It wasn’t just the fans that had a problem with the officials’ incompetence last night. Brad Childress was pretty steamed about the horrible officiating too, and he let reporters know it during his post-game news conference.
Specifically, he called the decision to take Visanth(e) Shiancoe‘s touchdown off the boards, “wrong.”
Add to that call the fact that the refs gave the Packers a touchdown to which they were not entitled and this wasn’t even a game.
TURNOVERS
But the fact remains that if you’ve got the officials against you, you need to play that much better to overcome them. Brett Favre was intercepted three times; one led to a Packers touchdown drive and one was returned for a touchdown. Take back those interceptions, and this wasn’t even a game.
PRESSURE
Or lack thereof. Aaron Rodgers had all day in the pocket all night long. He was not sacked once. Jared Allen, despite being in the right place at the right time for a pick of a screen pass, was completely shut down by Chad Clifton and rookie right tackle Bryan Bulaga did the same with Ray Edwards.
Get some more pressure on Rodgers, and maybe this wasn’t even a game.
COACHING
Brad Childress can be as pissed off at the officials as he wants but he ought to look in the mirror a little bit, too.
His decision to “take a knee” at the half didn’t sit well with Randy Moss, or me. Since when is it a good idea to not try to score when you’ve got a chance?
If you see the Packers’ rushing their extra point kicking team onto the field after a score, maybe that’s a good indication that your opponent doesn’t believe that they scored. Maybe it’s worth a red flag.
RANDY MOSS
You can argue either way on those coaching calls but here’s something that’s tougher to argue against: You’ve got the best receiver of his generation on your team in Randy Moss and the way you’re going to use him is to get other people open?!?
Because that is certainly the way it looks.
How ’bout a little creativity in finding ways to get the ball in Moss’ hands? How ’bout putting him in motion a bit more to create some favorable match ups and foil some of the double teams?
The Vikings coaches seem content to take advantage of the “Randy Cushion” that defenses are willing to give but not nearly as interested in actually getting the ball to Moss himself.