Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers: 5 Things Vikings Must Do to Win

The Minnesota Vikings come off of their bye week with an unenviable task: taking on the defending Super Bowl champion and undefeated Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football.

What's giving Vikings fans hope, as the purple head into Wisconsin Monday night, is that Minnesota hung in there with the Packers just three Sundays ago, losing 33-27 in quarterback Christian Ponder's debut as the team's starter.

Pulling off the upset is certainly a long shot, with the Vikings almost two-touchdown underdogs, but there is renewed optimism in Minnesota brought on by the inspired play of Ponder, and, as in any rivalry game, anything can happen.

If the Vikings are to pull of the shocker, here are five things they must do on Monday night.

Put Constant Pressure on Aaron Rodgers

In round one against the Packers three weeks ago, the Vikings defensive line did a decent job, getting four sacks on Aaron Rodgers and not giving him all day long to set up in the pocket. Having said that, all Rodgers did was go 24 of 30 for 335 yards and three touchdowns.

The guy is flat out dialed in right now, with a 129.1 quarterback rating and is the runaway MVP pick for the first half of the season. The game is easy for him right now, and he looks as in sync with his receivers as any quarterback ever has.

I'm not going to say the Vikings need to blitz like crazy because Rodgers will kill you if you leave him wide open options right now.

Minnesota needs to get big games from their front four; it's high time for Kevin Williams to show up in the 2011 season.

A surprise blitz or two might do well to knock Rodgers down, but the Vikings absolutely have to get pressure on Rodgers with their defensive front. We know Jared Allen will show up for the task, but we need big games from other five lineman as well.

Rodgers hasn't looked uncomfortable in a game all year. The Vikings need to make him uncomfortable, hurried and panicky. Otherwise, he's just playing pitch and catch with his wide array of receiving targets.

Someone in the Defensive Secondary Has to Make a Play

On paper it really doesn't seem like a fair fight: quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who's having a season for the ages, against the Vikings 30th ranked pass defense.

The Vikings get Antoine Winfield back this week, but are still without their other starting corner and best cover man, Chris Cook. Asher Allen has shown improvement over the last couple of weeks, and they will certainly need him to be at his best on Monday night.

The Vikings safety play has been pretty weak all season, and the back line will have to play better this second go-around against Rodgers and the Packers, or they'll be in for a long night.

The Purple could use a pick-off or two to slow down the Green Bay juggernaut. The Vikings have to win the turnover battle to beat the Packers, and if they can get a couple of interceptions, it would certainly help their cause.

It seems no defense has been able to land a punch on the Packers offense all season, and it would be fun to see how they would react.

Have Long, Sustained Drives on Offense

Vikings fans have been excited by the play of rookie quarterback Christian Ponder for one main reason: he's making things happen on third down. 

Unlike Donovan McNabb before him, Ponder seems to ramp up his urgency on third down. Ponder has been at his best when plays have had to be made to move the chains and sustain drives.

Keeping the high-powered Green Bay offense off the field for as long as possible is key to having any chance at beating the Packers.

The Packers secondary has been pretty soft the last few weeks, but much of that can be attributed to how much confidence they have in their offense.

The Pack may have been riddled by Philip Rivers last Sunday, but they also took two picks back for touchdowns.

Ponder should give them a steady diet of five-to-12-yard throws to Percy Harvin, Visanthe Shiancoe and Michael Jenkins and be on the lookout to dump off some safety valve throws to Adrian Peterson. If the chance for a long ball presents itself, fine, take a shot, but the less they ask Ponder to do, the better their chances will be. 

Adrian Peterson Has to Be the Best Player on the Field

The NFL in 2011 is a quarterback's league, no doubt about it. There's also no doubt that the best player in the league right now is the Packers' Aaron Rodgers. So, it would seem to make sense that the best way to beat the Packers would be to keep Rodgers off the field as long as possible.

Enter Adrian Peterson. The Viking's beast of a running back is having a fantastic season, especially when you consider how poor the offensive line in front of him is.

In eight games, Peterson has had a startling number of carries (72) where he's gained just two yards or less, and considering he leads the NFL in yards after first contact, it's pretty clear that he's not being given enough room to roam.

It's hard to ask Peterson to improve on his first game against the Packers, when he gained 175 yards and averaged over seven yards a carry, but he has to.

Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder will be playing on the biggest football stage he's ever been on in just his third start, so we'll have to forgive him if his eyes are a little wide.

If Peterson can break off some of his signature big runs during the game, it will take a lot of pressure off of Ponder, and it will also keep the Green Bay offense off the field.

Here's to hoping Ponder has the sense to keep Peterson in mind when pass plays are breaking down like he did against Carolina. Nothing can break the spirit of a defense like putting on a good pass rush and covering well downfield, only to have the quarterback dump it off to a running back for a long gain. And, what better running back to have to dump off to than Adrian Peterson?

Don't Get out-Coached and Play for 60 Minutes

Vikings Coach Leslie Frazier has had a rocky first half of his first full season as head coach. Since Percy Harvin took back the opening kickoff of the season 103 yards for a touchdown, pretty much everything that can go wrong has.

What's troublesome for Vikings fans and Frazier boosters is that he hasn't showed a lot of coaching savvy along the way. The play calling has been stagnant at best, and the decision making has been way too conservative.

Things as simple as when to use challenges and timeouts seem to have been hard for Frazier to navigate. 

The truth is that when your team isn't very good, all of your coaching decisions tend to fall under a worse light, and Frazier's team hasn't been very good. On the positive side, they look like they're getting better, which reflects very well on a coach whose team doesn't have a shot at the playoffs.

So far, Frazier's Minnesota Vikings haven't put together a complete football game. Many in Minnesota count the last game against the Packers as perhaps their best game of the year, a game in which they lost the third quarter 20-0.

It's been well-noted how many second half leads this team has given up, and they've just seemed destined to lose in some games. 

That has to stop on Monday night. You're not going to beat the undefeated, reigning Super Bowl champions by playing anything less than 60 minutes of football.