Watch the tape, gleen from it what is useful, and then all hands on deck for the most important game of the season at 7:30 PM Monday October 5 in the Metrodome in Minneapolis against the Brett Favre led division leading Minnesota Vikings...

That is of course until about 11:00 PM Monday October 5th when the most important game of the season becomes noon Sunday October 18 at Lambeau against the Detroit lions...

... until about 3:30 when the most important game becomes noon Sunday Oct. 25 at Cleveland until about 3:30 when the most IMPORTANT GAME OF THE SEASON comes full circle to noon Sunday Nov. 1 at Lambeau aganist the Favre led (division trailing Minnesota Vikings)...

You get the drift! The season is 16 games long and the next game is ALWAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT!

I have to call shenanigans on this one.

If you look at it logically division games are more important than any other games.

Emotionally, the Bear games are the most important, only surpassed by any division game where Favre is playing for the other side

I too have a priority list for regular season games importance before the games are played.

In order of importance::

Division games, NFC games, Teams you are competing for a playoff spot with...

But the reality remains that if you hope to succeed as a team your focus ALWAYS needs to be that the game that lies right before you As the MOST IMPORTANT GAME.(PERIOD)

Looking forward or backwards is certainly a receipe for disaster IMO

Will only be the 4th game of the season, so yes there will be too much hype for this one. Still I bet when the season is over that looking back it will be one of the most important games. In years past you can usually look at GB's performances away against Minny and CHI as pivotable.

However, I for one will not lament the Packers season as a failure if they win Monday, nor will I hail them as eminent Super Bowl winners should they win. However they are going to have a bye week after Monday night, so beyond the normal and Favre-ian implications I really am hopefully for a win. Would much rather have 2 weeks to relish a NFC North win than a loss with no game the following week to look forward to.

Losing is not an option!

I don't know if my heart's gonna be able to take this game. It's gonna go into arrest from all the anxiety.

Me too!!!!

With Favre's arm and experience he can burn you on blitzs, then you have Peterson against our below average run defefnse... I'm dreading this Vikings game. Plus its at the that freakn BS dome and the noise.

I don't have a lot of confidence going into this game either. If the Pack run D was stuffing everyone (anyone!) I'd feel a whole lot better. My fear is that they won't be able to stop AP and the old man will make just enough plays to beat them.

Stuff AP and dare the old man try to beat you. 21, 31 and maybe 38 catch a pass each for the Green and Gold!

This game comes down to who win the head to head battle.............McCarthy v Chilly!!!!

Talent aside Chilly has proven that he can make a good team average. McCarthy has had his share of poor play calling. One of these two men will play the better game of chess. Which one will it be.

I have a feeling we are going to win this game. My main concerns are:

1) Jared Allen - Double him all the time because he can kill you. Even so, I think he gets 2 sacks on us.
2) Percy Harvin - Good WR and he returned a kickoff for 101 yards and a TD. Our special teams are not so good.

I think we can win the turnover battle and if we do, we can win a close one.

Or maybe I have my green and gold goggles on...... but I think we may win this one.

The most important game of the season will be the Vikings at Lambeau on Nov. 1, not the game next Monday.

This is certainly the most hyped game of the season, but IMO the playoff picture is more important than the Favre story. So while it'd be *nice* to win at that horrid excuse for a football stadium next week, the game at home is (as always with divisional home games) a must-win.

As far as importance goes, the Queens have more to play for in this game then GB. Not MUCH more, but you don't want to lose a home game to a division rival. On top of that if Favre came back for any other reasons besides sticking it to GB, all those reasons come in #2 or lower on his list (OK, maybe not the "win the Super Bowl" one ... maybe).
Winning on the road is hard. Winning on the road against a quality team is harder. If the Packers win this game, they have an early inside track on taking the division. If they lose, they still get the Vikes in Lambeau.

