| Green
Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers looks to throw a pass
during the first half of an NFL wild card playoff football
game against the Minnesota Vikings Saturday in Green Bay. |
 |
GREEN BAY - Deep
on offense and scary-good on defense, the Green Bay Packers were
way too much for the Minnesota Vikings.
Maybe everyone
else in the NFC, too.
Aaron Rodgers,
Charles Woodson and the Packers reminded everyone of how dangerous
they can be when they're at full strength Saturday night,
overwhelming the Vikings 24-10 in an NFC wild-card game that was
never really close.
"Our defense
played great," Rodgers said. "Our defense tonight played
at a championship level and that's what you need in the
playoffs."
John Kuhn scored
two touchdowns, DuJuan Harris added another and Rodgers connected
with an NFL playoff-record 10 receivers as he threw for 274 yards
in his first playoff victory at home. Defensively, the Packers
(12-5) finally managed to contain Adrian Peterson and were all
over Vikings backup Joe Webb, pressed into service because of
Christian Ponder's triceps injury.
Peterson was held
to 99 yards — an improvement after gaining 199 and 210 in the
first two games against Green Bay. It was only the second time in
the last 11 games that he was held below 100 yards. Webb, who
hadn't thrown a pass all season, was sacked three times and off
target all night. His only highlight was a 50-yard scoring pass to
Michael Jenkins late in the fourth quarter, but it was far too
late for the Vikings (10-7).
"No
disrespect to Ponder, but ... it's about one guy and that's Adrian
Peterson," said Woodson, who played his first game since
breaking his right collarbone Oct. 21. "Our main focus,
whether it was Ponder or Webb, was to keep 28 (Peterson) from
getting off. And if we were going to keep him from getting off,
put the ball in the quarterback's hands, whatever quarterback it
was, we felt good about what was going to happen."
With a little
over a minute left, Packers fans began taunting the Vikings (10-7)
with chants of "Nah-nah-nah-nah ... goodbye." The win
snapped a two-game losing streak at Lambeau Field in the playoffs,
and sent the Packers to San Francisco next Saturday for an NFC
divisional game with the 49ers. The teams met in the season
opener, with San Francisco winning 30-22.
"A lot has
happened since we played San Francisco," Packers coach Mike
McCarthy said. "We're a different team."
This was the
third game in six weeks between Green Bay and the Vikings, and
second in six days. The Packers' loss in Minnesota last weekend
cost them the No. 2 seed in the NFC, along with a bye this
weekend, and left them looking — dare we say it? — vulnerable
going into the playoffs. But with Woodson back and Rodgers having
all four of his top receivers for, essentially, the first time
since Sept. 30, Green Bay looked like a team that could make the
kind of deep run it did two years ago when it won the Super Bowl.
Rodgers used so
many different options other NFL quarterbacks must have been
drooling. He went with Harris on Green Bay's first scoring drive,
mixed it up between James Jones, Tom Crabtree and Greg Jennings on
the second, and had 22- and 23-yard completions to Jordy Nelson
before Kuhn scored on a 3-yard run that put the Packers up 17-3
just before the half.
And pretty much
everyone got in on the fun on the last score, a 12-play, 80-yard
drive that chewed up more than 5 ½ minutes. Rodgers connected
with Jones on a 19-yard completion to put the Packers in Packers
territory, then connected with Harris for 14 yards two plays later
to reach the red zone. Rodgers threw incompletes on second and
third downs, but just when the Packers thought they'd have to
settle for a field goal, the Vikings were whistled for 12 men on
the field, giving Rodgers another crack at the end zone.
He found Kuhn for
the 9-yard score, and the game was all but over.
"That was
tough. We were down seven and they went and scored and they were
coming out of the half, too, getting the ball, too, and they got
it and scored again," Antoine Winfield said. "Can't do
that against the Green Bay Packers."
Harris, who
didn't play in the first game against Minnesota this season
because he'd only been elevated from the practice squad a day
earlier, led the team in receiving (five catches for 61 yards) and
rushing (47 yards on 17 carries). Jennings and Jones had four
catches each and Nelson had three before hobbling off late in the
fourth quarter.
"We have
some stuff to work on," Rodgers said. "We've got to help
our defense out more, close a team out like that. Tough test next
week back in San Francisco."
Hey, at least the
Packers are still playing. That's more than the Vikings can say.
Ponder was hurt
last weekend when Morgan Burnett slammed into him on a blitz.
Though initially thought to be an elbow injury, Ponder said it was
actually a deep bruise in his right triceps. It limited his
flexibility along with his power and, though it is better, there
simply wasn't enough time to recover with the short, six-day
turnaround.
After testing the
arm before the game, the Vikings decided to go with Webb, whose
only playing time this year was a couple of handoffs at the end of
a blowout of Tennessee in early October.
"I can play
with pain. The biggest thing is the loss of flexibility,"
Ponder said. "I couldn't get the ball in the position to
where I could throw it normally and lost a lot of power and
everything. It wouldn't have been wise to play."
It was the first
time Buffalo's Frank Reich in 1993 a quarterback had started a
playoff game after not starting during the regular season,
according to STATS Inc. And, in the first series at least, he
seemed to have caught the Packers off guard. That or they were too
busy trying to bottle up Peterson, who bulldozed them for 409
yards in their first two games, to pay attention.
With what seemed
like every Packers defender focused on Peterson, Webb converted a
third-and-3 with a 17-yard pickup. His 5-yard run four plays later
put the Vikings at the Green Bay 13. But Webb's first pass of the
night went into the ground, and the Vikings were forced to settle
for Blair Walsh's 33-yard field goal that gave them a 3-0 lead.
But the Packers
quickly settled down and Webb and the Vikings never stood a
chance. Especially with Peterson not allowed to roam free as he's
done against the Packers in the past.
"The energy
level was at an all-time high," Woodson said. "This
week, like last week, we buzzed around. But this week we made the
tackles, we didn't allow (Peterson) to get through the line of
scrimmage and get yards after first contact. We just kept putting
heat on them. That was the difference."