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A lot has been made about how easily and consistently Brett Favre marched the Vikings down the field against the Packers. Most have claimed the entire game was a one-sided affair.
However, the stats from the game tell a different story.
There was no doubt that Brett Favre played a heck of a game against his former team. Brett completed 24 out of the 31 passes he threw. That’s a fantastic completion percentage of 77%.
However, Aaron Rodgers held his own in this category. Despite continued protection woes, Rodgers completed 26 of his 37 passes for a more than respectable 70% completion rate.
Once again the Packers had difficulty getting any running game going. Grant only collected 51 yards rushing the ball. Of course, the highly regarded Adrian Peterson was also fighting an uphill battle. The Packers defense held Peterson to only 55 yards for the entire game.
Actually, the Packers and the Vikings were, statistically speaking, pretty even across the board. So, where did the Packers stumble and lose the first meeting against their hated rivals?
Sacks was one major statistical discrepancy between the two teams. The Vikings recorded 6 sacks against GreenBay. Four and a half of those came at the hands of Jared Allen. The Packers’ defense, on the other hand, didn’t record a single sack on number 4. In fact, they hardly made him move around in the pocket. It’s no wonder Favre was able to connect on 77% of his passes and move the ball with such efficiency.
The other major descrepancy was penalties. The Vikings played a pretty clean game only getting tagged with two penalties for 10 yards. Meanwhile, the Packers were nailed by the officials 7 times for a total of 57 yards. That many penalties creates way too many third and long situations and it’s difficult for any team to be productive on the scoreboard when they’re committing that many penalties.
And so the Packers drop to .500 while the Vikings continue their undefeated run.
Next up for the Packers, a much-needed bye week.
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