Official Week 17 Green Bay vs Minnesota Pre-game

[Firethorn1001]

Do you think his knee is shot

Honestly, I have no idea. The last 2 years have been odd with his injury being veiled in secrecy and seemingly endless "Getting closer... getting closer.. Nope." Its just unusual IMHO. I understand the Packers are secretive about injuries, but this seems excessively secretive (that even possible to be excessively secretive? I don't know.. but I'm going with that)

At the end of the day it is a $25M player that has played 1/2 the games over a 2 year period so that is concerning. At this point it is a gamble on 2025.

 

[Schultz]

Nope. Don’t need to. Really just need to double Jefferson to mitigate him. Id put Stokes and Zayne on Jefferson.

As far as Weapons… past Jefferson because all you can do is mitigate a true #1.
Addison? Is he better than J. Reed? No
Hockenson? Is he better than Kraft? No
Aaron Jones better than Jacobs? No
Jalen Nailor better than Doubs? No

They win with their WR1. We Win as a Team. It seems to work we’re rated much higher across the board on O

Their backups?
Oliver, Sherfield, Ham, Powell, Cam Akers?
Are they better than Musgrave, Wicks, Wilson, Brooks? Nope.

But if everyone is going to worry. Who should be worried more? The Vikings #30 rated Pass Defense?
Or
GB’s #7 rated pass D?
that’s allowed 15.5 points per game since our Bye (#1 in the NFL)

At this point in their careers, I would rather have Addison and Hock over Reed and Kraft. For the long run I like Kraft, but still think Addison is better than Reed. Home field makes MN. tough. I am not saying this game is not winnable, just look at last year. I am just giving my opinion.

 

[Schultz]

I like the Packers chances especially with the Vikes O-line missing their starting LT. The Packers run the ball better behind a much superior offensive line and should be able to control the trenches on both sides of the ball. The Vikings haven’t swept the Packers since 2017 and are underdogs at home which shows Vegas doesn’t think much of their 13 wins.

I bet at 3 different sites and the Vikings are favorites at all of them. All be it, just 1 point favorites on 2 and 1.5 on the other.

 

[OldSchool101]

At this point in their careers, I would rather have Addison and Hock over Reed and Kraft. For the long run I like Kraft, but still think Addison is better than Reed. Home field makes MN. tough. I am not saying this game is not winnable, just look at last year. I am just giving my opinion.

See I disagree. I’d take Kraft and Reed over Hock and Addison.
It’s a good argument, but the past doesn’t matter. The past is the past.
Kraft is clearly playing better than TJ and I’ve say Reed and Addison are near twins. The Packer combo has the better production in a 2024 funnel.

If we’re talking who’s the best over the last 5 seasons. Ok it’s probably TJ

 

[pacmaniac]

I think the Packers need to dominate and win by double-digits. If it's a close game it'll be tough. The Vikings are 25-10 in one-possession games under O'Connell.

 

[OldSchool101]

My only reservation is all the injuries that have piled up. I do think GB is well coached similar to Detroit and gets the best from whoever is up. Malik or Brenton Cox are couple examples.
It’s a prime example of how GB gets good usage out of depth

It sucks because GB is pretty banged up and Vikes are getting healthy. Smith and Pace are back.

If The Packers Win this wounded they’ll need some serious praise.

 

[rmontro]

If the Packers were healthy, I'd give them the edge but that's not the case. Looks like 4-5 starters are out. Watson, Alexander, Walker, Williams and perhaps Bullard. Vikings are completely healthy, that's why they're winning all those close games.

Saw this video by Jon Gruden. He does a nice job of breaking down the game, but he picks the Vikings because of the injuries. Minnesota is healthy, and the Packers like you say. He makes a good point, although I would add we've been playing well without some of those guys.

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[weeds]

...and to nobody's surprise, Florio's site which always leans to Vikies for whatever it's worth has this to say, the Vikies have a lot on the line too. It's not just the Packers trying to prove they belong with the big boys.

11-4 Packers (-1) at 13-2 Vikings, Sunday 4:25 p.m. ET, Fox (Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady)

By rule, game couldn’t be moved to prime time because the first match was played on CBS. At least one of the annual games between NFC division rivals must be played on Fox, where it was flexed to 4:25 p.m. ET.

The last time around, Minnesota led 28-0 before holding on to win, 31-29.