Look on the bright side guys:

Minne has looked average against 2 bad teams and one average team. Favre got lucky, not just on the last hail Mary, but also on Dre Bly dropping a soft pass which would have been a pick 6 with about 1:30 left in the game. Favre was sacked twice yesterday, bringing his total to 9. San Francisco held AP quite nicely.

The Vikings may beat us, but I think we can beat them. The game is far from certain. If we beat them, we have a good chance of being 5-1 a month from now.

So to Bruce's point, just take it one game at a time.

I agree. Beating the Vikes in the dome would be great, but it's more important to them. Must win games for the Packers are beating the Vikes at home, and beating the Lions twice. Games like Tampa, Seattle, Cleveland are must wins.

They should go into Monday night's game relaxed and play like they have nothing to lose, because they really don't. I'm hoping they use Finley as a 4th WR keep a back in for protection, and pass almost every down in the first half. Forget running early, it's a waste of a down.

I agree with your game plan. Come out throwing, get some points on the board, and make them play on their heels a little more. Use quick passes and screens as the run game early on until a lead is established.

Yep put your best blocking RB in the backfield along with your best four recievers and go no huddle on the first drive. Wear those fat boys out on the first drive.

The problem is I dont think we have the pigs up front to just throw the ball all the time on Vikings. Granted if we are going to win its going to be on the arm of Rodgers.

But you dont run and Allen, Williams, Edwards, Henderson will kill Rodgers because they just will blitz all game long.

Our best weapon is play action. I agree throw early and often but short dink and dunk, 3 step drop passes. And on 2nd and short run! And make an effort so the vikings cant sit back and just try to take away the pass and trying to kill Rodgers.

Plus Grant tends to do well against the Vikes for some reason.... go figure. But we have to run to keep them honest. Heck why not just a long hand off like running Grant 3 yard out and a quick pass to him. Short passes.

Also Finely has to setup up in the middle this week because the Vikes can be had in the middle.

One things for sure, that noon game at Lambeau will be moved to primetime, which I hate. I predict the Pack to use a short passing game early and often, and jump up to a lead . As stated, I believe The Pack will be more loose, and Favre will be a little over pumped leading to a mistake or two early. Having said that, I'm looking for a classic game, with more scoring than some might expect. 35-31. Pack.

Play action doesn't work when you can't run the ball. I understand you don't want Rodgers to get killed, that's why you go no-huddle, move him around, and have a lot of quick passes vs the blitz.

I still think this game is going to come down to one thing: whoever scores the most points after 4 quarters wins this game, guaranteed.

I'm counting on Favre being overly jacked up. I remember how awful he played in over-hyped games. Remember him laying a duck in Dallas, and when Holmgren came back to Lambeau to coach against the Pack for the first time? I'm hoping the old man has one of those 6 INT what-was-he-thinking-with-that-throw days. I'd love to be on the other end of one of those games for once! Come on gunslinger! Don't let me down!!

Unless there's overtime.

That's what I thought but then I saw the rams game and it worked pretty good when we couldn't run the ball.

It is way too oversimplified to claim that play action will not work if you cannot run the ball...

Perhaps you cannot run the ball because the team is stacking the box - in which case play action is very effective.

Perhaps you cannot run the ball because LB and Safeties are pressing hard on the run first - in which case play action is very effective.

Offensive execution is all tied together - if a team is determined to take the run away from you - play action is one of the cures, and once you start doing so it can open up the running game by keeping LBs and DBs from selling out to stop the run.

Ditto with screens when teams are selling out on the pass rush. MM has not armed this team with nearly enough play action or effective screening to keep defenses from predicting play calling and selling out to stop what they see.

A classic example of how play action can be effective even when struggling to run the ball is illustrated with the game winning TD pass to Jennings to beat the Bears - da bears sold out to stop the run on a critical short yardage situation. This despite the Packers being realtively ineffective at running the ball throughout the game -- 76 rushing yards total for the game.

