Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Vin

Vikings @ Packers

Recommended Posts

Quote

http://hosted.stats.com/fb/preview.asp?g=20180916009&home=9&vis=16

One big question looms over the buildup for Sunday's game in Green Bay between the Packers and Minnesota Vikings: Will Aaron Rodgers play?

No one has a definitive answer. Rodgers injured his left knee in Monday's comeback win over the Chicago Bears. He finished that game after rallying the Packers to a 24-23 victory, but he did not practice Wednesday or Thursday, spending his time rehabbing his injury.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy said on Thursday that he is not sure whether Rodgers will play.

"This is no layup," McCarthy said. "That's why it's a day-to-day situation."

McCarthy said Rodgers might be able to play even if he does not practice at all this week.

"You've got two types of environments to prepare you for games -- you've got the classroom environment, and you have obviously the practice environment," McCarthy said. "So with him in the rehab group, he's full bore ahead in the classroom and all the different meetings. Today's a very heavy situational day, so that's where his involvement is."

If Rodgers, a two-time league MVP, cannot play, the Packers will go with DeShone Kizer, who started 15 games for the Cleveland Browns last season and lost all 15.

If Rodgers does play, another storyline comes into play. It was against the Vikings in the sixth game of the 2107 season that Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone on a crushing hit by Minnesota linebacker Anthony Barr. Rodgers missed all but one game the rest of the season.

The Vikings expect Rodgers to play.

"Well, you know he walks on water, so I'm sure he's going to play," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said early in the week.

Green Bay's quarterback, whoever it is, will be challenged by a Minnesota defense that ranked No. 1 in the NFL last season and forced four San Francisco turnovers in the Vikings' 24-16 victory over the 49ers last week.

The Vikings won both games against the Packers last season, and they shut Green Bay out 16-0 in the teams' second meeting, when Brett Hundley was Green Bay's quarterback.

With defensive end Everson Griffen, defensive tackle Linval Joseph, linebacker Anthony Barr, cornerback Xavier Rhodes and safety Harrison Smith, the Vikings have five Pro Bowl players on this side of the ball. In free agency, they added a former Pro Bowler in defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson.

"There's no weaknesses on their defense," Rodgers said. "You look at all three levels a lot of times when you're playing a defense, when you think about the team, you can maybe name three or four guys off the top of your head that you know about or you've seen play or you've heard about. It's different with this team. You know most of them because they're big names. It's a lot of big names on that team, a lot of guys who have gotten paid second contracts and made a lot of plays for a number of years."

Obviously, the Packers stand a better chance if Rodgers is the one facing that defense.

Rodgers signed a four-year contract extension worth $134 million in base salary just before the regular season started, but he is not the only high-priced quarterback in this game.

The Vikings signed free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins to a three-year, $84 million deal in the offseason. The Vikings won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship Game last year with Case Keenum at quarterback, but they believe they can do better with Cousins in control.

That's pressure.

"Playing in this league, there's going to be expectation and pressure, regardless of what your specific circumstances are," Cousins said. "I remember being a rookie and a fourth-round draft pick and looking around at the roster and realizing that if I didn't play well every day at practice and in preseason games, I wasn't going to be there. That was pressure and I had expectations that I had to meet there."

Cousins was 20 of 36 for 244 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in the opener, but Sunday will be his first game on the road as a member of the Vikings.

Cousins does not have the star power of Rodgers, who left Monday's game in a cart in the first half, only to return in the second half to lead the Packers back from a 20-0 deficit with three fourth-quarter touchdown passes.

"I want to play, obviously," Rodgers said on Wednesday. "Just taking it one day at a time. See how it feels tomorrow and see how it feels Friday, Saturday and hopefully ready to go Sunday."

The Vikings' game plan is focusing on Rodgers.

"We know he's playing," Griffen said. "We're just getting ready to play Aaron. I don't know if he's mobile. I don't know if he can run. We don't know anything. So, we're just going to go with the game plan that he's running and we're going to go out and execute our assignments."

