Dairyland Madness: Green Bay Packers Round Two

Dairyland Madness continues with the round of 32 and the eight Green Bay Packers’ performances that were able to advance out of the first round.

We are down to only 32 performances and there were some blowouts in round one, but this is where it starts to get a bit tougher. All of these performances have gotten enough of your votes to get past round one, but who will get to the elusive Sweet Sixteen and claim a spot as one of the four best Green Bay Packers’ performances of the 2000s?

We’ve got four great matchups here in the round of 32. We’ve got quarterbacks, running backs, and one defensive performance by the great Charles Woodson. To read more about the performances themselves, check out the first round article here.

It should be a great competitive round, so let’s get into it and once again, don’t forget to vote over on Twitter or click on the poll at the end of this article.

#1 Brett Favre 399 yards 4 TDs 2003 vs. #8 Ahman Green 218 yards 2 TDs 2003

It’s a matchup of two 2003 performances. Favre won his first-round handily, with 88 percent of the vote over Jordy Nelson. It’s going to be tough for anyone to try to beat this performance from Brett, first just because of the big stats, but also because it was such an emotional performance as it came after the death of his father.

Ahman Green’s first-round matchup was a bit closer, but he still got a comfortable 73 percent of the vote against Vonnie Holliday’s Packer record 5 sack game. As an eight seed, winning by that much is an accomplishment, but he drew the short stick having to face Favre’s best game in round two.

#4 Charles Woodson 7 tackles, 4 PBUs, Sack, 2 INTs, TD, FF, Fumble Recovery vs. #5 Aaron Rodgers Week 1 comeback vs. Bears 2018

Charles Woodson cemented this game as the best Green Bay Packers’ defensive performance of the millennium, defeating Za’Darius Smith’s best game from this year. Now, he represents the defensive side of the ball against all of these big offensive performances. He has a tough matchup, but he is the higher seed and maybe he can squeak out a win with this game where he flew all around the field.

The Aaron Rodgers one-legged comeback from last season’s opener in Lambeau Field came out of round one with the largest margin of victory, getting 93 percent of your votes, not giving any chance for a classic 12-over-5 tournament defeat. That brings him into this round as the favorite against Woodson. Could Rodgers’ magical second half in Chicago continue its magical run in this tournament?

#3 Matt Flynn 480 yards 6 TDs vs. #11 Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl MVP

There’s no question that this Matt Flynn game is the best statistical game in Green Bay Packers’ history, with franchise records for yards and touchdowns, but it was in the final game of the regular season that didn’t bear much significance for the season overall. Nonetheless, he did beat fan favorite, Donald Driver, with 81 percent of the vote which could bode well for him going forward.

The only upset of the first round in this region was Aaron Rodgers’ Super Bowl MVP performance. While statistically speaking there may be sixteen games of his that are better than this one, his 304 yards, and three touchdowns were in the biggest game of the year, bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay for the first time since 1997 and it could be poised for a huge Cinderella run.

#2 Aaron Rodgers 338 yards 6 TDs vs. #7 Ryan Grant 201 yards 3 TDs 2008 playoffs

Our final matchup in the second round is another battle of pure stats against a great game in a big situation. Aaron Rodgers tied Flynn’s record of six touchdowns but did it in the first half of this game against the Bears. Rodgers played only two drives in the second half before handing the game over to Flynn to finish it out. If he would’ve continued to throw touchdowns, or stayed in the game longer, it could have gone down as one of the best quarterback games, not just for the Packers, but of all time.

Ryan Grant didn’t have the luxury of being pulled in the second half. He continued to pound the ball the entire game, plowing into the end zone three times and eventually pulling out the win against Seattle. Grant had the closest matchup of round one, as is expected from a 7-10 matchup. He edged out Davante Adams with 55 percent and will probably need another close win to survive and advance to the next round.

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