The Persistent Packers

By Joshua Walls

After a not so great game against the reigning NFL champion New York Giants last week, the Packers certainly showed everyone around the NFL their true colors this past week against the Minnesota Vikings.

Early on, it didn’t look too bright for Green Bay Packers, as they ended the first half down 14-10 with Adrian Peterson only touching the surface of what was going to come for the rest of the game.

Although Aaron Rodgers did not put on a spectacular performance, he certainly outplayed the opposing quarterback, Christian Ponder. Ponder looked horrible, throwing interceptions that led to meaningful field position that led to the Packers scoring.

AP Photo/ Tom Lynn

Adrian Peterson was absolutely amazing, setting a career record of an 82-yard run.  Peterson rushed for 210 yards. He is slowly but surely climbing the ranks of greatest running backs of all time. Even though Peterson was as consistent as usual, his quarterback is still relatively unpredictable.

The defenses on both ends were great.  The Vikings held A-Rod in check for a majority of the game, while holding the Packers to only 23 points, which is a difficult task to accomplish. Green Bay’s defense was amazing, although future Hall of Fame candidate, Adrian Peterson ran all over the team.  Outside of Peterson, they kept Christian Ponder contained and the D-Line gave Minnesota O-Line too much to handle.  Davon House played a spectacular game with tight coverage that forced many incompletions.

With the great performance of the Packers, they now move to first place ahead of the Bears in the NFC North Division.  Mike McCarthy had a few words for his team’s new ranking, “Next week we need to be the Lions, that’s where I’m at.”

The Green Bay Packers have had a great season thus far and look to be getting better in tough game situations.  It will be interesting to see how well they can match up against the Lions and their talented core of young players next week.