Previewing the border battle

The Minnesota Vikings (2-8) travel to Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers (5-5).The last time Minnesota went there was for the playoffs. This time it is a battle of 2 teams that one for sure and maybe 2 may not get in the playoffs.

Game Time: noon on Fox

Announcers: Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch with Erin Andrews on the sideline

Las Vegas Odds: Green Bay by 5. I listened to talk radio this week and the feeling in Vegas is when Aaron Rodgers is out the point spread is down 6-7 points per game.

VIKINGS-PACKERS SERIES

This will be the 107^th meeting between these 2 franchises with Green Bay leading 56-49-1. The Vikings have not won in Green Bay since 11/01/09.

ADRIAN PETERSON INFO

This meeting will be AP’s 14^th time facing the Packers. In the first 13 Peterson has averaged 115.5 yards which is the most by any one player in the league that faces the Packers defense.

This game will be Adrian’s 100^th game in his career.  Peterson thus far in his career now qualifies to be third all-time in average yards per game. Jim Brown leads with 104.3 followed by Barry Sanders 99.8 and then Adrian comes in third with 98 per game. What great company he finds himself in and he is young yet.

BIG DAYS VS GREEN BAY

-Jared Allen had 4.5 sacks on 10/05/09 vs Green Bay

-Cordarrelle Patterson tied an NFL record with a 109 kickoff return for a TD the last time these teams met in Minnesota

-Adrian Peterson ran for 210 yards in week 13 in 2012

-Everson Griffen had 3 sacks vs the Packers on 12/30/12

- Blair Walsh kicked a 29 yard field goal in the last game of the 2012 regular season that help beat the Pack and send the Vikes to the playoffs

-Jarius Wright caught a 65 yard pass from Ponder on 12/30/12 which is the longest catch by Wright in his career.

VIKINGS MISCELLANEOUS INFO

This has been a tough year but one thing that stands out is the number of penalties that have been called on the Vikings.  Indianapolis is number one with only 41 called and Minnesota has been called 38 times.

Vikings safety, Andrew Sendejo has led the team the last 2 weeks in tackles. He had 17 vs Washington and then last week in Seattle he finished with 12.

VIKINGS-PACKERS STATS

There are a ton of stats so I wanted to look at just a few that caught my eye. Minnesota averages 24 points per game and Green Bay averages 25.8. In a year when Minnesota is 2-8 and see the team able to score just helps the frustration of what went wrong.

-Minnesota averages 318 yards per game while Green Bay is averaging 418.

-Each team has given up 23 sacks.

-Minnesota gives up 32 points per game while the Packers are giving up 23.9. This said it should be a high scoring game.

-Packers rookie running back, Eddie Lacy is 7^th in the league with 696 yards.

Final thoughts on the game

Christian Ponder gets the call to start Sunday so we will see how he handles overcoming a terrible 2^nd half last week in Seattle. It will be strange no to see Aaron Rodgers running the Packers offense so I will be interested to see how the Vikes defense does against the 3^rd stringer. Adrian is dinged up but I still expect him to be out there. I wrote earlier in the week do we want the team to be a spoiler or lose the rest? I would like to see Minnesota beat Green Bay because it would be just one week where Vikings fans could have fun with the enemy.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick