Instant Takeaways: Packers one win away from the playoffs
By Paul Bretl

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Controlling their own playoff destiny, the Green Bay Packers take care of the Minnesota Vikings with ease. One more win and the Packers will clinch a playoff berth.
Now that the game has come to an end, here are my instant takeaways from an impressive Packers performance.
-It was a much different game for the Packers’ defense this time around, and it was in part due to some game plan changes from Joe Barry. We saw more press coverage along with Jaire Alexander matched up specifically on Justin Jefferson. On top of that, this was just a very fundamentally sound performance by the Packers’ defense, which didn’t happen in Week 1. All 11 players were to the ball, the tackling was very good, and there were no coverage breakdowns leading to big plays.
– I’m going to give Alexander his own bullet point here because he was excellent and so physical with Jefferson. Rasul Douglas was very good as well. The Packers’ defense as a whole has played six terrific and consecutive quarters of football–forcing several turnovers, getting off the field on third downs, and allowing just three combined points (or at least the starters did).
– In Week 1, we saw Justin Jefferson being motioned what felt like constantly. However, the Vikings didn’t do that this time around. It could have been one way to get Alexander off of him because on the few instances when Jefferson did motion, Alexander didn’t travel with him.
– Keisean Nixon, what else is there left to say? He’s an absolute game-changer.
– The pass rush made a few splash plays but wasn’t all that consistent, given that the Vikings’ offensive line was beaten up and hasn’t been great. Several of the pressures that Green Bay did generate were a product of the coverage downfield. With that said, the interior defensive line was able to control the line of scrimmage, limiting the Vikings run game.
– Justin Hollins picked up his third sack in five games since joining the Packers.
– We again saw Christian Watson’s gravity at work. On the Robert Tonyan touchdown, the safety took a few steps in Watson’s direction, which gave Tonyan additional room and time on the opposite side of the field.
– As I wrote a few days ago, in addition to more snaps for Devonte Wyatt, TJ Slaton would see more snaps as well. He made the most of those opportunities, logging a few tackles, and two pass deflections, one of which was intercepted by Adrian Amos.
– Yosh Nijman took began at right tackle for the first two possessions, but then Zach Tom took over for the rest of the game. Nijman was still on the field goal unit, so the move wasn’t injury-related. At first, I thought Green Bay might be doing a rotation since both players have been playing well, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
– Aaron Rodgers took a few downfield shots, but as I discussed before the game, the Vikings took a similar approach as the Rams and played a ton of cover-2. So the Packers leaned heavily on the run game, with Aaron Jones rushing for over 100 yards and Green Bay averaging nearly 5.0 yards per carry as a team, after being at the 6.0 mark for much of it. One of the best ways to attack cover-2 is on the ground. In addition to paving running lanes in the run game, the offensive line gave Rodgers plenty of time as well.
– This team is playing their best football at the right time. Just a wonderful display of complementary football in all three phases against Minnesota.