Minnesota Vikings vs Green Bay Packers: Week 2 review and grades
What grades were earned during the 112th matchup of the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers? And what might happen against Carolina in week 3?
Trading a first round draft pick for a former Heisman Trophy winner who has battled 2 serious injuries, and whose potential never seemed to full materialize in the NFL seemed like a reach to many in the analyst community. It was considered a desperate reach and a blind faith prayer, even though Sam Bradford was the best player available in a thin crop of players capable of being an NFL starting QB.
Sometimes blind faith gets repaid tenfold. On Sunday a QB who has only been a Viking for 14 days
out dueled a QB who has been an almost untouchable standard of QB for over a decade. In every statistical category Sam Bradford looked every bit the top draft pick he was touted to be, as he walked all over Aaron Rodgers statistics en route to throwing for more yards than any other Vikings QB in their debut game.
The Green Bay Packers saw their last lead dissipate with 10:14 remaining in the second quarter and the Minnesota Vikings never looked back. It was a tense fight back and forth as the Vikings punted a half-dozen times, and it seemed the Packers turned the ball over almost a half-dozen times. Almost if not more painful as the final interception by Trae Waynes was, Mike Mccarthy”s choice to go for it on 4th and 2 instead of going for an almost sure field goal, turning the ball over and providing the 3 point margin that separated a Viking win from OT and who knows what else would have happened in the extra frame.
The only dark cloud looming over the Minnesota Vikings camp, is the injury to Adrian Peterson and even that comes with a silver lining. The injury that people feared could have been the Minnesota Vikings second season ending knee injury of the year was only minor, and will require a minimal amount of recovery time. At least the loss of Peterson is cushioned by the fact that Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon are more than capable of shouldering the load until AP can make it back on the field.
Border battle 112 was far from a perfect showing by the Minnesota Vikings by any means. It was though, an indicator of a team with a lot of grit and determination. Going in to the last Green Bay Packer drive, this drive had the feeling of many other Green Bay Packer drives that were orchestrated by Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre before him, where somehow more often than not those drives end in touchdowns it seems. In the end it was retribution for Trae Waynes, sealing the Minnesota Vikings victory with an interception.
Every week I will look at my keys to the season and grade how we fared in those categories. Let’s start with offense.