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the Vikings should be able to hang with the Packers with or without Aaron, but that does amount to the difference between the Packers having a chance, and the Packers being worse than the Bills. Aaron will probably play until he's forced onto the IR.

 

:Vikings: 27

:Packers: 24

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just don't feel good about this game if Aaron and Adams play. I'm not too concerned about that because it's week 2. If it were week 12 I'd be more bothered by it.

With Aaron and Adams:

:Packers:23

:Vikings:17

Without Adams:

:Vikings:24

:Packers:20

Without Aaron or both:

:Vikings:33

:Packers:13

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don’t think think it matters much either way. Packers are coming off a huge high, so I feel as if an emotional letdown is about to happen. 

Zimmer doesn’t always stop Aaron Fromm racking up stats — but he does get a lot of hits on him. With Aaron banged up I think the Vikings scheme for that fast tempo quick hitting offense that destroyed Chicago. They’re gonna be so ready... I just hope he doesn’t hurt himself further (if he plays). 

It doesn’t help that we are without a good runner in the backfield. Jamaal Williams can’t run the football. Below average runner. Thankfully he can pick up blitzes very well. 

This could very easily become a one sided affair if Mike McCarthy doesn’t have a solid game plan / adjust.

In a game where McCarthy could make a difference — I’m going to go with the opponent about 80% of the time. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My worries are less about the Packers and more about the Vikings OL against your front 3. I could see Wilkerson, Daniels, Clark causing so much havoc. If I'm Mike Pettine, my goal is to force 3rd and long and then blitz 6 guys hoping to get to Cousins before he can get to his reads. 

This Packers secondary can't contain Diggs and Thielen at all if Kirk has time to throw, and Thielen's grandfather just died in Detroit Lakes. I expect a big game from him if Kirk has time to throw.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You heard it here: our pass rushers are overrated 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I would agree that Everson Griffen is overrated but I think Hunter has a great future. We did NOT tie because of our defense. This was 100% on our special teams. We left 9 points on the field from missed field goals and also surrendered an easy 7 because of a blocked punt. 

Edit: Originally said 12 points but I'm dumb it was only 3 FGs.

It took our kicker missing that last OT field goal for me to realize that I have not been logged in on my phone for a while. Whoops. 

Offense looked awesome, defense looked like it stepped up when it needed to. I'm not sure what happened with Cousin's pick, or Treadwell, but the announcers were really dogging on Treadwell so I'm going to assume the two are related. 

The call on Clay Matthews was bogus but it is what it is. They're going to start calling that stuff which is annoying. I don't know how they expect players moving so quickly and through tight spaces like the pocket to control their weight when they are tackling someone. Dumb rule. 

Edited by OSUViking
  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Props for a Vikes fan owning it. That was a horrible call.

  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We should be losing every game that we trot Mason Crosby out that many times, so I guess I can't be too annoyed. We just had so many opportunities, so incredibly frustrating. 

I can't stress how much we need a real RB. Jamaal Williams actually did slightly better than I expected today, but still not good enough to be a full time starter in this league. He's a solid all around player, but he doesn't deserve 15-20 called runs a game. He's such a minus runner that it really hurts the offense IMO. 

Over the last 18 games, Ty Montgomery has averaged more than 5 yards a carry.... Give him the football. I understand you may not want to run him 20 times, that's fine. Run him 10, use him more in the screen game as proxy runs... idc. I hope Aaron Jones is ready to play next week and I hope he can make the difference we need in the backfield. 

We need to convert more on 3rd downs... I know this is a Zimmer defense, but we have to convert more often. If the Vikings didn't have the worst kicker in the league, that is a loss every week. And idk what happened in the 4th quarter, but the pass defense just collapsed, gave up too many big plays. They held up really well up until then.. but after that... trash. Overall I like the play of our young secondary. I'd like to see the actual stats on who gave up what. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
44 minutes ago, Thanatos said:

Props for a Vikes fan owning it. That was a horrible call.

