4 Key Vikings Players vs. Packers

Week 10 of the NFL season sees the Minnesota Vikings make their annual trip to Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers on the road. In an ultra-competitive division, this looks set to be a huge, almost season-defining game for the Vikings. Here is my picks for the four key Vikings players in this matchup.

4 Key Vikings Players vs. Packers

After a 6-0 start the Vikings are in danger of their season coming off the rails if they don’t find answers to their problems on offense immediately. The Vikings offense fell to new lows in front of the primetime cameras on Monday night. On trade deadline day, Minnesota turned to an old friend to save the offense and there’s nowhere else to start but the Vikings’ new quarterback.

Kirk Cousins

Kirk Cousins is back in Minnesota, with his old number eight jersey tasked with turning the Vikings offense into a competent unit that can back up the team’s elite defense and make them genuine contenders. Despite only being traded to the team on Tuesday, the expectation is that Cousins comes straight in and starts.

It won’t be easy turning up on Wednesday and then playing on Sunday but with Cousins’ experience, football intelligence, and familiarity with the scheme, he should be able to pull it off. The good news for Cousins is after Carson Wentz’ horror show on Monday, almost anything will be an improvement.

Justin Jefferson

A lot was said about Justin Jefferson before the Vikings brought back Cousins. Minnesota’s superstar wide receiver cut a frustrated figure at US Bank Stadium on Monday night. Poor quarterback play has seen Jefferson unable to have the affect on games that we expect for a season and a half now.

He was all smiles while the team was winning and he has always been about the team and winning ahead of personal statistics. But with back to back losses the league chatter was back to media personalities on the national stage calling for him to demand a trade. With the QB who helped him break all of those records early in his career back, everyone wants to see Jefferson back to being the dominant force we became used to.

Jordan Mason

Even with the change at QB the Vikings still need to follow the plan of leaning on the run game, and actually stick to it. Jordan Mason was effective on the ground against the Bills but only got six carries (at an average of 5.8 yards per carry), which wasn’t enough. With the teams only separated by one score until the fourth quarter there was no need for Kevin O’Connell to abandon the run game, especially with how much Wentz was struggling. O’Connell often speaks before and after games about the need to stick with the run, but he needs to actually follow that through and particularly feed Mason on a consistent basis.

The Entire Vikings Secondary

In fairness, this is cheating slightly by choosing a whole group as one of the key Vikings players, but the Packers offense is all about throwing deep balls to Matthew Golden and Christian Watson.

Last week one of the best cornerbacks in the league, Christian Gonzalez, had a torrid time with the aerial bombardment thrown by Jordan Love. The Vikings defense is going to have to find a way to limit the explosive plays that this Packers offense generates and it’s not going to be done in single-man coverage. It’s going to have to be a team effort which starts with pressure up front and the entire secondary working together.

Minnesota’s CBs have been decent in coverage this season, but it is an area where the team’s safeties have struggled. They are going to need to be at their best in this one.