Green Bay-Minnesota rivalry felt alive again last year. They faced each other three times playing close games in the first two matchups and then Green Bay imposing their will on a Joe Webb-led Vikings team in the bitter cold Wild Card game. This offseason the rivalry continued as Greg Jennings signing a multi-year deal with Minnesota and trashing the team after it added some major gasoline to the rivalry fire. It is unfortunate the teams have went in opposite directions this season as this primetime game does not have the same hype as believed in the beginning of the year.
It appeared Christian Ponder will be starting on Sunday night according to USA Today's Tom Pelissero with Josh Freeman battling concussion symptoms. This scares the living hell out of me. People can shit all over Ponder if they chose to, but you never want to face someone with their back straight up against the wall. Ponder realizes this could be his last chance to impress Vikings coaches and make a case to start until further notice. Ponder showed flashes of a good quarterback last season especially in the dome atmosphere. In 2012, Ponder had eleven touchdowns with only six interceptions at home including a completion rate of 63.7 percent. Further, his quarterback rating was at 89.4 which is 15 points higher than his road rating last year. Ponder winning this game for Minnesota will keep me up at night.
This game is still a revenge game of sorts of Green Bay. Last season, Adrian Peterson played some of his best games of his MVP season against the Packers. Minnesota's so-called Purple Jesus rushed for 210 and 199 yards in their two regular season meetings against Green Bay. The Packers defense has been talking about the last couple weeks how they do not want to hear the word 'soft' uttered when talked about their defense and now they have a stage to steal the show from everybody else. Currently, Green Bay has only allowed 474 yards of rushing this year which leads the league by almost 70 yards. They face a man who tormented them last year and should come out pretty pissed off ready to stonewall Peterson.Another man seeking revenge is Aaron Rodgers, and that might be the scariest thing about this Halloween season. An angry Rodgers is the best kind of Rodgers. When he feels like someone wronged him, he comes up the biggest. It would not surprise me if Rodgers' living room looks like Carrie Mathison's with all of the quotes from Jennings written on a cork board. He wants to absolutely show out for Jennings to see what he is missing. I expect Rodgers to have a big performance with the struggling Minnesota secondary as they are without their star, Harrison Smith, and the rest of the defensive backfield is a dumpster fire.
Andrew Quarless needs to play relaxed on Sunday. He has a bad case of the drops which could lead to some very angry Packer fans by late Sunday night yet this is the biggest game of his young career. Quarless does not need to necessarily have the game of life, but he just needs to look like he knows what the hell he is doing out there. At times, it seems like Quarless does not and that is a real big problem from your starting tight end. Quarless could have a big game though given the weak Minnesota pass defense. If there is one player to watch this Sunday, it is Quarless.
As for the game, I believe this will not only be a big performance from Rodgers, but a coming out party for Eddie Lacy. People completely disregard the Packers are sixth in rushing the football. Lacy will have a big game making people respect the new look Green Bay offense. I think this is a game where it is close heading to halftime and then the Packers blow the doors off Minnesota in the final two quarters of the game. Even though Minnesota is 1-5, I am still very excited for this one. Green Bay 35 Minnesota 17
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