The Vikings must avoid a ‘Chicago Choke’ against the Packers

While everyone else is talking about quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers’ stunning victory on Sunday night, the Vikings should know it was less miracle play than legendary choke on the part of the Chicago Bears.  Minnesota should also be careful to avoid the same result.

Both the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers are 1-0.

How they got there was by almost purely different paths, the Vikings using a steady diet of strict defensive execution and a few big passing plays to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, while the Packers’ used a combination of quarterback Aaron Rodgers heroics and one of the worst defensive collapses in league history.

The Bears’ absolutely dominated the game for the entire first half and well into the third quarter. They did this by taking away the Packers’ run game, not entirely but in any consistency, and by pressuring Rodgers into miscue after miscue in the passing game.

Offensively, Bear quarterback Mitch Trubisky executed new Chicago coach Matt Nagy’s stratagem perfectly, with a mostly outside running game, short pass patterns and flat routes.

New Bear linebacker Khalil Mack ran roughshod through the right side of the Green Bay offensive line, pushing Rodgers out of the packet where he struggled time and again to find Green Bay receivers downfield.

When Rodgers left the game with a sprained knee in the second quarter, it looked bad for the already disappointed Packer fans, who saw their hero also leave the field early last season and not return for the year.

But he did return.  And the Pack was down 20-0.

Using an increased tempo passing game and another slightly hobbled ballet performance by number 12, the Packers delighted the home crowd by scoring 17 unanswered points against a Chicago defense that suddenly was being fooled at every turn.

The Bears wanted to wait until the fourth quarter to trade punts for Packer touchdowns, watched as Chicago cornerback Kyle Fuller dropped a softball pick-six that would have salted the game away, and with just over two minutes left, let Randall Cobb take a fairly short throw into a cross-field, 75-yard game-winning touchdown.

Green Bay 24, Chicago 23

How do the Vikings escape this incredibly comic meltdown and avoid being the next “postered opponent” in the legend of Aaron Rodgers?

1. Use the same formula the Bears used to take a 20-0 lead. With running backs Dalvin Cook and Latavius Murray both short passing threats out of the backfield, and wideouts Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen sharp on shallow patterns, Minnesota should press the Packers with what they struggled with on Sunday night.
2. Use different options with an Aaron Rodgers “spy” defender. Having defenders like Viking linebackers Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks and good tackling corners like rookie Mike Hughes and veteran Xavier Rhodes, the Vikings will have an advantage against a less-than-usually elusive Rodgers.  If the Vikings can lay some wood on him, the hits will add up and speed up his game to error.
3. Keep feeding Dalvin Cook the ball in the second half. A Minnesota running game will be key to victory on Sunday afternoon.  Dalvin Cook, a native of Florida who has played a majority of his life’s football on natural grass in nice weather, will be in his element.  He showed us last week that he is ready to break a big game open on a missed tackle or two.

For all the pundits driving the Green Bay Packers up in their “power” rankings this week, it should be important to point out that the Vikings are coming to play them on Sunday afternoon, not the Bears.

If Aaron Rodgers plays–and the Vikings should plan on it–the team should concentrate on what Green Bay failed at before the Bears froze up on defense and gave Lambeau Field a Christmas-gift Packer comeback.

The Vikings should be at least as capable as Chicago in creating a lead against Green Bay, hopefully more than capable of holding it, and well aware of the consequences in failing at either job.