Packers Dismantle Vikings: 3 Things We Learned

The Green Bay Packers absolutley man handled the Minnesota Vikings 42-10 under the lights on Thursday night. The Vikings struggled right out of the gate giving up two big touchdowns to Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson. The defense for the Packers put a strangle hold on Christian Ponder and the Minnesota offense, sacking Ponder six times and intercepting him twice and causing Matt Asiata to fumble once. This loss for the Vikings can't fall just on the shoulders of Ponder. The Vikings were terrible on all sides of the ball. They looked like a totally different team than the one that beat the Falcons last week, so what three things did we learn from this game?

The Vikings defense showed signs of promise.

The Vikings got steamed rolled, but the defense did a good job of keeping Aaron Rodgers inside the pocket and were able to get to him twice. They forced Rodgers and the Packers to punt five times in the first half. The Vikings defense allowed 320 yards of offense and kept the Packers to 4/11 on third downs, but they held Rodgers to under 200 yards passing. It was the turnovers on offense that really put them in a hole.

Teddy Bridgewater makes the Vikings better.

The Vikings offense was not clicking at all. Nothing they did looked clean. The offensive line gave no time what so ever for Ponder to throw, Corraderell Patterson was held to 2 catches for 8 yards. Ponder got sacked 6 times. The Vikings had three turnovers on three staright possesions, Ponder threw back to back interceptions and Assiata put the ball on the ground. The Vikings offense didn't even run a play on the Packers side of the field until three minutes left in the third quarter.

Packers offense is on fire.

Everything seemed to be coming together for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense. Rodgers finished his night 12/17 156 yards and 3 touchdowns. Rodgers has 7 touchdowns in the past 6 quarters and Thursday night Aaron Rodgers threw his 200th touchdown of his career. Rodgers' partner in the backfield Eddie Lacy didn't have too shabby of a night either, Lacy had 105 yards rushings on 13 carries with 2 touchdowns. It was Lacy's first 100+ yard game of the season, the prior 4 weeks he had yet to pass 50 yards on the ground. The Packers had the best Wide Recievers in the league through the first 4 weeks of the season, but they were not really needed on Thursday. Jordy Nelson caught 1 pass for 66 yards, but that 1 pass was for a touchdown while Randall Cobb had 3 catches for 34 yards and 1 touchdown.

The Green Bay Packer have been playing exceptional football these last couple of weeks and if they keep it up they could be tough to stop.