Thanks to those of you who showed up for our Cheesehead Nation LIVE blog yesterday hosted by SportsBubbler.com and CheeseheadTV.com. With over 7500 viewers, we more than doubled our largest viewership for a game ever. Make sure to join us again Tuesday night for another episode of Packer Transplants.

So we finally found out how Lambeau Field would react to Brett Favre. "Despite the many pro-Favre signs fans either held up or hung on the railing around the field, the Packers legend was not received warmly upon his return to the stadium he called home for 16 years," writes Dennis Dillon of the Sporting News. "The fans booed when Favre came onto the field for pregame warm-ups. They booed even louder when Favre and the Vikings ran out during pregame introductions." And unfortunately for Packers fans, Brett Favre played magnificently in his Green Bay rendezvous. In two games against Minnesota, the Packers could neither sack nor intercept Brett Favre a single time.

Drew Olson of OnMilwaukee.com doesn't blame Favre's counterpart in Green Bay for the loss. "Rodgers wasn't on the kickoff team that allowed Harvin to run wild," writes Olson. "He didn't take a butt-headed head-butt penalty that extended a drive and led to points. He didn't miss tackles, make foolish gambles in open space or miss a critical field goal in nearly perfect conditions." I'm of the opinion that maybe Rodgers wasn't at fault for the loss, but he was part of the reason the Packers didn't win. A below average first half in which Rodgers took two too many sacks and failed to get the ball out quickly was partially the reason for the loss.

Speaking of kickoff coverage, the Packers have a lot of work to do in that area. "Field position was tipped greatly in Minnesota's favor and a lot of that had to do with Harvin's five kickoff returns for 175 yards, a whopping 35-yard average," reports Lori Nickel for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. After doing a good job against Chicago's good return game, I thought the Packers were headed in the right direction in this area. Now, not so much.

Johnny Jolly didn't seem very remorseful for his personal foul penalty after a key third down stop, which gave the Vikings a first down and swung momentum in their favor for the rest of the first half. “I play like that every game," Jolly told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "It ain’t going to change from here. The next game I’m going to be out there playing hard. It is what it is. That didn’t (cost us) the game. That’s it.” This is the atmosphere in which head coach Mike McCarthy created. If he makes it acceptable for his players to commit penalties, they'll react as such.

Greg Bedard of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says inconsistency was part of the problem for the Packers' struggles. "All told, the Packers had 47 yards of offense in the first half as Rodgers was 5 of 11 for 38 yards and he was sacked four times," writes Bedard. "The Packers trailed, 17-3, at that point." Had the Packers not looked so bad in the first half, the outcome at the end of the second half could have been different.

The fact that the Packers gave up six sacks compared to zero for the Vikings was a big reason for the difference on the scoreboard. "The lack of pressure on Favre compared to the pressure on Rodgers was laughable," writes C.D. Angeli of Tundra Vision. "Some of it was due to the differences in the offensive lines, and Lang/Barbre did nothing to alleviate the concerns that Thompson did not have a very good plan in place to replace Clifton/Tauscher. But the harshest lesson has to be watching Favre's most underrated skill set: his ability to sense pressure in the pocket and move it around with slight adjustments, helping his linemen keep in front of the rushers." 

This can't be a good sign. "For the second time in four weeks, Favre frustrated the Green Bay Packers defense so much that one of its members spoke in less than glowing terms about the way players are being used in first-year defensive coordinator Dom Capers' 3-4 system," writes Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Today it was Cullen Jenkins questioning the defense saying he felt "handcuffed." This comes after the previous loss to the Vikings in which Charles Woodson spoke out about the defense.

"Brandon Chillar broke a hand in the second quarter, according to coach Mike McCarthy, who offered no further prognosis for his nickel linebacker," reports Tom Pelissero of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Safety and special teams player Derrick Martin was the only other player not to return to the game after getting hit in the head. Pelissero also reports that while left tackle Chad Clifton was available, he was only going to play in an emergency.

Sorry for the lack of updates at the Railbird over the weekend. I was on vacation from Thursday late afternoon until returning just in time for the game on Sunday. I was actually checking out some ACC football on Saturday, which was fun.

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