Bye Buy By » Brats & Beer

Posted on December 17, 2007

A successful Christmas party followed by a big Packers victory in St. Louis that clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs: The holiday season is off to a great start this year.

The Green Bay Packers advanced their record to 12-2 with a 33-14 victory over the Rams that was highlighted by a dominating second-half performance and a history-making pass from Brett Favre to Donald Driver. The team’s sixth road win this year, combined with Seattle losing at Carolina, clinched Green Bay’s first post-season bye week since 1997.

The Packers gave as good they got in the early going, exchanging blows with the Rams like two prize fighters. But then the defense made some second half adjustments and pitched a shutout the rest of the way while the offense took advantage of good field position to put 16 points on the board, including a beautiful 44-yard toss from Favre to Greg Jennings.

The very next possession Favre connected with Driver on a seven-yard slant that broke Dan Marino’s career passing record of 61,361 yards. Another milestone achievement on the road and the whole place erupted into cheers for No. 4. Of course it helped that half the crowd in St. Louis were Green & Gold supporters to begin with; even Rams running back Steven Jackson complained about the pro-Packer signage that hung around the Edward Jones Dome.

Favre did make two terrible decisions during the game, underthrowing Jennings twice on a fly pattern and getting picked off by O. J. Atogwe. On both interceptions, if Favre had put the ball in front of Jennings they could have gone for touchdowns, but both times he misjudged the throw and paid the price. Luckily neither turnover led to anything significant for the Rams.

So now with the first-round bye locked away, we’ll have to see how coach Mike McCarthy treats the final two games of the season. I would strongly urge him to continue playing the starters and not “resting” the entire team the final two weeks: We’ve seen what has happened in the past to the Broncos and other teams. Also, the Cowboys lost to the Eagles yesterday, opening the possibility that Green Bay could steal home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

First things first, of course, the Packers have to beat the Bears next Sunday in Chicago. Hopefully they do it in convincing fashion and keep this momentum going.

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