The Green Bay Packers visit the Minnesota Vikings today. The Packers have been on fire recently. Led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Packers have scored over 50 points in each of their last two games. That's nice offensive production. That sort of production ends today. Vikings win!
From Albert Breer:
Aaron Rodgers has just one game with a passer-rating under 80 over the last four years. It was vs. Mike Zimmer.
Aaron Rodgers has been playing at a whole other level the past couple of months. It's hard to believe that he could get any better as he's been one of the best quarterbacks in the league for a while now. The Vikings have to get pressure on Rodgers. A lot of pressure. He can't be comfortable in the pocket. He can't be comfortable outside of the pocket. He really can't be comfortable any time that he gets the ball from the center.
Packers running back Eddie Lacy can't get loose either. The Packers took apart the Vikings in their earlier meeting this season 42-10. That large margin was made large by Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder's mind-bending generosity in the second quarter and Lacy finally finding some running room. Lacy had struggled in the four games prior to the Vikings game. He ran for over 100 yards that night and for the first time this year he looked like the running back that broke out last year. It's foolish for a team to ever enter a game against the Packers with anyone other than Rodgers at the top of their list of concerns but Lacy can't get loose.
The Vikings will have a new running back in their backfield today. They claimed Ben Tate off of waivers this past week. The Cleveland Browns had released Tate after seeing his carries greatly reduced. Tate was terrific in his first four years as the backup to Arian Foster with the Houston Texans. He signed with the Browns this past offseason for a chance to finally be the main back for a team. It didn't work out that way as Tate was losing carries to rookies Terrence West and Isaiah Crowell in recent weeks. Now, he's in Minnesota. Good timing. Vikings backs Jerick McKinnon and Matt Asiata missed practice time this week. McKinnon with back issues. Asiata with a concussion. McKinnon should play today. Asiata has already been ruled out. The Vikings should have McKinnon, Tate, and Joe Banyard as their active backs today. Dominique Williams was signed to the practice squad this week to provide depth going forward.
The Vikings had a well-populated injury list this week. That often happens as teams enter the final six weeks of the season. Asiata, McKinnon, tight end Kyle Rudolph. receivers Greg Jennings and Jarius Wright, tackle Matt Kalil, defensive end Everson Griffen, defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, linebacker Anthony Barr, cornerbacks Xavier Rhodes and Captain Munnerlyn all received injury mentions and missed practice time. Asiata and Floyd are inactive.
Watching the first Aaron Rodgers-Teddy Bridgewater game should be a real treat. We were robbed of that experience earlier this year due to Bridgewater dealing with an ankle injury.
Go Vikings!
NFL morning games:
Packers at Vikings
Lions at Patriots
Browns at Falcons
Jaguars at Colts
Titans at Eagles
Bengals at Texans
The guess here is that the Lions will suffer their first losing streak of the season.
Afternoon games:
Cardinals at Seahawks
Rams at Chargers
Dolphins at Broncos
Redskins at 49ers
If the Redskins can't play without drama for once, all four of these games could be very interesting games.
Night game:
Cowboys at Giants
This rivalry is always a good one.
We have two Monday night games this week due to the excess of snow in Buffalo. The Jets-Bills game has been moved to Ford Field in Detroit. The tickets for the game were free. They were all gone by yesterday. Thaw out and stay warm Buffalo.
Monday night games:
Jets at Bills in Detroit
Ravens at Saints
With a win over the Ravens, Saints quarterback Drew Brees will join Brett Favre and Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks to beat all 32 NFL teams. This is a very interesting statistic as the quarterback has to play well for a long time and play for more than one team. If Brees doesn't win this game, he'll have to wait four years for another shot at this milestone. Unless he moves on to another team.
The 117th Big Game sucked. Stanford won their fifth straight Big Game 38-17. It doesn't help when the NCAA collected seven clowns wandering the streets of Palo Alto to officiate the game. How else can you explain taking three Cal touchdowns off the board on a single possession. The first negated touchdown was legitimate. Luke Rubenzer's knee hit the turf before the ball broke the plane. The second and third negated touchdowns were inconceivable calls. The seven Palo Alto transients were watching an entirely different game than the one that took place in Berkeley.
Cal's defense is still horrible but they did tackle much better than they did about a month ago. That's a positive. They bit on damn near every misdirection play that Stanford ran. That's not a positive.
On the first play from scrimmage Cal safety Michael Lowe was called for targeting a Stanford receiver. It was a good call. Even though Lowe may have led with his shoulder more than his helmet he did hit the receiver in the neck/head area. In college, this penalty includes an automatic ejection from the game. Unless the targeting is especially blatant this is a ridiculous rule.
The Axe remains with those seven supposed officials in Palo Alto for a fifth consecutive year. That's just sickening.
The Harvard-Yale game was terrific. Congratulations Harvard on an undefeated season and Ivy League title.
It's great to see UCLA honor Jackie Robinson. They highlighted the 42-yard line and painted "42" on the field. They also retired the number for all of it's athletic teams. The school also collectively named 22 sports facilities the Jackie Robinson Athletics and Recreation Complex. The timing of the honors coincided with the 75th anniversary of Robinson's arrival on campus. All of this is terrific but it would have been ever better to see UCLA acknowledge the number 28 that Robinson actually wore for the Bruins.
On the field, UCLA took care of USC in their rivalry game 38-20. This Bruins team was a far different team than the Bruins team that started the season. Cal almost beat that team. Probably should have beat that team. If UCLA hadn't started the season so slowly maybe they would be in the hunt for that little playoff thing. Maybe they can still get there if they can take down Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship game. If they get there. They still have to take care of Stanford next week. If UCLA can keep playing like this, they should have no problem with Stanford.
The Lafayette Leopards took care the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the 150th meeting of the two Pennsylvania schools 27-7. Ross Scheuerman ran wild. 304 yards on 45 carries and 3 touchdowns.
Several SEC teams held a strange late season bye week. Florida destroyed Eastern Kentucky 52-3. Georgia thrashed Charleston Southern55-9. South Carolina hacked up South Alabama 37-12. Alabama annihilated Western Carolina 48-14. Auburn took apart Samford 31-7. That's five SEC teams playing teams they shouldn't be playing this late in the season. Some might even say that they shouldn't be playing these games at any time during the season. Way to prop up those records SEC.
It's Game Day. Go Vikings!
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