Playing at home with their all-time leading rusher and future Hall-of-Famer Adrian Peterson returning from injury, and a playoff spot hanging in the balance, you would think that the Vikings would play with some fire. WRONG.
Recapping their performance every week will make anyone sound like a broken record, because once again, the Vikings were a mess, excluding Sam Bradford’s accuracy (32-for-42 for 291 yards). The running game only had 34 yards, the offensive line allowed five sacks, and the defense surrendered 411 total offense. Week 15’s 34-6 loss to the Colts was arguably their ugliest defeat of the season.
The postseason is now almost impossible, but we’ll see how well they can redeem themselves against the Packers. They last faced their NFC North Division rival in Week 2, and they came out on top, 17-14. At that point of the season, as we may all remember, the Vikes looked invincible with Bradford rising and the defense being very menacing.
Minny will enter the game ranking 26th in passing (234 per game) and dead-last in rushing (70.5 per game).
After opening the season with five straight victories, the Vikes dropped seven of their next nine, leaving them with a 7-7 record (SU and ATS).
Aaron Rodgers and company continued their climb Sunday. The 30-27 win over the Bears extended their wining streak to four and kept their playoff hopes alive.
The offense was everywhere for the Pack, as they reached 451 total yards. Rodgers, just like he always does, connected with Jordy Nelson for much of the contest, generating seven catches for 124 yards. However, it was Ty Montgomery that had the most attention when the game concluded. The second-year back had 162 rushing yards on 10.1 yards per carry, along with two TD runs.
They don’t have fond memories of their Week 2 battle against Minnesota, with Rodgers only completing 55-percent of his passes and getting hit 14 times, but it was a different time. The two squads have completely interchanged positions since – the Packers are rising and the Vikes are trending down. Also, the Vikings D just allowed Andrew Luck to complete 21 of his 28 passes and 33-year-old back Frank Gore to run for 101 yards.
In trying to take back a W, expect A-Rod and his offense to be explosive. The QB is guiding the Packers to have a league-leading 32 TD passes and a top 10-ranked 271.2 passing YPG. Additionally, he’s recording 247.4 YPG in his 17 career games opposite Minnesota, along with a 35-6 TD-INT ratio.
The defense, meanwhile, will have to step up their pass defense. In their previous matchup, although they hit Bradford 16 times, he was still able to go 22-for-32 for 286 yards and two TDs.
Green Bay is 5-2 at home this season (4-2-1 ATS).
Writer’s Prediction
The Packers (-7) stretch their streak to five, 24-14.
