Morning Buzz: Packers in Christmas Eve showdown
Welcome to your game day (and Christmas Eve!) Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a cup of coffee (or brew some tea, if that’s your thing) and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.
If one team’s season ever has been captured in a single Tweet better than this, I haven’t seen it:
That’s right, the Vikings spent more than three hours stranded on their plane at Appleton International Airport last night after it slid off a taxiway.
A team that has gone through everything from losing their young star quarterback to injury just prior to the season to having their coach need emergency eye surgery, Vikings coaches and players seemed to take things in stride. The team eventually was taken off the plane via fire truck basket.
I actually arrived at the same airport at roughly the same time. I shot the video below as we landed. As you can see, it was pretty bad out there.
The Vikings will have to shake off the experience and get ready for today’s noon showdown with the Packers.
Speaking of the game, we have everything you could want to get ready here at PackersNews.com, starting with Bob McGinn’s game preview.
From Bob:
There’s little doubt the Vikings will come to play against their archrival. They were flogged Sunday by the Colts, which made it an easy motivational week for Mike Zimmer and his excellent staff. But do they have enough firepower to win at Lambeau Field? They shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.
A big part of the Packers’ turnaround has been the play of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. How good has Rodgers been? So good that a third Most Valuable Player award isn’t out of the question, according to Pete Dougherty.
His ascent reminds me of Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope tactic. Ali used it for two reasons: to wear out his opponent and to steal rounds. He’d wait and wait, and then try to close the final 30 seconds or minute with a flurry of punches on the theory that what happened last would stand out in the judges’ minds.
Rodgers is closing with a flurry.
Tom Silverstein writes that the Vikings potentially getting safety Harrison Smith back from an ankle injury is a significant development for today’s contest. You can find all the latest from the injury report here.
You can find our predictions for today’s game in the video below:
Elsewhere, Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman polled personnel people around the league about the MVP vote and heard a lot of positive feedback about Rodgers:
Tom Oates opines that the Packers’ recent success isn’t all on Rodgers:
Terry Bradshaw has some surprising things to say about Rodgers and Mike McCarthy recently:
T.J. Lang was reportedly fined for his blindside block on Cornelius Washington in Chicago:
Former Packers quarterback Don Majkowski spoke with FOX Sports about the fallout from his injury-riddled football career and how he would do it all over again.
Finally, once it was clear that no one was hurt, it seemed everybody had a joke about the Vikings plane last night: