Kirk Cousins Out, Sean Mannion In, Packers Need to be Aggressive

The Green Bay Packers are looking to move one step closer to clinching the NFC’s No. 1 seed, while Minnesota is looking to keep their playoff hopes alive. However, the Vikings are going to have to do that without Kirk Cousins this week.

On Friday morning, Adam Schefter reported that Cousins had tested positive for COVID-19, and since he is unvaccinated, he will miss Sunday’s game against the Packers.

With Cousins sidelined, the expectation is that Sean Mannion, who is coming off a stint on the reserve/COVID list of his own, will be Minnesota’s starting quarterback against the Packers with Kellon Mond serving as the backup.

Mannion is a former third-round pick by the Rams in 2015 and has just 74 career pass attempts to his name. He’s completed 60.8 percent of those passes at only 5.2 yards per attempt with no touchdowns and three interceptions. Mannion’s career passer rating is 57.5, according to PFF ($$).

The last time these two teams met, Cousins threw for 341 yards with three touchdowns, although the Green Bay defense did let several interception opportunities slip through their hands–literally. Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson posted 169 receiving yards on only eight receptions, catching two of Cousins’ touchdown passes, and Dalvin Cook also had 115 all-purpose yards of his own.

Really since Week 11 when these two teams last played, the Green Bay Packers defense has been trending downward. There has been a much more conservative approach in the secondary, while the run defense has been porous, allowing Baltimore to average 5.5 yards per rush and Cleveland a whopping 8.8.

This week, with Mannion likely under center, Joe Barry needs to turn up the aggressiveness and be the one who dictates this game–not the other way around. This isn’t a defense that typically blitzes very often, ranking 25th in blitz rate this season, but against an inexperienced quarterback, making him throw under duress as often as possible should be a must. Mannion is also a bit of a statue in the pocket.

Another tendency breaker, Barry’s objective oftentimes is to take away the pass first, but this week against Cook and with a struggling run defense, we should see fewer lightboxes in an effort to slow him down, forcing Mannion to beat Green Bay with his arm.

When it comes to Jefferson, just double-team him and force Mannion to look elsewhere–Minnesota is also without Adam Thielen, who was placed on IR earlier this week. If another pass-catcher finds some success, then so be it.

As Packer Report’s Ross Uglem pointed out, two guys should be on Jefferson at all times, and the other nine players should be focused on slowing the Minnesota run game. Obviously, this is a bit of an oversimplification, but there’s plenty of validity to it as well.

In recent weeks this is a Green Bay Packers defense that has been quite passive, but if there was ever a week to turn up the aggressiveness a few notches, well, this is it. Over the course of the game, I want to see Green Bay blitz Mannion, double-team Jefferson, and have more bodies near the line of scrimmage.