With a 24-3 victory over the St. Louis Rams and the Detroit Lions’ loss to the 49ers, the Packers (6-0) cruise into week seven as the only remaining undefeated team. For the second consecutive week the Dom Capers’ led defense made a statement as they extended their streak to six quarters of not allowing a touchdown. Although the offense managed to hang 20+ points on the board once again, Coach Mike McCarthy was unimpressed with the focus of his offense and deemed the overall performance as sloppy. In spite of starting the season with six consecutive wins, the Packers have yet to play an entire game with every facet (offense, defense, and special teams) clicking on all cylinders. This will be their focus on Sunday as they prepare for their second divisional matchup of the season.
Green Bay will travel to take on the NFC North cellar dwellers, the Minnesota Vikings (1-5). Unlike last season, the Vikings are not a team led by Brett Favre coming off of an NFC Championship loss. Instead, the Packers will be facing an unstable team that has only mustered up one win in six games this season after finishing with an underachieving 6-10 record last year. After four straight narrow defeats to start off the campaign this year (three of which they blew 20+ leads in the second half), the Vikings defeated the Arizona Cardinals 34-10 in week five. However, they failed to build off of that momentum when they got humiliated on national television 39-10 at the hands of the Chicago Bears (but hey, it could have been worse…a portion of the team could have been drinking beer, eating chicken wings, and playing video games in the locker room during the game). As the Vikings prepare for improbable redemption, here are three components of the game to pay close attention to on Sunday afternoon as the two rivals duel.
Ponderin’ the Future:
The Minnesota Vikings signed Donavan McNabb this offseason in hopes that he could revive his career like Brett Favre did two years ago. Instead, the former pro bowler only threw for four touchdowns and 1,026 yards in six games while tossing two interceptions and fumbling twice. As a result, Coach Leslie Frazier turned to rookie Christian Ponder in the fourth quarter last week in hopes to ignite the offense. The rookie from Florida State performed well enough (9-17 for 99 yds) in limited action to instill confidence in his coach to start him against the Packers this week. The announcement came as a mild surprise due to McNabb’s historical success against the Packers in his career (4-2 record, 88.3 quarterback rating, 10 touchdowns vs. 3 interceptions). Additionally, thrusting the rookie into a starting role against the former Super Bowl Champions seems like a recipe for disaster for an already reeling football team. Nonetheless, McCarthy insisted he’s not taking the game lightly, comparing it to the appalling defeat the Packers endured to Josh Freeman in his first start for Tampa Bay in 2009. Josh Freeman outperformed Aaron Rodgers and scored three fourth quarter touchdowns securing a 38-28 shocking win for the Buccaneers. However, the demeanor of the 2011 Packers is much different than that of the 2009 team, and it would take a minor miracle for Ponder to pull off Freeman’s feat (then again, “legends are made in October”…cue Tinie Tempah).
AP All Day:
The winning recipe for the Minnesota Vikings has been rather simple since 2007. If they feed the ball early and often to Adrian Peterson nearly every possession, they put themselves in a position to win. We haven’t witnessed a more dominating running back in football this side of LaDainian Tomlinson in his prime (aka pre-age 30). AP possesses an unbelievable combination of power, speed, quickness, shiftiness, elusiveness and vision that puts his skill set in an elite class of its own. Opposing defenses generally can’t stop him, they can only hope to contain the former 7th overall pick (JaMarcus Russell and Gaines Adams went before him, Ted Ginn Jr. went two picks after him, and…Justin Harrell went nine picks after). That will be Green Bay’s hope on Sunday, though if history continues to repeat itself it could be a long day for the Packers’ front seven. In his career, Peterson has run for 807 yards in eight games (100.9 yds/game average, 4.92 yds per carry average) against the Packers with five touchdowns. You can be sure that Peterson will easily get 20+ touches on Sunday with a rookie quarterback at the helm. If the Vikings want any chance of sneaking away with a victory, Ponder should be prepared to take a couple steps back and hand the ball off to AP, all day.
NFL Sacks Leader:
Marshall Newhouse has played reasonably well at the offensive tackle positions this year for the Packers filling in for Bryan Bulaga and Chad Clifton. Newhouse will be facing his toughest matchup of the season this weekend against the current NFL sacks leader Jared Allen. Allen, one of the few bright spots for the Vikings this year, has accumulated 9.5 sacks through six games which puts him on pace to break the NFL’s all-time season record (22.5 by Michael Strahan). Aaron Rodgers better have eyes on the back of his head Sunday because protecting his blindside will pose the toughest challenge to the Packers this week. Even if Jared Allen doesn’t wrap up Rodgers several times, his presence on the field alone creates a huge impact. Green Bay will be forced to provide help to Newhouse on the left side (predominantly with their blocking tight ends) creating matchup problems elsewhere on the field. Furthermore, Rodgers has a tendency to develop happy-feet in the pocket when he’s uncomfortable with his offensive line; a phenomenon likely to ensue on Sunday. Once again, Marshall Newhouse will have step up in a big way to give Rodgers an opportunity to thrive and avert any Vikings’ hope for an intra-division upset.
Although the Packers have solidified themselves as the class of the NFC, and quite feasibly of the entire NFL, it’s apparent that much work still remains. A largely ineffective running attack (19th in NFL) and an accumulating number of dropped passes (10 in the last two games) have created concern among the coaches. Perhaps more daunting are the two key matchup problems the Packers will face on Sunday afternoon; an elite running back against an untested rush defense and the NFL sacks leader against an inexperienced offensive tackle. However, unless “it’s written in the stars a million miles away” (countdown until we don’t have to hear another postseason baseball commercial with that song), it’s hard to envision a rookie quarterback in his first start ending the Packers’ extensive winning streak.