Green Bay Packers v. Vikings: What we hope to see in week 2

The Minnesota Vikings are coming to town in week two, and this is what we hope to see from the Green Bay Packers during the game.

After a hard-fought win in week one for the Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Bears, they have another difficult matchup here in week two with the Minnesota Vikings coming to town.

The Packers week one performance was a very promising one from the defensive side of the ball, however, the offense left quite a bit to be desired. In fairness, it was their first real game as a unit in Matt LaFleur’s system and it was up against one of, if not the best defense in the NFL, so to some extent, it should have been expected that they would struggle.

With that said, Green Bay has another stout defense on the schedule this week and we need to see improvements. As far as the Packers’ defense goes, they will look to carry their momentum over to week two but Minnesota has a few more offensive weapons to worry about than what the Bears did.

So once the game kicks off on Sunday, these are eight things that we hope to see from this Green Bay Packers team, and if we happen to see more than we don’t, they should come out of this game with the win.

An established running game

It was tough sledding last week for Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams and they will be going up against another very good front-seven. But establishing the running game early on needs to be a primary focus of this offense.

Play action and misdirection are a staple of the LaFleur offense and to truly make it effective, the defense needs to respect the running game. Last week on Green Bay’s lone touchdown scoring drive against Chicago, three of the four plays were either play action or misdirection.

If Jones and Williams can get going, it is going to open up the passing game for Aaron Rodgers and make this offense a lot tougher to slow down.

Continued tight end involvement

The tight end position was one that just did not thrive under former head coach Mike McCarthy, but under LaFleur, it was expected to play a much more significant role and in Chicago, we saw that on full display.

All three tight ends – Jimmy Graham, Marcedes Lewis, and Robert Tonyan – played significant offensive snaps and were focal points within the offense. Between the trio, they would total 10 targets – which was a third of Rodgers’ total passing attempts- and made six receptions for 72 yards with a touchdown. I hope to see much of the same in week two.

Slowing down Dalvin Cook

Last week against Atlanta was a big week for Dalvin Cook as he rushed for 111 yards on 21 attempts with two touchdowns. As a result, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins only had 10 passing attempts, which is not what this Green Bay Packers’ defense wants.

To slow down Cook, the Green Bay defense will have to do two things in particular, and the first is limiting the big runs. Although Cook had 111 yards last week, 62 of them came on just three attempts, meaning, on his other 18 rushes he averaged only 2.7 yards per carry.

The second thing they need to do is set the edge and not let Cook get outside. Against the Falcons, Cook averaged eight yards per carry outside the tackle box. Slowing down Dalvin Cook is perhaps the biggest key to victory for the Packers.

Taking advantage of the Minnesota offensive line

Luckily for the Vikings last week, they were able to rely heavily on their defense and rushing attack to carry them to victory because when Cousins dropped back to pass, it wasn’t pretty. Although Cousins was able to put together a fairly clean stat line going 8-10 for 98 yards and a touchdown, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

The Vikings’ offensive line was horrendous in pass-protection. On Cousins’ 11 dropbacks, he put the ball on the ground twice and was sacked once. Pro Football Focus gave them a pass-blocking grade of 26.9, which ranked last in the league by nearly 15 points.

I’d expect Minnesota to pass more than 10 times this week and when they do, the Packers’ defensive front needs to create pressure and force Cousins’ to make a crucial mistake or two.

Packers need to be better on third down

Poor play on third down is something that we saw quite a bit of from this Green Bay Packers team in 2018 and it was prevalent again in Chicago. The Packers would finish the game just 2-12 on third downs and allowed four sacks.

Part of the issue is that they need to be better on earlier downs, so they aren’t in so many third and long situations. Of their 12 third downs, six required 10 yards or more and four of those six needed 12 yards or more. If we hope to see a better offensive performance, this is something that will need to change.

Big day for Davante Adams

Of course, which Green Bay Packers’ fan doesn’t want to see Davante Adams torch this Vikings secondary, again. Last week, the Vikings had another top receiver that they had to go up against in Julio Jones and they were able to limit his production for the most part.

For much of the game, Xavier Rhodes covered Jones, while a safety hovered over the top, making it quite difficult to get Jones the ball. You have to expect that Minnesota will deploy a similar tactic with Adams.

However, Adams has had quite a bit of success against the Vikings in the past including hauling in 13 receptions for 133 yards and two touchdowns over their two games in 2018.

Jaire Alexander limits Stefon Diggs

While focusing on Dalvin Cook will be a priority, the Green Bay defense can’t forget about Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. The key to slowing these two receivers down will begin with Jaire Alexander being able to limit Stefon Diggs’ production.

If Alexander is able to lockdown Diggs, it will allow defensive coordinator Mike Pettine to provide extra help to either Kevin King or Tony Brown, whoever is in charge of covering Thielen, resulting in what would hopefully be an unproductive day for each receiver.

A better performance from Aaron Rodgers and the offense

As I mentioned above, what we saw from both Aaron Rodgers and this new offense as a whole was quite underwhelming. The positive is that it appears they can win games without Rodgers having to be Super Man, however, the offense must be better if they hope to be a playoff team.

We discussed establishing the running game, as well as being more effective on third downs, but this offense runs through Aaron Rodgers and he needs to be better. According to Pro Football Focus, only 33 percent of Rodgers throws were deemed accurate which ranked 32nd in the league.

And although there were five recorded sacks, for the most part Rodgers did have plenty of time to throw the ball. According to Next Gen Stats, Rodgers had 3.04 seconds to throw, which ranked as the second-highest in week one.

It was only the first game after not playing in the preseason and it was against a very good defense, so we shouldn’t be panicking at this point by any means. With that said, we hopefully see improvements in week two against Minnesota.