The Vikings secure the No. 1 seed (and the division title) if they win out. If the Vikings lose to the Packers, the Lions can clinch the top seed with a win on Monday night.

Minnesota quarterback has 16 touchdowns and one interception over the past six weeks. Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love and eight touchdowns and no interceptions in the last five games.

Receiver Justin Jefferson has 349 receiving yards and five touchdown catches in the last three games.

A win by the Vikings will give them their first nine-game winning streak since starting the 1975 season at 10-0.

 

[tahoebum]

This ****** me off and maybe it's just a perception on my part, but even in years past when they were playing on artificial turf it seems like we have a long injury list and they don't even have a hangnail whenever we play them.

It may be perception. After the death of the 3rd round draft pick this summer, the Vikes also lost a starting CB, their LT, and JJ McCarthy for the year. Darrisaw out is a big loss as he is easily their best O lineman and as a top 5 NFL left tackle. Ivan Pace their defensive captain is also questionable.

IMO, this is a battle of two top 7 NFL teams and will likely be a great game decided by turnovers or one or two big offensive plays. The Pack has and all time win percentage of .572 but has won just 51.5% of the games since the Vikings became a team in 1961 so it’s always a battle.

 

[OldSchool101]

One thing I’ve been doing recently is going back and watching the previous meeting. It’s not a perfect reflection on both teams strengths, but it’s the best one we have as far as how do we play directly on matchups.

Observations:

1. Jordan Love was absolutely, positively, unequivocally both playing partially injured and rusty. For over 2 quarters the majority of throws were off timing, too high, too low or extremely poor decisions. Love passes were more often .5 sec late. It was a D grade performance by him across 2 full quarters imo. One of his worst accuracy games across near 2 seasons.
2. While both teams were undisciplined, GB was over the top making mistakes that have free biscuits to MN. I’d put that game and our 1st Lions “rain” game as the pure sloppiest play. The dropped passes (partly bad throws) were consistently bad. Yellow flags at every corner.

3. Christian Watson was lost end of 1st qtr and Luke Musgrave also went out very early. Both were integral plans as evidenced by targets early. Musgrave was 3/3 16 yards (25 snaps) and Watson 0/1 (9 snaps) Both had little to zero impact last meeting. So #9 status in this one is only neutral or a + from last meeting. Projecting Musgrave will conceivably be used limited but similar to last meeting. He had 8 snaps vs Saints last week. 20 snaps?

4. Vikings are a very good Run D, but we did move the ball closer to average on them. Hard to Run the ball down at 0-28. Should see a little more clock control. Hopefully we get Jacobs involved in short passing where he’s been very effective lately.

5. Narveson was terrible. Possibly lost us that game directly. TWO first half drives spoiled when he shanked 2 Kicks that erased -6 points. Highly unlikely that McNamath misses multiple tries. More likely he Wins the game than multiple missed FG.

6. Several times we rushed 4 on 3rd and 10+. Each time MN nailed a 20 yard pass. Preston played at D+ grade. He looked like he was checked out going through motions. We appeared to stay in lanes so QB wouldn’t run. Hopefully Haf saw that. I’d rather be aggressive and send 5 and make him throw a 5-10 yarder in 3rd n 14. Stop letting them dictate and pick our secondary apart.

 

[rmontro]

...and to nobody's surprise, Florio's site which always leans to Vikies for whatever it's worth has this to say, the Vikies have a lot on the line too. It's not just the Packers trying to prove they belong with the big boys.

Good point, really the Vikings are playing for bigger stakes than we are.

 

[milani]

I bet at 3 different sites and the Vikings are favorites at all of them. All be it, just 1 point favorites on 2 and 1.5 on the other.

Even if we had all our defense they would be favored.

 

[milani]

One thing I’ve been doing recently is going back and watching the previous meeting. It’s not a perfect reflection on both teams strengths, but it’s the best one we have as far as how do we play directly on matchups.

Observations:

1. Jordan Love was absolutely, positively, unequivocally both playing partially injured and rusty. For over 2 quarters the majority of throws were off timing, too high, too low or extremely poor decisions. Love passes were more often .5 sec late. It was a D grade performance by him across 2 full quarters imo. One of his worst accuracy games across near 2 seasons.
2. While both teams were undisciplined, GB was over the top making mistakes that have free biscuits to MN. I’d put that game and our 1st Lions “rain” game as the pure sloppiest play. The dropped passes (partly bad throws) were consistently bad. Yellow flags at every corner.