The result of play action in this game when running the ball had been ineffective all day???-

Greg Jennings 50 yd TD pass from Aaron Rodgers -- having run a similar running play to the right a number of times during the night, McCarthy called for a play-action fake on third and 1 at the 50. Everyone in the stadium including the Bears coaching staff and defense figured they were going to run the ball, and the Bears brought safety Al Afalava up to the line of scrimmage -- final result an important Packer victory.

Offensive football in the NFL is far more complex and systemic than oversimplified declarations like one the above. IMO

Always thought that play action did not work when the threat of a run was missing. GB continues to run and while the team has not shown to be a running power house, when they continue to run two good things happen. 1) The DL gets a bit battered and tired and are not as quick to persue the QB and 2) the play action keeps the LBs and Ss watching.

I think this is going to be the first time I've ever watched the game with the TV on mute. There's no way I'm going to be able to deep my dinner down with Gruden in the booth with Favre out there. Could be worse, I suppose. Could be Kornheiser.

I don't like our chances in this one. The matchups are just not favorable. That pass rush and run stopping ability against our offensive line? ADP against our pourous run D? Not a good situation.

Our porous run D? Again, I don't understand. While no one is going to think that GB has a stout run D, it is far from porous. 1st Game: 86 rushing yards and 2.8 ypc from Chicago, 2nd game: 151 rushing yards and 4.9 ypc from Benson (ok this one was not good) and 3rd game: 149 rushing yards and 4.3 ypc from Jackson (take away Boller's scrambles of 31 yds and 7.8 ypc). The run D is not all that regrettable and I don't think an anti-rallying point, yet.

If Peterson runs for 160+ and Taylor gets 30+, then GB will have been torched. This will be a true test of the 3-4. The 3-4 is supposed to slow down RBs like Peterson. We will see on Monday.

Maybe not...

Its going to be all about who wins the special teams battle Both teams have been weak in punt coverage Packers giving 16.8 per return and Minny 13.2 per return. Harvin and Nelson are #2 and #3 in the league in kick off returns. Reynoud from Minny is #2 in the league in punt return avg at 17.3 per return. Nelson is 25th.

I keep trying to find good matchups for the Packers and I can't, other than our CB's vs Mins WR's. We have the edge there but that's about it. As much as the Packers have to stop Peterson, they cannot afford to turn the ball over, even once. Don't give the Vikings more chances with Peterson.

I keep wondering why they have not used the no huddle to change the tempo and get the defense on their heels.

Because the Packers haven't (to my knowledge) practiced no-huddle all year, and it's not something you just throw together at the last second.

It did look very good against the Bears and very bad against the Bengals. I guess I expected a little bit more against Jackson only because they have no other weapons. He had a very respectable game while the Packers had (correct me if I'm wrong) 8 men in the box most of the game.

On the other hand, if there's one guy in the league who's in same league as Peterson, I might be Steven Jackson. He is very good and probably will give most teams fits.

If I recall correctly, though I can't think of an example off the top of my head, he could also excel when jacked up. You're right of course about a number of games, but it seems that the result was the opposite other times. How about the first game he played in for the Packers? I wager he was pretty jacked up then. And in his first super bowl, I would think. I think there have been others.

IT's Only the 4th game of a 16 gane season. and all ready it feels like a major playoff game-this hype is unreal. There are 12 more games left -Lets relax a little and just some sound football and enjoy what may be the most watched game in NFL's history... a Pack victory as well.

Let the NFL-Central rule the NFL once again as the Black and Blue defination return! Go Packers

It may be early in the season, but don't ignore the importance of this game. Two outcomes:

-Packers win, and they are tied for the division lead at 3-1 with a huge edge in any potential tie-breakers (having head-to-head over Vikes and Bears, and so far undefeated in the division and the conference). Vikings and Bears are both chasing the Pack, and they each now have "must-win" games against the Packers later in the season. The Packer can virtually lock up the division with a win against the Viking in Green Bay on Nov 1st. If the Vikings go 8-4 the rest of the way, the Packers would get the division title with an 8-4 record as well.

