Minnesota Vikings: 10 Things We Learned about the Vikings This Week

The Minnesota Vikings invaded Lambeau Field for a Monday night matchup against the unbeaten Green Bay Packers. 

Coming off a bye week, the Vikings had plenty of time to rest up, get healthy and prepare for the Packers. In the first game at the Metrodome, the Vikings had held Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to their smallest margin of victory of the season.

After leading the Vikings to a road win over the Panthers two weeks ago, there was a lot of excitement surrounding Christian Ponder and the Vikings. Perhaps, there was even a chance that the Packers, with the 31st-ranked defense against the pass, could be ripe for an upset.

Unfortunately, the Packers were not going to have anything to do with an upset at home. They dominated offensively, defensively and on special teams to soundly defeat the Vikings 45-7.

Here are 10 things we learned this week.

Three-and-Outs Are Not Limited to Donovan McNabb

One of the issues the Minnesota Vikings had early in the season was the inability to sustain a drive on offense. Too many times, Donovan McNabb and the offense would start their first drive of the game with a three-and-out having to punt.

Opening the Monday night game against the Packers, Christian Ponder opened the game in the worst possible way.

A Mason Crosby touchback was followed by a Minnesota three-and-out, forcing the Vikings to punt.

A 52-yard punt by Chris Kluwe would result in an 80-yard return for a touchdown by rookie wide receiver Randall Cobb, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead with less than two minutes gone in the game—and Aaron Rodgers had not even touched the ball yet.

If the Vikings were going to have any chance to defeat the Packers, they needed some, clock-draining, sustained drives that kept the ball out of the hands of Aaron Rodgers.

Unfortunately, the Vikings opened the second half in the same manner—another three-and-out.

Adrian Peterson Is Still Not Good Enough To Play on 3rd Down?

If Adrian Peterson is the best running back in the NFL, why does offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave continue to take him off the field on third down?

In the opening drive, on a 3rd-and-2, Musgrave pulled Peterson off the field and called for a pass play that resulted in an incompletion and a fourth down.

Musgrave has got to find a way to keep Peterson on the field more often and find a way to get him more involved in the passing game.

Aaron Rodgers Owns the Vikings

The single-most reason the Packers are undefeated is due to the play of Aaron Rodgers. With his ninth consecutive game with a triple-digit passer rating, Rodgers is playing better than anyone in the NFL right now.

Even with that said, Rodgers seems to enjoy playing against Minnesota. Since replacing Brett Favre in 2008, Rodgers is 5-3 against the Vikings and 3-1 at Lambeau Field. In those games, the Packers have scored an average of 29.6 points per game.

In Monday night's game, Rodgers dissected the Vikings secondary completing 23-of-30 passes for an efficient 250 yards and four touchdowns.

There is a bright side—the Vikings do not have to face Rodgers again until next season.

Asher Allen Is Not a Starting Cornerback

Asher Allen has been thrust into the starting lineup due to Antoine Winfield's injury and Chris Cook's brush with the law. 

Starting his fourth game this season out of necessity, Allen has struggled in coverages. Against Aaron Rodgers, who's the best quarterback in the league right now, he looked woefully over matched.

The Minnesota secondary has been a weakness for the team for several years and is very much in need of a total overhaul.

Until then, get used to seeing the back of No. 21 chasing after the opposing wide receivers after getting burned.

The Vikings Do Not Have an Offense That Can Come Back

After allowing the Green Bay Packers to open the game with a two-touchdown lead in less than 10 minutes, the Vikings settled down and held the Packers to only a single field goal over the last 20 minutes of the first half.

The problem is the Packers opened the second half with a nine-play touchdown drive that included converting a 4th-and-2 to keep the driving going.

The problem is that the Green Bay Packers held the Vikings scoreless for the first 37 minutes of the game. By the time Adrian Peterson scored the Vikings lone touchdown, it was not nearly enough to change the momentum of this game.

Christian Ponder Is a Rookie

The Christian Ponder hysteria took a bit of a hit on Monday night.

The Vikings tried a little trickery midway through the second quarter. On a 2nd-and-4 from their 49-yard line, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave called for a flea flicker. The problem was the Green Bay defense was not fooled, and Ponder forced a pass to Devin Aromashodu who was double covered—the result was a Tramon Williams interception.

Ponder also struggled with what the Packer defense threw at him. Often he tried to keep the play alive by scrambling with the ball, unfortunately more times than not, the results were not positive.

Given time, and some more experience, Ponder will learn how to safely get rid of the ball. He finished the game completing 16-of-34 passes for only 190 yards with the one interception.

Musgrave needs to work some of that same magic on Ponder like he did with Matt Ryan while the quarterbacks coach in Atlanta.  

Jared Allen Is an Animal

Jared Allen went into the Green Bay game as the NFL leader in sacks. 

It was obvious the Packers had a plan to slow down Allen. Facing double teams and constantly being chipped by an additional blocker, Allen was able to get to Aaron Rodgers once, adding to his league-leading sack total.   

You Can Slow Down Adrian Peterson, but You Cannot Stop Him

The only thing that seems to stop Adrian Peterson is his offensive coordinator.

The last time the Vikings and Packers met three weeks ago, Peterson ended up with 175 yards on 24 carries.

In Monday night's game, Peterson had 51 yards on only 14 carries. The Vikings needed to give Peterson the ball more than 14 times. Ponder completed passes to seven different receivers, and not one of them was to Peterson.

I've said before in this slideshow, but it needs to be repeated—Adrian Peterson is the best back in the NFL, and being the best back in the NFL needs to touch the ball at least 20 times in a game.

Joe Webb Can Catch the Ball

The Vikings originally drafted Joe Webb as a wide receiver. After needing him to play quarterback last year, he opened the season as the Vikings No. 2 quarterback before being dropping to the third behind Donovan McNabb and Christian Ponder.

Late in the third quarter, with 2:13 left in the third quarter, Christian Ponder completed a nine yard pass to Webb for his first NFL reception.

At 6-4, perhaps this could be the start of a an illustrious career at wide receiver for Webb—then again, probably not.

The Vikings Are Not in the Same Class as the Packers

Aaron Rodgers had his way pretty much the entire game against the Vikings.

Sure, the Vikings were able to get to Rodgers a couple of times for sacks, but he and the Packers still finished with four scoring drives in the second half. The only time the Packers did not score was when they had Matt Flynn taking three consecutive knees to end the game.

Not only is Rodgers the best quarterback in the league, but each member of the receiving corp of the Packers is capable to stretching the field. The Packers have five receivers averaging more than 15 yards per reception, while the Vikings only have two.

Even though Green Bay has the 31st defense against the pass, it's more than offset by the No. 1 offense in the NFL, scoring an average of 35.5 points per game.

For the Vikings, the time is to start looking toward next season. The coaching staff should be looking at all of the talent they have on the roster, in order to get an idea what kind changes will need to be made for the 2012 season.