3. Christian Watson was lost end of 1st qtr and Luke Musgrave also went out very early. Both were integral plans as evidenced by targets early. Musgrave was 3/3 16 yards (25 snaps) and Watson 0/1 (9 snaps) Both had little to zero impact last meeting. So #9 status in this one is only neutral or a + from last meeting. Projecting Musgrave will conceivably be used limited but similar to last meeting. He had 8 snaps vs Saints last week. 20 snaps?

4. Vikings are a very good Run D, but we did move the ball closer to average on them. Hard to Run the ball down at 0-28. Should see a little more clock control. Hopefully we get Jacobs involved in short passing where he’s been very effective lately.

5. Narveson was terrible. Possibly lost us that game directly. TWO first half drives spoiled when he shanked 2 Kicks that erased -6 points. Highly unlikely that McNamath misses multiple tries. More likely he Wins the game than multiple missed FG.

6. Several times we rushed 4 on 3rd and 10+. Each time MN nailed a 20 yard pass. Preston played at D+ grade. He looked like he was checked out going through motions. We appeared to stay in lanes so QB wouldn’t run. Hopefully Haf saw that. I’d rather be aggressive and send 5 and make him throw a 5-10 yarder in 3rd n 14. Stop letting them dictate and pick our secondary apart.

The Vikings D will likely give the same look as the Lions did several weeks back. Load the box. Get up on the line. And dare Love to go over the top. The difference is that the Vikings will mix up who they blitz and from what side plus up the middle. They will also fake the blitz and drop out of it. This is ******* a young QB and young offense.
Now Rodgers in his prime was very good against the blitz. He picked it up and so did his experienced receivers and his FB. And Rodgers was very accurate with the ball even when hurried.
The Vikings are banking that are young guys will not adjust their routes and Love will hurry his throws. This is when a young offense will show if it is maturing.

 

[OldSchool101]

The Vikings D will likely give the same look as the Lions did several weeks back. Load the box. Get up on the line. And dare Love to go over the top. The difference is that the Vikings will mix up who they blitz and from what side plus up the middle. They will also fake the blitz and drop out of it. This is ******* a young QB and young offense.
Now Rodgers in his prime was very good against the blitz. He picked it up and so did his experienced receivers and his FB. And Rodgers was very accurate with the ball even when hurried.
The Vikings are banking that are young guys will not adjust their routes and Love will hurry his throws. This is when a young offense will show if it is maturing.

Agreed. This will be the ideal game to use more 12 Personnel and pinch the OL together. It’s ok to keep 1 TE home for 6 bodies blocking and just stifle any 5 man rushes and stay in your lanes. Make them swing extra wide around to get any pressure so Love can step up get some torque into his throws. He didn’t have that last game he was 1 legged.

I’d really try to get both RB’s involved in that shorter passing game. Let 5 overpursue into our backfield and give both 220lb RB’s some 2 yard dump off with a yard of space and let them churn and spin and bully the LB’s and DB’s. Stay into that 3rd and manageable 3rd n 5; 3rd n 3 etc.
If between the 40’s put her into 4-Down if it’s 1.5 yards or less. Start walking off slowly by selling confusion to each other and the sideline. Have a defined play and run back and on 0 have Kraft take the snap. Be aggressive and let them know this isn’t week 4 anymore. We learned a thing or 2 from Detroit. Execute

 

[milani]

Agreed. This will be the ideal game to use more 12 Personnel and pinch the OL together. It’s ok to keep 1 TE home for 6 bodies blocking and just stifle any 5 man rushes and stay in your lanes. Make them swing extra wide around to get any pressure so Love can step up get some torque into his throws. He didn’t have that last game he was 1 legged.

I’d really try to get both RB’s involved in that shorter passing game. Let 5 overpursue into our backfield and give both 220lb RB’s some 2 yard dump off with a yard of space and let them churn and spin and bully the LB’s and DB’s. Stay into that 3rd and manageable 3rd n 5; 3rd n 3 etc.
If between the 40’s put her into 4-Down if it’s 1.5 yards or less. Start walking off slowly by selling confusion to each other and the sideline. Have a defined play and run back and on 0 have Kraft take the snap. Be aggressive and let them know this isn’t week 4 anymore. We learned a thing or 2 from Detroit. Execute

And we have a kicker for this game.

