You can't tell me you aren't worried about our Defense anymore

Seriously. Ponder was looking like an ALL Pro out there today, especially on 3rd downs.

Happy we got a win but it was probably the worst performance we've had on defense this year. And as dominant as our offense was we, yet again disappeared in the 4th quarter when we needed points and went 3 and out. And 2 picks by our guaranteed Hall of Famer, resulted in 2 field goals when we should have 2 TD's with how horrible their secondary was.

Fortunately for us, this bye week couldn't have come at a better time. Team gets a much needed week of rest for our injured players and hopefully going into Qualcomm we'll be at full strength. But man, we need to learn how to get off the field on 3rd down. It's absolutely killing us.

I will say though, I was pretty impressed with Jarrett Bush today.

Also impressed with Mason Crosby. Last year he was more inconsistent than the bowel movements of a geriatric, this year he's bangin' em through with room to spare.

Our defense thought this game was going to be a cakewalk and was wrong. We should always take division rivals seriously. They didn't know how Ponder would turn out. Nobody did. I give him props.

However, you can't forget the 2 interceptions by Woodson or the personal foul against Clay that put them in scoring position that imo was pure bullshit. I'm glad we walked away with a win and now it's time to get healthy for the Chargers.

well it wan't one of their best games for sure,but I think A-Rod did good at the end to run the clock out d-line again yea they could have done better,but they did what needed to be done in the end,still think you will see them playing better with Neal coming back.

Yeah the call on Matthews was just awful. However not having any knowledge of Ponder can only be used as an excuse to a certain extent. Ponder's conversion rate on 3rd down had to have been close to 80%. There is no excuse for that

Very true. I am with you that something is wrong with our defense. And it is very surprising. Tramon has lost some heart this year. But I'm pleased with the way Bush has played.

I just don't want this team to be the Rams that lost to the Patriots. Been there done that with Denver.

Tramon hasn't been doing all that bad. He still has that busted shoulder and the loss of Collins has to be making is job a little harder back there though. Bush did play real well today both in coverage and special teams. Was very surprised with his performance. I'm probably one of his biggest haters.

Defense needs to start clicking and our players need to stay healthy and I think we'll be good. But right now there are some questions about how far we can go with the way we're playing in certain situations.

They were getting good pressure. The Coach even commented on that. But the secondary left a lot of gaps. Ponder was sharp in his play last week though, too. So I wouldn't underrate him either. He was accurate on a lot of passes and had a very quick delivery. When he hesitated back there, he was running for his life.

How can you complain about 7-0?????

Worry about it all you want, we're still 7-0.

So you won't be convinced there is a problem until we lose? I guess that's a rather overly optimistic attitude to have, but really? We were nearly beaten by a rookie QB in his first game. We were absolute crap on 3rd down, our receivers dropped a lot of easy passes, wide open holes in our defense made Ponder look like Joe Montana.

If you don't see a problem or room for improvement. We'll I guess everyone suffers from delusion on some level.

See I think what made Ponder good was having AP. Everytime I saw AP back there I feared for a breakout play. As usual after teh half our adjustments do wonders, just we kind of fell apart in the fourth and I want to say teh Packers D was getting cocky. Woodson was getting greedy and Ponder was still learning. I expected this game to be a lot like the Carolina game and for the most part it did remind me of it. Our D will do better.

I think I remember reading that you wanted to work in football reporting when you first joined?!?! You definately sound like you got your toe hold in the door!
here is my take on the game....

"Packers won beaaaaaaaaatches!!!" lol but I totally agree on all of your observances!

If Favre was our QB we would have won at least 10 by now.

Yeah and if Jenkins was still here we would have won all 10 by at least 50 points.

Not reading long complaining paragraphs. Not worried.

Fans of bad teams have hope. Fans of good teams have worries. I say, let's buck the trend. Our team won the Super bowl last year, after the season seemed lost. Just sit back and enjoy this one.

31 team's fans wish they had our problems.

True true true to true

99 problems...down to 31!

Yup we suck, no doubt about it. The Vikings are the worst team in the NFL they have a horrible running game, their defensive line sucks, I can't believe we let them score 27 points, crap other than Woodsons two we should have had about five more int's. We found out today ponder can't throw worth a sh**, or run. I mean we had plenty of film on him, I just don't get it. We are sooooo lucky, I just don't see how we can be 7-0. We should just forfeit the next couple while we practice perfection.

Don't worry about the haters. They will always hate. Even on perfection.

Yeah I'll admit this game made me a tad bit worried about the defense, but truthfully any team that is doing well is bound to have an off week. I think the Packers should come out much better (and healthier) after this bye, and hopefully their not sluggish.

I tend to find your D steps up in clutch situations. I still think they will be fine in the playoffs and when games mean even more.

I am not really that worried.

Are they the best D in the league? No. But, I still don't believe they would cost you guys a title. This was a tough game since the Vikings have a new QB at home and rallied around him. MN is still trying very very hard to make this a season.

It reminded me a bit of the Panthers game at times too. Maybe you guys struggle against rookie QBs, especially when there is so little film on them.

I'm tired of the "If we still had Jenkins" nonsense. Did everyone forget he missed 5 games last season?

Besides, I'm convinced letting him go was the right thing to do. I laid out the numbers in another thread, but our defense is still getting great pressure on the QB, and is up there in sacks and QB hits. Our pass rush isn't the problem, and it's only going to improve when we get Mike Neal and Frank Zombo back.

As for tonight's game, being without Sam Shields forced us to switch a few things up in our secondary a bit, plus we're still feeling the loss of Nick Collins. Not only that, but it was obvious Capers was expecting a more conservative game plan from the Vikings since Ponder was getting his first start. The plan was to sell out to stop Peterson. Obviously we had to change things up a bit.

The re-match in three weeks will be a different story.

Yup, and that was my biggest concern this week. Ponder was able to move the ball pretty well against Chicago last week, and remembering that we handed a winless Tampa Bay their first victory a couple years ago when they started Josh Freeman for the first time made me cautiously optimistic.

The bottom line is this team is winning. It's not always pretty, but they're winning nonetheless. We're about ready to start the second half of our season. I expect the defense to turn things around.