There is luck and there is excellence. Both can get you touchdowns, but only one is likely to get you wins.
Luck was the stuff of Christian Ponder’s first play. A surprise long bomb put the Vikings at the Packers’ one-yard-line, setting them up for a stunning opening drive touchdown.
Then Aaron Rodgers took over. His opening drive featured 6-for-6 passing, with completions to six different receivers -- the last one being to John Kuhn for six points. It was systematic and surgical -- a thing of beauty, and exactly the sort of performance we have become accustomed to from Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers connected on his first 13 passes, and put number 14 right in Randall Cobb’s breadbasket, but he dropped it. In the end, Rodgers went 24-of-30 for 335 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions.
Christian Ponder is receiving considerable praise for his impressive debut, and he did show good poise and ability. I expect the Vikings may have found their future. But he hardly represented competition for Rodgers, completing fewer than half of his passes (13 of 32) for a paltry 219 yards. Plus, he threw as many balls to our defense (2) as he did to the end zone.
In the old Dick Van Dyke Show, there is an episode called Hustling the Hustler. Buddy Sorrell’s brother, Blacky, comes to town. Blacky is a reformed pool shark, but he still has his skill. During the episode, we watch him hustle Rob Petrie over the course of an evening of playing pool in Rob’s basement.
When they start out, Blacky predictably lets Rob win the majority of his games, building his confidence along the way. When it comes to the decisive, final game, however -- the one on which all the money is really riding -- then Blacky takes over. He calmly takes the talc out of his pocket (“drying my palms,” he coolly explains), and then effortlessly runs the table, making every shot with ease and precision.
So it was in Minnesota last Sunday afternoon. The Vikings were spotted 7 easy points at the beginning, and they grew in confidence throughout the first half. But then it was like Rodgers and the Packers pulled out their talc and went to work. Twenty-three unanswered points from the final moment of the second quarter through the clinic that was the third quarter. Football sharks.
From the end of our first drive on offense, though, the game was never in doubt in my mind. For I knew that Christian Ponder couldn’t keep doing all day what he did to score seven. But I knew Aaron Rodgers could. For excellence wins games.
Apparently all the games.
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