 

[OldSchool101]

And we have a kicker for this game.

That there just might be the 1 thing that’s most overlooked. Only Jon Gruden alluded to that. However even he didn’t mention we shanked 2 FG’s inside 49,41 yards. Thats 6 points we handed MN. It would not be a great argument had we lost by 10 points. We lost by 2 points so it kinda makes you sick to your stomach on the rewatch. I know it’s not a perfect world, but you could really argue that making 1 of 2 Wins that game. It certainly didn’t help missing 6 points.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Jaire probably not playing this week. Does he have injury guarantees in his contract?

I was wondering about that. My guess is that they have to take out some kind of disability insurance, which probably costs a fortune but they make a fortune.

I'm guessing so if anyone knows the answer....

 

[Heyjoe4]

Agreed. For me this game pretty much decides the rest of the season. Look sharp and win continue to improve and you got a shot of making some real noise in the playoffs. Lose or worse lose and look bad, and this is a team going nowhere in the playoffs with a lot of decisions to make in the offseason.

I hope they beat the Vikes and make a deep run in the playoffs. But let's say they don't. What kind of big decisions will they need to make in the off season?

 

[Heyjoe4]

It would not be good for morale going into the playoffs having lost 2 games each to the Lions and queens. I know these guys are pros and the playoffs are the second season, but it just seems like it would be really tough to overcome that fact.

The good news is that the Packers are better than they were in week 4. So are the Vikings. I think they'll win this Sunday by two possessions, 27-17.

 

[rmontro]

I hope they beat the Vikes and make a deep run in the playoffs. But let's say they don't. What kind of big decisions will they need to make in the off season?

That's a valid point. If we need to improve, where can we get better, what do we need, and can we get it?

This question came to mind: Who has the better quarterback? Who has the better coach? I would think objectively we have the advantage in both positions, but this year seems to be a bit of an outlier in this season they seem to be both having career years for the Vikings.

 

[rmontro]

The good news is that the Packers are better than they were in week 4. So are the Vikings. I think they'll win this Sunday by two possessions, 27-17.

Who is they?

 

[OldSchool101]

I just don’t want to end up like the Texans. 31-2? How embarrassing.

MN has still been efficient enough to Win 13 games. Idc if we beat them by 1 point it would stop all the constant “Packers can’t beat a good team” talk.

Although if you gave me a choice if you can
1. Shellack MN by 10 points
Or
2. Lose to MN by a walk off FG but beat Chicago 20-0 and Shellack the Rams 30-10

Id take option 2. I’m more interested in winning in postseason than my intra division pride. I can lay that down for the greater cause. Id really like nothing more than 2 more weeks of people wagging their heads at us. Then just abuse MN 35-21 in front of their own fans and go to Detroit and scratch and claw and beat them on a last 2 minute drive and 3 successful 4th down tries. That week of hearing all the apologists might be worth the extra wait.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Who is they?

Oops, thanks for the catch. Packers 27 Vikings 17.

 

[Heyjoe4]

That's a valid point. If we need to improve, where can we get better, what do we need, and can we get it?

This question came to mind: Who has the better quarterback? Who has the better coach? I would think objectively we have the advantage in both positions, but this year seems to be a bit of an outlier in this season they seem to be both having career years for the Vikings.

Yeah and I was asking PackerDNA as follow up to his statement re: decisions in the offseason.

My take - whether GB makes a deep playoff run or not, the CB group needs to be re-engineered, similar to what Gluten did with safeties last off season. Eventually they will also have to make decisions on which WRs to keep, but even that seems pretty easy - Watson, Reed, Doubs and TE Kraft need to be retained. Well, as of now.

 

[Schultz]

See I disagree. I’d take Kraft and Reed over Hock and Addison.
It’s a good argument, but the past doesn’t matter. The past is the past.
Kraft is clearly playing better than TJ and I’ve say Reed and Addison are near twins. The Packer combo has the better production in a 2024 funnel.

If we’re talking who’s the best over the last 5 seasons. Ok it’s probably TJ

My reason for liking Addison over Reed is that IMO if Reed were playing with JJEFF his numbers would be down. IMO Addison would be the clear WR1 in GB. Again, not arguing, just giving my opinion on an opinion based website.