Good evening, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers will take on the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field. This is the first game at Lambeau Field for the Packers in over a month. At the moment, the Packers are 2-4 on the season. I hope that the friendly confines of Lambeau Field will help the Packers get the win. Regardless of the fans, the team needs to do a whole bunch of things to win on Sunday. Let’s get into detail right now.
On offense, the Packers need to get to a fast start. In the past four first halves, the Packers have been outscored 63-6 against New Orleans, Detroit, Las Vegas, and Denver. The common thing is that the Packers offense is either unprepared or the coaching staff’s game plan leads to no points and frustration for all involved. Aaron Jones is good to go for this game. Even though he’ll still have that hamstring issue during the season, I think that Jones should get at least 20 touches on Sunday. As of now, he is the best player on offense and the coaching staff needs to make sure that he gets those touches in the running game and in the passing game. It all starts with how the offensive line performs on Sunday. Everyone on that line, including Elgton Jenkins and Zach Tom, need to block the defenders and create the holes for Jones and the other running backs to run through for some good yards. The backs need to follow those holes and either evade or run through defenders to get a good gain on each play. In the passing game, the offensive linemen need to keep any pass rushers from getting to Jordan Love too much. In the case of a blitz, the running back needs to pick up that blitz and give Love time to throw to any of his receivers. One of those receivers should have a bigger impact on the offense. I’m talking about Dontayvion Wicks, who has scored a couple of times during this season. It would be great for him to score a couple of more touchdowns against the Vikings defense, as long as Love throws accurately to him and Wicks makes the catch. That goes for every receiver for Green Bay that plays on Sunday. Most importantly, the Packers need to win the time of possession battle. Gaining good yards on the early downs (which makes third downs easier to convert), being smart with the football, and not committing silly penalties that might kill drives can help the Packers achieve this goal. When they get to the red zone, they need to score touchdowns each time instead of coming up short either due to a turnover or due to settling for a field goal. Everyone from the coaching staff to the players need to execute on offense in order for them to put up points on the scoreboard. I hope that the Packers get to score at least 30 on offense.
On defense, the Packers need to make the Vikings one-dimensional on offense. To accomplish this goal, that means that they need to stop the Vikings running game from being effective. The defensive front, which includes Kenny Clark and Rashan Gary among others, needs to get past the blockers and tackle the ball carriers for minimum gain. The defenders need to wrap the guy up and bring him down firmly instead of just diving at his feet and hope for the best. If the ground game is kept in check, then the pass rush can focus on getting after Kirk Cousins, who can attack a defense if given time. Therefore, the pass rushers need to get past the blockers and force Cousins to throw errant passes that could be intercepted by anyone who is able to catch the pick. Getting a strip sack would be great as well for the Packers defense. Any turnover can help the Packers by giving the offense more chances to put up points. It would be an awesome bonus if the interception or fumble results in a touchdown for Green Bay. Stopping the Vikings on early downs can keep them (in theory) from being to convert the third downs and keep drives alive. In the red zone, the defense needs to be able to keep Minnesota from scoring any touchdowns. Seeing that the offense is without their best receiver in Justin Jefferson, who is dealing with an injury, the Packers defense should be able to stymie the Vikings offense. We’ll see how it goes on Sunday with Joe Barry still as coordinator for the rest of this season.
On Special Teams, the Packers need to avoid crucial mistakes that can give the Vikings extra momentum. An example of this would be allowing a field goal or punt to get blocked. To keep this from happening, the snap has to be accurate by the long snapper and the linemen need to keep any defender from getting anywhere near the kick or punt. In both field goal and punt situations, Daniel Whelon needs to catch the ball cleanly. Whelon has done well with getting the ball set for Anders Carlson to kick it. Carlson should be able to make each kick on Sunday to help the Packers win the game. Whelon needs to punt each ball deep into Vikings territory when he is called upon, which is hopefully not too much. To keep any big kick returns from happening, Carlson needs to kick each ball out of the end zone for a touchback. If there is a return by Minnesota, the Packers’ return coverage unit needs to get to the guy and tackle him before he turns it into a huge gain. On the other side, I hope for a repeat of last season‘s Packers-Vikings game at Lambeau Field in which Keisean Nixon takes a kickoff all the way for a touchdown. Regardless of whether that happens or not, Nixon needs to make a good decision with the ball. He needs to protect the ball in case a potential defender tries to punch it from his hands. In some kickoffs, he needs to let the ball go for a touchback and good field position for the offense. Rich Bisaccia needs to get his guys ready for any tricks that the Vikings might pull on Special Teams. It is then up to the players to do their part and help the Packers win the game.
Overall, the Packers need this win to get back in a good mood. Thankfully, this game is at Lambeau Field so the Packers should have home field on their side. Everyone has to do their part in order for the fans at Lambeau Field to leave happy (and for the Vikings fans to leave disappointed). One thing that the Packers need to do is to do a Lambeau Leap after each touchdown, regardless of whether the offense, defense, or Special Teams unit scores them. I pray that nobody on either team suffers a serious injury on Sunday. I’ll be back on Monday with the recap of the game. Have a great weekend, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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