Vikings vs. Packers Wild Card Edition: Dud Of The Week

I wish I could say that there weren’t any Dud nominations this week. That the Packers played a game without blemish and there weren’t any performances worthy of a nomination. If I did do this though it would be delusional or dishonest.

There were some warts on the night and some areas for the Packers to improve. The stuff as a team can be sorted out later in the week (see the failure of the four minute offense), but right now we turn our attention to individual performances.

Let’s meet the nominees for Dud of the Week…

RB Ryan Grant – Grant ended the night with 7 carries for 7 yards. Not good. When you consider the fact that his longest run of the night was also 7 yards…well then that tells you his other six carries were downright awful. When people start complaining about the failure of the offense in the second half the conversation should start with this guy right here.

WR Jordy Nelson – Nelson had some great catches in the game to be sure, but he also appeared to be on a different page with Aaron Rodgers about as often. The real distressing part is that this is the second week in a row where Rodgers and Nelson were on a different page as to the route being run.

TE Jermichael Finley – It’s probably not fair to put him here considering he had to leave early with a hamstring injury, but this post isn’t about fair it’s about who didn’t get their job done. Finley didn’t get his job done on Saturday. He had only one catch on the day when targeted three times and dropped a catchable ball in the end zone. Finley has improved as of late, but this was a game harkening back to early in the year for him.

LB A.J. Hawk – Not going to lie, 75% of the reason Hawk is up here right now is because I wanted to get at least one guy from the defense nominated. Hawk wasn’t terrible on Saturday but he really wasn’t good either. He was invisible most of the night and registered only two tackles. It’s a bit sad to see Hawk be such a nonfactor considering that stopping a running team like the Vikings should be his bread and butter.

That’s it ladies and gentlemen. Not many nominations this week, which isn’t too surprising considering how well the Packers played. If you feel someone was left off please nominate your write in Dud in the comments section below.