Pack look to get on track in Week 1 at Minnesota
The Packers kick off their regular season with a trip to US Bank Stadium in Minnesota as they take on the Vikings in the late-afternoon game on Sunday.
The Packers and Vikings finished #1 and #2 respectively in the NFC North Standings last season. There is a great chance they will be the two best teams in the division once again and maybe even compete for the division crown late into the season.
For the Vikings, Kirk Cousins has been a solid quarterback throughout his career and usually puts up respectable numbers, but he is usually not counted among the best in the league. He hasn’t gone on a deep playoff run and has often fallen short in nationally televised games. He is looking to change that narrative this season and has a lot of good offensive weapons around him. When healthy, RB Dalvin Cook is one of the best in the league. Adam Thielen is always a deep threat, and Justin Jefferson thinks he can become the best receiver in the league this season. The hype during the offseason is that the Packers have one of the best defenses in the league, if not the best. If so, this would be a great game to show it off. Let’s get some turnovers and shut them down on 3rd-down plays.
Aaron Rodgers is back for the 18th season and coming off two straight MVP seasons. The receiving corps looks a lot different than last year and might have even less experience because Allen Lazard likely can’t go on Sunday due to an ankle injury. Unless one or more of the young receivers emerges quickly, we may see a lot of the running game and short to mid-range passes, especially to Aaron Jones, one of the top running backs in the league. This game has great ones on both teams. David Bakhtiari thinks he’s on track to start on Sunday. If he is anywhere close to what he was before the injury, he will be a welcome addition to the offensive line.
We can never forget special teams, and to say that last season’s unit was bad would be a huge understatement. It had its ups and downs in the preseason. Rich Bisaccia, who served as the interim head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders last season after Jon Gruden left, is now the Packers’ special teams coordinator. If he can improve the special teams to an average unit, it would be a huge upgrade.
Mike Zimmer is out as head coach of the Vikings and Kevin O’Connell is in. He has something that’s a rarity for someone in the Vikings’ organization, and that’s a Super Bowl Ring, which he now has because he was the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, who won the Super Bowl this past February. Only time will tell whether he is “the guy” who will finally break through and win it all for them. I wouldn’t place any bets on it. Besides, it’s fun to make jokes at their expense. That all goes away if they ever get it done.
I talked about Kirk Cousins and his lack of success in huge games, but he did win the last two times the Vikings faced the Packers. Cousins was out when the Packers defeated the Vikings late last season. In those two games, the Packers’ defense wasn’t very good. That needs to change on Sunday. If the rivalry doesn’t have enough fuel, Za’Darius Smith is now a member of the Vikings, and he also had some negative comments about the Packers, saying they treated him poorly when he was rehabbing his back injury last season. He is looking to be a disruptive force on Sunday and the Packers need to be aware of that and keep him in check.
Another journey begins on Sunday. If in fact, we do have an awesome defense, I will take my chances with that plus Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. I am not going to go out on a limb and predict this or that for the team this year, but I also won’t put any limitations on them. We have a lot of young players at key positions, and if they grow together and get the job done, I believe great things will happen. Let’s get a win in Minnesota and have a great start to the season.
Go Pack Go!
@DieHardPackrFan #DHPF #GregGoshaw @gg901
