5 Big Questions Revisited in Green Bay Packers v. Vikings Matchup
By Paul Bretl
Before each Green Bay Packers game, I dive into my 5 Big Questions that the team will be facing that week. Now with the game in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look back at Green Bay’s performance and what the answers to those questions ended up being.
Q: Will the Green Bay Packers defense play more aggressively?
A: For the most part, they did
In the weeks leading up to this matchup, I found the Green Bay defense to be playing quite passive. But this past week, with Sean Mannion under center, I wanted to see them kick things up a notch and play much more aggressively against the inexperienced quarterback.
Although Joe Barry didn’t blitz much — however, that wasn’t really necessary given the play of the defensive front — he did play with more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage in an effort to slow Dalvin Cook. At the end of the day, Cook was held to only 13 yards on nine carries, and while the push from the interior defensive line as well as the play of the Packer edge rushers were key in slowing him, it was still nice to see additional help close by–especially given the recent play of this run defense unit.
We also saw the Green Bay secondary do a nice job of limiting the underneath plays, essentially forcing Mannion to push the ball downfield — which he often didn’t do — or either settle for a minimal gain or a contested completion.
Yes, this defense was up against a backup quarterback, but they did exactly what they had to do. Mannion finished 22/36 for only 189 yards, and the Vikings offense averaged only 4.0 yards per play–and even that is a little inflated from Minnesota’s final possession.