both out. However, they managed to stay with the Tampa receivers even though the Buc's receving core doesn't exactly strike fear into most teams. The secondary also came up big with turnovers, picking off Griese 3 times, one returned for a touchdown by Woodson. (It was his third INT of the year, and second touchdown of the year. See his page.)

As good as the secondary might have been, the receiving corps was the exact opposite. The receivers had at least three drops, and if one counts Brandon Jackson you can add an interception into the mix. Not only did they drop a lot of balls, they could not seem to get open. Rogers was sacked 3 times, and 2 of those were because no one could get open. Rogers had time to throw, but everyone was covered. When the running game can't get going, the receivers need to make something happen.

The Packers should have won this game. They are a better team, and have better players. They just came out flat, and like the rest of the season, they made a lot of mental and physical mistakes (dropped passes, fumbles, penalties and missed assignments) The Packers need to step up and play like the team they are before their good start slips away.

The Cowboys come to town this Sunday night, and both the Packers and Cowboys are 2-0.

In the Packers Season Prediction I didn't think the Packers could take this game. Even after the great start to the season, I still don't think the Packers can win. Dallas has too many weapons, and they are just too good.

However, in order to hedge my bet, here are what I see the 5 things the Packers need to do to win the game based on what I saw on Monday night.

1. Shutdown TO. Owens had two touchdowns against the Eagles Monday night, and in both of them he was ridiculously open. He was behind the corner and the safety and almost walked into the end zone. If the Packers want to win, they have to eliminate the big play from TO. He will catch balls, and he might even score a TD, but he cannot scream by the Packers secondary and score a 68 yard touchdown untouched. Even if the Packers have to put Woodson underneath and Rouse up top, the need to contain him.

2. Keep penalties down. This seems like common advice, but in the last two weeks the Packers have committed too many penalties, and mental, avoidable penalties at that. In order to win this game, the Packers are going to have to reverse that trend.

3. Take advantage of Roy Williams injury. The Cowboys starting safety is out with a broken arm. The Packers already strong offense needs to take advantage of his absence and work the middle of the field. A big game from Donald Lee would be sweet.

4. Wear Dallas out. Dallas played a long, tough, fast, emotional game against the Eagles on Monday night. They are on a short week and can be worn down. The Packers offense needs to sustain some drives and take advantage of Dallas late.

5. Limit Witten. Witten had 110 yards against the Eagles, and historically the Packers have had a hard time with big, good tight ends. This is probably the hardest part for the Packers, especially if they focus on TO, but if the Packers can limit Witten to 75 yards, especially on third downs, they have a chance to win the game.

I don't expect the Packers to win this game, but I have been wrong before. However, if the Packers can limit TO and Witten, I think they have a chance.

Woodson had two interceptions on Sunday against the Lions, one of them returned for a touchdown.

I had some discussion with my Dad if he was going for another earlier in the game that he missed, contributing in part to Calvin Johnson's first touchdown.

I uploaded some video. The quality is poor, but trust me, that yellow blog cutting in front of Johnson is Woodson.

I will try and get better quality up to YouTube, but I am new at this.

I called it a win for the Packers in my 2008 Packers Prediction, and nothing I saw in week 1 would make me change my mind.

The Packers put up 24 points on the Vikings last week, and arguably left 11 points on the field (blocked field goal and Drivers TD called back.) The Lions defense last week let Atlanta put up 34 points on them. Look for the Packers to score a few (and by a few I mean 30+).

The Lions offense is not that great, but I think the thing to watch is the Packers corner backs vs the Lions receivers. Calvin Johnson had 7 catches for 107 yards and Roy Williams had 3 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown. Al Harris looked suspect last year against the tall Amani Toomer, and both the Lions receivers are very tall. Charles Woodson almost got beat deep last week, and now he has a broken toe.

The bonus is the Lions do not have much of a running game, so the Packers should be able to pressure Kitna and not give the big receivers time to get into their patterns, especially with the aggressive bump and run play of the Packers corners.

Prediction: 30-14 Packers.

Things don't look to get much better for the Vikings, the Colts come to MN for the Vikings home opener.

Yes, the Colts just lost to the Bears, but they are still going to be tough.

0-2 anyone?

When I was going over last Sundays Packers victory over the Vikings I didn't get to talking about the special teams.

In the first game of the season, the special teams looked, on whole, very good. There were two huge mistakes, a blocked field goal and a "Leverage" call on an extra point as the game was winding down. The "Leverage" call was a serious mistake, costing the Packers 15 yards on a kickoff when the extra point is pretty much automatic, although we can't say for sure what the penalty was, there were no replays. Hence the "scare" quotes.

The ""Leverage" call may or may not have been a mistake, but the blocked field goal certainly was. It looked very low, and it wasn't that far of an attempt. Crosby has been very good so far in his Packers career, so it's possible to chalk that one up to a once in a season mistake.