-Packers lose, and they are 2-2, maybe 2nd or 3rd in the division with 2 games to make up with 12 games left, and they don't control their own destiny any more. The packers now have "must-win" games against the Vikings and Bears later in the season (especially the Vikings). Two games is not easy to make up at any point in the season. That means that if the Vikings go 8-4 in those 12 games, the Packers have to go 10-2 or 11-1 (depending on if they have the tiebreaker).

I'd hope the Vikings would have more than 4 loses in 12 games, but, with none so far, you have to assume that they're capable of at least 8 more wins. In those twelve games its a 2 or 3 game swing in games needed, based only on whether they beat the Vikings next Monday.

Make no mistake, that the division could easily come down to this game.

I gotta say, I think a lot of people are giving the Vikings way too much credit in this thread.

These are Vikings had trouble with the Browns and went down early to the Lions. These are Vikings would have lost to a rather mediocre San Francisco team without its star RB if not for some very bad calls and luck on a last-second low-percentage play.

If we can't have a little optimism in this thread, can we at least swing some basic realism?

While I agree that all division games are important, I think this game is getting blown completely out of proportion due to the storyline of the game.

As always, the most important games to win are those against divisional opponents at home -- those are the games where you need to capitalize on your home-field advantage. The Packers took care of business against 'da Bears and as such, like I've said before, the most important remaining game will be Nov. 1 at Lambeau.

Road games are there to steal.

That aside, look down the road a little bit. It seems likely that:

1. The Packers will get better as the new 3-4 defense matures and more defensive looks are added.
2. The Vikings will fade badly, since that's what they always do as a team and that's what Favre's done as a player in recent years.

Anyhow, that's why I still like the Packers to win the division.

That's all fair enough. I think the emotional aspect of this game is taking over for a lot of people.

When it comes down to it this game, for me, has a similar feel to the game we played against San Diego in 2007. It was a game where, talent for talent, it looks like you're playing against a completely stocked team but for some reason they're not rolling over opponents. Games against Minny have felt that way for the past couple years. Obviously they've upgraded their QB spot and they're 3-0 but at the end of the day they're not Baltimore. They've had their share of troubles and found ways to win. GB needs to take advantage of those troubles better than Cle, Det and SF have.

If I'm coaching the team my message is this: hunker down and focus on the division right now. Don't worry about all that other stuff. This game is about the standings and proving yourself against a good team. Stay disciplined and let that other stuff slip away. When you get them at Lambeau with the fans on your side and hopefully the proverbial wind at your back, then let loose. I can't blame them for wanting to take a personal stake in the match up, but now isn't the time to do that.

Good points Sky. We need to beat the Vikings, and forget all the Favre crap being thrown out there by the media.
Play good football. This is a big game for McCarthy, a fork in the road game if you will.

The Packers success IMO in this game will be determined on what they do on first down. The typical Grant for 2 yards setting up second and third and long wont get it done. Need to be creative.

Agree GM and along with that starting field position. We dont need to be forced to go 70-80 yds each drive. Get good field position and take some shots against their DB's

Anybody catch the William Henderson interview on Jim Rome? Sooo good. He still bleeds green and gold.

I caught MM's weekly slot on Sirius radio today. He even admitted that this game is more than just a divisional game....he acknowledged the rivalry and the importance of that to the fans as well as the obvious Favre story line. He said something along the lines that this was the biggest regular season game he has been a part of in a long time, and expressed that he felt it was important that the team treat this as a big game. Now that's not all word for word but he sounded like he was pretty jacked up for this game and wanted the team to feel that way as well. Did anyone else hear that interview this morning and kind of get the same vibe?

I caught the beginning of it, until they cut it off for the press conference of a former packer who doesn't still bleed green and gold.....

Just heard an interview of Santana Dotson on WSSP... very good as well.

The Onion has a game breakdown. The 4th point down on the Vikings side really resonates.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-v...p&type=lgns

Wait 'till December, he will be creaking like a farm door.

The excessive cutting due to the ZBS comes into play as well.