Here's the tale of the tape from the Packers' 30-23 loss on Monday at Minnesota:
Missed opportunities
With all due respect to CB Charles Woodson, Dom Capers' pressure-light defensive game plan might have put the Packers in position to win if not for a series of individual slip-ups in coverage.
The most glaring sent S Derrick Martin to the bench when he played the wrong defense on Vikings WR Bernard Berrian's 31-yard TD catch -- an inexcusable mistake even for a fill-in starter who's only been with the team a month.
The Packers were playing Cover-2, meaning Martin was responsible for playing deep behind CB Al Harris. Instead, Martin inexplicably lined up on the hash marks, as if in Cover-3, and had no chance to get anywhere near Berrian, much less break up QB Brett Favre's perfect pass.
Earlier, Martin had been late helping on a nearly identical 16-yard completion to Berrian and missed a tackle on WR Percy Harvin's 43-yard catch and run. But he wasn't the only player who made mistakes in zone coverage. On WR Sidney Rice's 14-yard TD catch, for instance, S Nick Collins had to attempt a sensational recovery because LOLB Aaron Kampman failed to cover underneath.
When Favre has time, he can pick apart a defense's weaknesses as well as anyone -- which goes back to Woodson's assertion the Packers could have brought more pressure. But when the Packers did rush more than four, on five of 29 dropbacks (17.2 percent), Favre was 5-for-5 for 61 yards, including two of the Vikings' eight "explosive" pass plays of 16 yards or more, as well as Rice's TD.
All-Pro RB Adrian Peterson managed only one run longer than 7 yards. The Packers dropped him nine times in 25 carries (36 percent) for loss or no gain, and they did it without regularly playing an eighth man in the box, although Collins was down more than usual. The best Peterson could do was a manageable 12-yard cutback on which mack LB Nick Barnett got impatient and overplayed the backside.
Bringing more rushers would have exposed the Packers to the sort of overload situations St. Louis exploited the previous week. The more bodies in motion, the more vertical seams that open up.
Considering how impotent the Packers' four-man pass rush has been, coaches will have to find ways to amp up the pressure during their bye-week self-scout. But it's tough to lay too much blame on a game plan that held the best running back on the planet to 2.2 yards a carry.
Held hostage
The problems have started up front this season, but QB Aaron Rodgers deserves at least partial blame on no fewer than five of the Vikings' eight sacks.
He held the ball too long on three of them -- the strip-sack that ended the Packers' opening drive, a first-down play on the edge of the red zone in the third quarter and the fourth-quarter safety.
Rodgers also failed to see WLB Ben Leber on a rollout and made a bad decision to attempt a front-side slant to WR James Jones, who wasn't looking, on a designed running play.
Only two of the eight sacks came on obvious one-on-one losses, both in the fourth quarter. DT Jimmy Kennedy whipped LG Jason Spitz off the ball and RE Jared Allen fooled rookie LT T.J. Lang, on in place of an injured Daryn Colledge, by feigning a delayed stunt and then accelerating outside.
Colledge and RT Allen Barbre shared blame in two sacks, including the early strip, on which both ends got pressure. In all, the Vikings pressured Rodgers 19 times and hit him 10.
Playmakers
* Rookie ROLB Clay Matthews deserves credit in more ways than one for his 42-yard snatch-and-run TD. It was his work against TE Jim Kleinsasser that kept LT Bryant McKinnie from getting off to ILB Brandon Chillar, who combined with DL Cullen Jenkins on the initial stick that let Matthews get back into the play and strip Peterson. That play also highlighted the Packers' improved pre-snap adjustments; when Kleinsasser went in motion, Jenkins and DL Johnny Jolly shifted right, putting them in better position to control the gaps on the zone left play.
* TE Jermichael Finley's 62-yard catch-and-run TD was a thing of beauty, even if the Vikings blew the coverage. It was a wheel route out of a stack right, and Pro Bowl CB Antoine Winfield, who probably was supposed to be playing a deep-third zone, bit on Finley's initial out-breaking trajectory. Rodgers threw awkwardly as DT Kevin Williams approached but the throw was on the money to Finley, who caught it at the Minnesota 38, made S Tyrell Johnson miss at the 33 and stiff-armed CB Cedric Griffin at the 7 before stretching across the goal line.
Play breakers
* WR Greg Jennings' route wasn't the sharpest, but Rodgers' first interception of the season simply was a tough throw to make. Winfield was playing outside leverage and squatting on the out all the way.
* The Vikings' linebackers deserve as much credit as any failings by the Packers for the key goal-line stand in the third quarter. On first down from the 5, RB Ryan Grant gained 5 on a draw behind good blocks from C Scott Wells and RG Josh Sitton before MLB E.J. Henderson made a saving tackle at the 1. On second, FB John Kuhn had a hole and one man to beat on an inside give, but SLB Chad Greenway stuck him. On third, Leber read Finley's slow block-and-release beautifully and dropped him for a loss of a foot or two. Only on fourth down, when TE Donald Lee dropped Rodgers' third-option pass, did the Packers have a clean shot at the end zone.
* The failed two-point conversion in the fourth quarter was a mess, but the biggest problem was DT Fred Evans torching Sitton inside to rush Rodgers' backhand shovel into traffic.
Dot ... dot ... dot ...
Matthews continued to show solid coverage skills and was in on one of four pressures for the Packers, who played their nickel defense on 41 of 62 (66.1 percent) of gradeable snaps. ... It was another light day for buck LB A.J. Hawk and ROLB Brady Poppinga, who played 21 defensive snaps each. ... The five-linebacker "Big Okie" look that replaced the Packers' pace defense against St. Louis made an appearance on only five snaps (8.1 percent), all in the second half. ... Top draft pick B.J. Raji played 24 snaps and was in on four tackles.
