Vike Week Part Deux
By Brian Miller
It’s hard to believe that the Green Bay Packers are playing the Vikings so soon. It really seems like a week or two ago that the teams squared off for their first 2010 match-up. Still, here we are heading over to Minnesota for a re-match of the Packers first win. Thanks to the goose egg laid by the Miami Dolphins last night, the Chicago Bears sit atop the division awaiting the outcome of Sunday’s game.
For the Packers it should be all about knocking what snot remains in Brett Favre out. He is done. He has told some media that this will be his last year. I believe him…finally. He doesn’t have the energy the emotion, he is simply a dejected football player who simply should have hung up his cleats a season earlier. If he could go back in time to the start of the season, there is no way he would have come back.
The Vikings are reeling while the Packers are becoming favorites to challenge for the NFC title. While on paper it would seem that the Vikings and their surprising record are an easy win, the truth is, it’s the Vikings and anything can happen. Brett Favre may no longer be the same Brett Favre but does anyone think for a minute that sometime in this remaining season he doesn’t pull out one final miracle win? Let’s just hope it’s not this week.
With the Vikings QB struggling, Adrian Petersen has done very little as teams simply key on him. The Packers will do that again as well and I suspect that Clay Mathews will put up some more solid numbers to bid for league defensive MVP honors. Mathews should be blitzing Favre the entire game and with those blitzes he should find Petersen along the way if they opt to run. In other words, this could be a big game for the Packers LB.
The Defense should be able to set the tone of the game and keep the Vikings points low enough for the offense to take over. Aaron Rodgers can put the proverbial final nail in the Favre/Packer/Rodgers coffin for good. I fully expect him to throw three TD’s and pass for 300 to 400 yards. No elements indoors and the Packers field general can take the crowd out early. If the defense does their job, the Vikings fans should be booing the team by half-time.
Rodgers needs to score quick and often to take the crowd out early. If they do that, they can put the Vikings away and turn the ball over to Jon Kuhn and Brandon Jackson and control the clock. If they don’t, it could become an unnecessary battle between two team on opposite sides of the division standings.
The Packers can not afford to let down. Not now. They are finding their rhythm and their identity. They need to pick it up, slam it home, and send a message to the rest of the NFC that the Packers want it and are going to take it.