The other special teams play was very good. There was the obvious punt return by Blackmon, although that was a terrible, low punt by the Vikings punter. The Packers started each kickoff well past the 20, which is a welcome change from last year, although again, part of that is attributed to the fact Longwell can't kick deeper than the 10. The flip side, the kickoff coverage by the Packers, was very good, with the Packers dropping the Vikings in their tracks on most kickoffs at or behind the 20.

It will be interesting to see which part of the special team emerges as dominant, the punt returning one or the field goal missing one.

The Green Bay Packers made a pretty big statement last night, beating the Vikings 24-19 in Lambeau. The Vikings lead by 3 for 3:28 until the Packers took it for good on an Aaron Rodgers to Kory Hall touchdown. That is a pretty thorough thrashing, especially against the team that is supposed to compete for the NFC North.

Both teams looked rusty at times, especially penalties which the Packers committed 12 of for 118 yards. The worst of the penalties came at the end of the game when there was no reason to commit them. Leverage on an extra point when your team is up by 5? Holding when your team is up by 5 with 2:35 on the clock and the other team has only 1 timeout? Three rushes for four yards gives the Vikings the ball with just over 1:00 on the clock, instead they got it with about 1:59 because the holding penalty stopped the clock. The penalties have to get cleaned up, and with McCarthy as the coach, they probably will.

Besides penalties, the offense looked pretty good. Aaron Rodgers came out looking much sharper than I thought he would for his first game. He had a few mistakes, holding the ball too long a few times but that was about it. The combination of the offensive line and play calling gave Rodgers plenty of time to throw. McCarthy called a lot of shotgun and a lot of plays that started with Rodgers rolling out to his right. When he wasn't rolling though, the line gave him time, not tons of it, but time to throw, resulting in 0 sacks, 178 yards passing, 18/22 and 1 touchdown in the air. The rushing game was good, but the Vikings pretty much shut them down until Grant broke off 57 in the fourth. On that play the whole was so huge the Vikings must have had a pass defense called, but once Grant got through the hole and hit the linebackers he just housed #51 Ben Leber, throwing him to the ground with a stiff arm to the face. Grant is a good, power full runner, it is nice to see him signed and healthy.

The defense looked good, doing what they had to do by shutting down AP. He had 103 yards and a touchdown, but considering he is most of the Vikings offense, that is pretty good. The defense got tired as the game went on, part of that because the Packers offense was only on the field for 3 plays in the third quarter thanks to a Will Blackmon punt return for a touchdown. The pass rush was there, but never really got to the quarterback, sacking him only 1 time. I would keep an eye on our corners Woodson and Harris, they are both getting old and have lost a step. Woodson was a shoestring tackle away from getting burned for a big touchdown and Harris looked beat a couple of times but was saved by under thrown balls.

Offense and defense were good but not great. Kind of hard to say that since our new quarterback started his first NFL game and went 18/22 for 178 and a touchdown and the Packers defense kept the lid on the best running back around, but there is room for improvement. There is always Detroit next week for that.

My prediction of a Vikings victory was happliy wrong.

The Packers got a good win over a good team. Grant showed some flashes, and Rodgers looked good.

The chuckleheads in the booth were terrible though, too bad the Packers have 2 more Monday night games.

Look for more thoughts tomorrow.

As I mentioned in my Packers 2008 Prediction, I do not think the Packers can beat the Vikings this Monday night. That doesn't mean I won't be rooting for them, or hoping they win, I just don't think they can pull it off.

To start, I don't think they had a great pre-season. The last game was good, and there were a lot of positives there, but I don't think the team really had a chance to gell as a unit. Ryan Grant didn't even have a carry, and I expect big things out of him this year.

Ryan Grant and the running game are where I see the biggest problems for the Packers against the Vikings. Last year the Vikings keyed off Brett Favre and the pass, and Grant was able to rush for 119 yards and a touchdown. This year I expect the Vikings to shift: stack against the run and let Aaron Rodgers and company beat them. As good as Rodgers will be and as crazy good as the Packers receiving core is, that plan should work for the Vikings.

Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback, and will only get better as the season goes on. However, he will probably experience some first game jitters and probably has a few things to iron out. Not only will he be nervous because it is his first start, he will probably be nervous because of all the Vikings D-linemen in his grill. The Packers O-line looked pretty porous in the pre-season and the Vikings have one of the best defensive lines in football. I expect the Vikings defense to hold down the Packers O pretty well.

The Packers defense, on the other hand, should be able to do a pretty good job against the Vikings offense. Adrian Peterson is great, but Tarvaris Jackson is terrible, and he has been injured the last two pre-season games. The Packers defense will hold the Vikings to just a few points for most of the game, but the Vikings and AP's punishing running are going to wear on the Packers. By the end of the game AP should be breaking off some pretty big runs.

Unless the Packers offense can at least get some drives together. That is my key to the game, if the Packers can sustain some drives and keep from going 3 and out, the defense will get some rest, and that will go a long way.

Vikings 17-7