Battle For the Border: Favre Returns

Favre-aggedon II is upon us.  The Minnesota Vikings will play the Green Bay Packers at the House that Favre built tomorrow.  After 16 years, or roughly 3/4 of my life Brett Favre was a Green Bay icon and built his legend in green and gold.  He's already played, and beat, the Pack once but that was at Minnesota.  This one will be the first game in Brett Favre's career that he will be in the visiting locker room at the Lambeau. 

However beyond all of the Brett Favre talk this game is much more important for different reasons.  The Vikes sit at 6-1 and the Packers are at 4-2.  If the Pack win that will put them at 5-2 and us at 6-2, only a half game ahead.  However if we win we will be 7-1 and they will be 4-3 with us basically 3 games up and we would have the season sweep of Green Bay.  I think if we can win that would almost eliminate Green Bay from the divisional race.  Not to mention we would have huge bragging rights over Green Bay with a sweep and Favre could stick it to Ted Thompson just a little bit harder.  We would also be 4-1 on the road and the majority of our road games would be behind us.

After this week we have a much needed bye.  From there we launch into a relatively easy schedule.  We have the Lions at home, Seattle at home, and the Bears at home.  Those are three winnable games.  From there we go to Arizona, home for the Bengals, at Carolina, at Chicago, and home for the Giants.  Of those five at Chicago and home for the Giants stick out to me the most.  At Chicago will be the first truly cold game of the year for Favre and home for the Giants could (hopefully) have home field advantage implications.  Honestly though I really hope we can go 8-0 at home this season.  If the Bengals are for real that game against them that we all penciled in as a "W" at the beginning could be a real tough test.

But back to this week, a win this week would be our best win on the road all season.  It would be the first winning team we've beaten on the road this season.  Green Bay's O-line is down big time and we need to exploit that.  I also think we need to let Adrian Peterson take over this game.  We need to stuff the ball down the Packer's throats.  We have underused AP all season and I believe it came back to bite us in the you know what last week.  I want at least 25 carries and about 3-5 catches for 28 and I want Chester to be more involved in the short passing game as well.  I know he made that mistake last week but he's a gamer I think he can bounce back in a big way.

On the outside, I don't think any of their DB's can cover Sidney Rice.  I think he's too big and physical for Harris or Woodson though I do believe Woodson would have more luck.  I also don't believe they have answer defensively for Percy Harvin.

On defense well our secondary will have to play lights out, a performance similiar to last week would do.  I want to see more Asher Allen that kid looked good out there.  As far their running game I am not totally worried about that as I think we can shut that down.  We need to get to Rodgers quickly, he needs to be under constant pressure.

If we can do all, or most of that I like our chances.  Overall I think we are the more talented football team but that doesn't always equate to wins.  Green Bay will be pumped up and it will be emotional there.  But for as much talk as there is about Favre being able to keep his emotions in check I think it's equally important for Green Bay to keep their's in check.  Either way I am pumped for this game and I think we have a good shot at sweeping Green Bay for the first time in a long while. 

Skol Vikings.