Green Bay has gained where the Vikings have lost

Monday night, the Green Bay Packers will try to further distance themselves from the rest of the NFL while the Vikings attempt to pull off the greatest upset in franchise history since Donovan McNabb skipped a dessert.

The Packers are the defending Super Bowl champions. They have won 14 consecutive games. Since playing in the NFC Championship Game two seasons ago, the Vikings are 8-16 and have fired a coach.

They compete on different planes and appear to be heading in opposite directions, but the difference between them is not enormous or mystical. Despite their records, these teams are separated by a few, key decisions.

The Packers' success is not the stuff of innovation or new-age thinking. They've just made one good decision at a time for a long time, while the Vikings have mixed misses with their hits.

• In 2005, in the wake of their trade of Randy Moss, the Vikings entered the draft with two first-round picks. They had many needs but felt confident in the future of quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who had performed like an All-Pro in 2004, and were desperate to replace Moss.

With the seventh pick in the 2005 draft, the Vikings chose South Carolina receiver Troy Williamson. With the 18th pick, they chose Wisconsin defensive end Erasmus James. Williamson lacked hands and James heart, and the two would eventually rank among the most egregious busts in franchise history.

The Packers, picking 24th and in possession of Brett Favre, chose Aaron Rodgers.

• Following the 2005 season, the Vikings interviewed Brad Childress as a replacement for fired coach Mike Tice. The Wilfs were so impressed with Childress' no-nonsense attitude that they essentially locked him in a room until they could sign him. They refused to let him leave for an interview with the Packers.

So the Vikings hired Childress, and the Packers hired little-known San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy, an unimposing figure from a bad team. In 2005, McCarthy's offense finished last in the NFL in points scored and yards gained, while Childress was receiving partial credit for the Eagles' explosive offense.

Childress reached a conference championship game before his program fell apart. McCarthy may be the best coach in the NFL.

• In the 2006 draft, the Packers chose receiver Greg Jennings with the 52nd pick. The Vikings chose linebacker Chad Greenway with the 17th pick, cornerback Cedric Griffin with the 48th pick and center Ryan Cook with the 51st pick.

Jennings has become the best receiver on the NFL's best receiving corps. Greenway has become a good but unspectacular player, Griffin is struggling to perform on two surgically repaired knees and Cook has been released.

Spielman and his staff chose a supposedly injury-prone Adrian Peterson with the seventh pick in 2007. They accurately perceived Sidney Rice to be a big-play wide receiver, and landed him in the second round of that draft. They chose a sliding Percy Harvin with the 22nd pick in 2009, and, it appears, made a shrewd decision when they traded up to take Christian Ponder with the 12th pick in 2011.

They also traded a first-round pick and other picks for defensive end Jared Allen, who has justified that investment.

To summarize: The Packers are a budding dynasty in part because of McCarthy, Rodgers and Jennings. The Vikings, given a chance to select those three, instead chose Childress, Troy Williamson, Erasmus James and Ryan Cook.

The Packers haven't been perfect when making decisions since 2005. But some of their best decisions seem to have coincided with some of the Vikings' worst, and that has made all the difference.