A 3-Peat for Game Two on Wildcard Saturday

Wildcard Saturday in the NFL Playoffs will feature a 3-peat. The 10-6 Minnesota Vikings will go to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to play the 11-5 Green Bay Packers. The teams split the season winning their home games, so this is the rubber match. First let’s say congratulation to Adrian Peterson for a great season, just 9 yards short of Eric Dickerson’s record. Wow.

The Packers started the season 2-3, and then went 9-2 to win the NFC Central title. I don’t think that is any real surprise but the Packers did that with a ton of injuries. The game plan should be put eight in the box and make Christan Ponder beat them with his arm. One side-note the Vikings are 0-3 at Lambeau field when Peterson goes over 100 yards rushing. I don’t think the Packers will let A. Peterson run wild, so expect them to stack the line and make Ponder play. The Packers will get Charles Woodson back and having Clay Matthews ready to go should help the defense. The Packers offense will get a boost as well as Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson will be ready to play on Saturday.

The Minnesota Vikings won their last four games of the season averaging 29 pts a game and Peterson rushed for 651 yards in those games. The game plan is easy; just give the ball to Peterson. Ponder may not be a Brett Favre, but he doesn’t need to be. Ponder only needs to take care of the football and make a few plays to keep the Packers offense off the field. The Vikings defense has been playing their tails off the last month and I don’t see any reason for that to change.

The problem for the Vikings isn’t the Packers, They can with Green Bay. The deal is old man winter. The last four games for Minnesota where played in nice weather or in a dome. Ponder has never played in real cold weather and at the start of the game the Temperature in Green Bay will be 16 with an 8 mile hour wind. That is cold. I think the Packers win game three and move on in the playoffs.