Aaron Jones has thought about what it would be like to score against the Green Bay Packers this week. Not that he holds any grudges or wants to upset the Cheeseheads. He just knows that it’s his job to score.
“If you’re not thinking about the end zone,” he said, “you’re thinking about the wrong thing.”
He plans to do a Lambeau Leap, even though he’s no longer with the Packers. He feels safe among the camo-clad Miller Lite-fueled crowd. There’s still a lot of love for Jones in Green Bay. Still, he said he’ll probably play it safe and look for purple in the crowd.
“Hopefully, there’s a Vikings fan,” he said. “That would be a pretty cool shot, side-by-side with the [Packers and Vikings] jerseys.”
The Vikings have to get him into the end zone, though. Minnesota has blown out the New York Giants on the road and the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans as underdogs. However, the Packers present a unique challenge. They have a new defensive coordinator running their talented defense, could start Malik Willis or Jordan Love at quarterback, and Lambeau Field is always a difficult place to play.
After Joe Barry failed to maximize Green Bay’s defensive talent, Matt LaFleur brought in former Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley as his defensive coordinator. The Packers have seven first-rounders in their defensive rotation and rank 12th in defense-adjusted value over average (DVOA).
“[Green Bay’s] front is really good,” acknowledged Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips.
“Kenny Clark, everyone knows about [T.J.] Slaton is a huge man in the middle there, and then you’ve got Preston [Smith] and Rashan Gary. Even some of the rotational guys, they try to keep those guys fresh, and you’ve got [Devonte] Wyatt coming in inside, you’ve got [Lukas] Van Ness, a couple first-round picks, and then [J.J.] Enagbare.”
However, Green Bay’s strength is its offense. The Packers rank third in offensive DVOA despite starting Willis the past two weeks. Love suffered a knee injury late in their Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil.
Green Bay traded for Willis late in camp, and he’s thrown for 324 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He threw for 350 yards with no touchdowns and three picks in three starts with the Tennessee Titans in 2022.
“I don’t think it’s being talked about enough what’s going on over there with Malik Willis,” said Brian Flores. “For Matt to go in his bag and be a West Coast guy and then turn around, and he’s got this whole zone read, RPO (run-pass option), counter read.
“I mean, that’s pretty impressive.”
Flores has to prepare for Love and Willis simultaneously because the Vikings aren’t sure who will start on Sunday. Love has been practicing this week and likely will be under center. However, Willis will start if he’s still hurt.
Willis’ run-centric ability contrasts so strongly with Love’s traditional quarterback play that Minnesota can’t prepare for Love and quickly adjust if Willis starts. Therefore, they must have two separate game plans.
“You essentially plan for two call sheets,” explained Flores. “One [if it’s Willis] and one if it happens to be Jordan Love.
“They propose different issues for different reasons. But without overloading the players, you want to at least give them enough to prepare for where if it’s one, we’ve got to do this, and if it’s the other, we need to do this.”
Lambeau Field alone is a difficult place to play. Minnesota caught the Packers when they were 2-4 entering Week 8 last year, beating them 24-10 in the game where Kirk Cousins suffered his Achilles injury. However, that is Kevin O’Connell’s only win in Green Bay. The Packers beat the Vikings 37-10 in 2022 and 41-17 two years ago.
The field can be slippery, making it challenging to play on, and the Vikings will trot out rookie kicker Will Reichard to the place where Daniel Carlson missed three kicks in September 2018.
“It’s always a ton of slipping going on out there,” said special teams coach Matt Daniels, whose unit ranks fourth in DVOA. “A lot of times, we recommend wearing seven studs (cleats) out there just so you can get a little bit more grip into the ground out there just because for that reason, the grass is usually very slick.”
Daniels isn’t worried about Reichard, but he’ll have him out there pregame judging the wind and the playing surface. After that, the Vikings await which quarterback leads the Packers out of the tunnel. Even with their success, Green Bay presents a separate challenge.
There are a lot of unknowns entering Week 4. However, we can count on one thing. Jones is pretty sure he will find the back of the end zone and some Vikings fans in the stands.