It was bullshit when they called something similar on Sheldon Richardson a week ago and it was bullshit here as well. NFL officiating is a joke. Nothing we can do about it and unfortunately it stole a win from GB.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also of note... In the 4th Qtr and OT as the Vikings were mounting their comeback, Mike McCarthy went into full bitch mode. Called a totally different game than he did for the first three quarters -- just trying to protect the lead. 

Playing to not lose is bullshit. Lucky that didn't cost us the game itself. 

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Forbath was shaky at times but he wins this game. Probably before OT. 

Go get Dan Bailey. See if you can't stash Carlson away somewhere for the season and let him compete in camp next year.

So glad we didn't pay Keenum. Cousins is worth every penny so far. 2 games but the performances are hard to argue with

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Cousins was almost perfect. INT was even his fault, just off the hands of Treadwell. 

 

The game is obviously different with a healthy Rodgers, but our special teams was the only reason this was a tie. GB only scored one TD on offense and we held them to 5 FGs, that should be enough to win but when our own ST can't put up points or actively concedes a TD, well it's just a good sign we even tied this game, bad call on Matthews or not.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What a shitty game. Probably the worst officiated game I've seen in a long time, and not just because of the BS roughing the passer call on Matthews. There were so many terrible calls on both sides and 0 consistency throughout the game.

That said, the Packers really shot themselves in the foot and squandered so many opportunities. Kicking 4 times in the redzone is not acceptable. That sequence after the Ha Ha pick was questionable. I'm glad we didn't play conservative and just run it 3 times, but some short routes or something would have been better than 2 shots to the endzone.

As for the defense, I'm not completely sure what happened that caused them to completely collapse. King going down didn't help and unit just looked gassed.

One last thing, Daniels just hugging Cousins and then letting him go instead of an easy sack shows how much these new rules are affecting defenders. Players are so scared of getting penalized that it leads them to being overly cautious.

Edited by Packers Dynasty 2010

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The league isn't just doubling down on the bullshit call, they are including it in a video of what not to do when tackling. Hope the league enjoys watching their product go down the drain, completely ruining it.

Edited by Packers Dynasty 2010

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They're saying Clay picked him up by the legs and drove him into the ground. Honest question- does anyone at all see that? I have no dog in this fight, I don't care about either team one way or the other. But claiming that is raising someone up and driving them into the turf is ludicrous.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

He wraps his left arm around the leg very briefly, but ya I have no idea how you say that is lifting him up and slamming him down. Clay even puts his arm out trying to brace the fall for both. I just don't understand what you are supposed to do at that point, and you will either see more plays like the Daniels one where he just hugs Cousins and lets him go or I believe it was Chris Jones that just hugged a QB and wouldn't let him move til the whistle blew, was too afraid to slam a QB to the ground.

There was no part of me that expected the NFL to come out and say it was a bad call, but to say it was the right call and then include it in a training video is completely ridiculous.

I do think that call against Kendricks was pretty weak too but at least he does lift Rodgers. Still shouldn't have been RTP but these refs were horrible all game.

Edited by Packers Dynasty 2010

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Even Kirk Cousins said it was a generous call... Lol.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Both calls were bad but the one on Clay was obviously worse. These rules suck.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 9/16/2018 at 2:35 PM, BwareDWare94 said:

You heard it here: our pass rushers are overrated 

Idk man, Green Bay is pretty good in pass pro. I was pretty shocked to see Bulaga get handled by Mack like that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It was Bulaga's first real action other than like 10 snaps in preseason since his knee reconstruction. Packers line settled down a lot in the second half... But also, Mack has so many moves that I think it would be hard to shut him down for an entire game. Dude is a wrecking ball. lol

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Paul Allen was raving about the Packers young corners on his radio show yesterday morning. King, Jackson, and Alexander. He says he likes Jackson best of the three. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Chatbox

    TGP has moved to Discord (sorta) - https://discord.gg/JkWAfU3Phm

    Load More
    You don't have permission to chat.
×