Packers' Run Game Leads Green Bay to Victory over Vikings

With only a handful of games left in the 2014 regular season, the Green Bay Packers entered Sunday's match against the Minnesota Vikings with very little margin of error allowed for the remainder of the year.

Only a couple weeks ago, the Packers wouldn't have even qualified for a wild-card spot. Before their match with the Vikings, they had climbed back up the NFC ladder, earning a would-be wild-card spot, and they were tied with the Detroit Lions atop the NFC North.

Putting up a 24-21 victory in Minnesota, Green Bay swept the Vikings on the season. Detroit, who held the division tiebreaker due to their early-season victory over the Packers, managed to go down 34-9 to the New England Patriots, one of the hottest teams in the league, who also happen to play in Green Bay next week. 

It was official: For the first time this season, the Green and Gold had their first true lead of the NFC North on the year.

Just before the game, the team made a significant announcement: Outside linebacker Nick Perry was indeed going to miss the match. Perry, a full-time starter a season ago, came off the bench early on as the newly acquired Julius Peppers was added to the starting lineup.

Then, when Clay Matthews was moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker in recent weeks, Perry was added back as a starter as his replacement on the edge.

The question now became if the Packers would continue to use Matthews inside with Perry gone. Since the Matthews move, the Green Bay defense has vastly improved aesthetically, and on paper, it was only allowing 17 points per game during the stretch.

That was enough to keep the Packers from messing up the mojo of the emerging defense apparently, as the team stuck to its plan of previous weeks by starting Matthews inside. Wes Hodkiewicz of the Green Bay Press-Gazette noted that Mike Neal, who was re-signed this offseason, started in place of Perry.

"

Mike Neal starts in place of Perry. Matthews still at ILB with Hawk

— Wes Hodkiewicz (@WesHod) November 23, 2014"

In the end, the defense performed fairly average, a regression relative to recent weeks, allowing the Vikings to crack 100 yards on the ground—but not allowing an individual to do so while keeping rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater at a 79.8 passer rating. The defense didn't win or lose the match for Green Bay despite a missing starter.

Offensively, at least coming into the game, there were no questions. Everyone expected quarterback Aaron Rodgers to put up good numbers against the Vikings, as he had done in the past. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Rodgers had completed 70 percent of his throws in seven consecutive games against Minnesota while only turning the ball over once.

The seemingly lone doubter was Bleacher Report's Darren Page, who noted Rodgers' statistical drop-off when facing a Mike Zimmer-coached defense.

"

The Rodgers vs. Zimmer sample only comes from 3 games, but here you go: pic.twitter.com/uzzqqXfevC

— Darren Page (@DarrenPage) November 23, 2014"

Rodgers did have a nice game despite the fact that it was "below average" compared to his recent efforts. He completed 19 of 29 passes for two scores, threw no interceptions and only took one sack. One of the touchdowns, an across-the-body heave to an open Richard Rodgers which put Green Bay up 14-7, was SportsCenter-worthy.

"

Alright, so that was ... A fallaway TD pass by Aaron Rodgers? #QBJordan

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) November 23, 2014"

He kept the Packers in the game, but the star of the night was the other man in the backfield: Eddie Lacy.

Prior to his emergence in TCF Bank Stadium, Lacy had only ran for more than 69 yards once in his 2014 campaign, which was a 105-yard result against the Vikings when they had played in Lambeau Field earlier in the season. His season-high for carries was 17 against the Chicago Bears in a 38-17 win.

This time around, Minnesota saw even more of the Alabama product than it could have imagined. In a tight game, the Packers and head coach Mike McCarthy continued to go to the run, netting the back 25 carries for 125 yards, both a new season high. He also averaged five yards a carry, which had only been eclipsed three other times this season.

He had only seen more volume of carries in one other game as a professional, the late-October matchup against the Vikings in 2013 when he had 29 tallies. The last time he cracked the 125-yard mark was December of last season against the Dallas Cowboys.

Not only did Lacy have production on the ground, though; he also took in a score on one of his two catches of the night. In total, he accounted for 27 touches, 138 yards and 12 points, more than the deciding factor of the three-point victory.

If Lacy didn't step up to the plate and come away with a peak performance, the Packers may not be heading home with a victory at the moment. In a tight NFC North race, one which may come down to tiebreakers aplenty, losing a divisional game before entering a match against one of the most talented squads in the NFL was the last thing Green Bay needed.

The offensive line deserves a fair slice of credit for its performance too. With two potential Pro Bowlers in rookie center Corey Linsley and guard Josh Sitton and two solid bookends in David Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga, this is likely the best offensive line in the Rodgers era. Even when right guard T.J. Lang missed a few reps due to an ankle injury, reserve guard Lane Taylor held his own.

With the ground game now established, the Packers have hope entering next week's battle with the Patriots. Against the 9-2 AFC leaders, Green Bay will need to put together both the run and pass game to continue its hot start, winning seven of its last eight after starting out of the gate at a slow 1-2 mark.