Winning Streak Begins

Packers 34 - Dolphins 24

Note the time -- I was off by an hour. That means I was also off about the game plan. Of course, had the game ended when I'd expected it to, my score prediction would've been frighteningly close. At 2:45, we were up 27-16. Perhaps the game wouldn't have lasted quite so long if the last six seconds of the first half had not taken so long to play. Rayner hit a career-long 55-yarder solidly, but a penalty was called on the defense (some weird-ass thing like "disconcerting yawping") that gave us 15 yards. Unfortunately, I guess because of when it happened, we couldn't decline it and take the field goal. Rayner kicked another good one from 40 yards out, but then we got called for a 15-yard face mask. Because the time on the clock expired while we kicked it and the penalty was on us, we didn't get the time back for Rayner to try to boot another 55-yarder.

It's not that we didn't rush -- Ahman Green, back for the first time in a month, had a 70-yard TD jaunt in the 4th quarter -- we just didn't follow the whole 'run to set up the pass' BS routine. This is the one thing I have enjoyed about the Oblio era. Favre also didn't make any grievous errors, despite making some dangerous throws. Luckily, Miami's secondary is even poorer than ours. It's hard not to throw against a team like that. Yes, I realize that this is a lot like the pot calling the kettle ferrous. I prefer to think of it in a positive light -- it's good for our boys to see this if it helps them realize how the rest of the league thinks of us when they see us coming up on their schedules.

Lots of people will sing the praises of Charles Woodson for his efforts in today's game. Let me go on record now to say I don't believe the hype. Not yet, anyway. He played horribly in the first half. There were a couple of plays directly attributed to his poor execution that allowed the Dolphins to score more points in this game than in any game so far this season. Just because he returns an INT for a TD, it doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to forget all the other crappy plays.

I'm happy for Driver -- he was really the only seasoned receiver we had on the field, and he proved that with a good game today. Bubba dropped at least one more pass today, so I don't know what's wrong with him. Seems like it's happening a little too often for it to be a coincidence. The worst thing was seeing Jennings leave the game. He went out with an ankle injury and had x-rays done in the locker room. Sounds like it was just a sprain, though, so I'm hoping I'll get a chance to see him rip apart the Cardinals (who are currently losing big to the winless Raiders) next Sunday at Lambeau.