Behind Enemy Lines: Ponder has chance to attack beat-up Packers secondary

As the Vikings prepare for Sunday's game with the Packers at Mall of America Field, we asked Tyler Dunne, the Packers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, to give us his up-close-and-personal scouting report on Green Bay. Here are four things you need to know …

1)Rookie quarterback Christian Ponder can have success against a banged-up Packers secondary.
Yes, the Packers are unbeaten and the defending Super Bowl champions. And yeah, Ponder will take the field Sunday with his offensive line at less than full strength – two starters missed practice Wednesday and two more were beat up. But don't think that there won't be opportunities for Ponder to take shots.

The Packers currently rank 31st in the NFL in pass defense, allowing 299.7 yards per game. New Orleans' Drew Brees and Carolina's Cam Newton each threw for more than 400 yards against Green Bay. And on top of that, the Packers secondary continues to have injury worries. Veteran cornerback Tramon Williams still hasn't returned to full strength after suffering a shoulder injury in the season opener. Safety Morgan Burnett played last week with a club-like cast on his broken right hand. And corner Sam Shields may be unavailable Sunday as he recovers from a concussion suffered in last week's win over St. Louis.

"On top of that," Dunne said, "as good as Charles Woodson is, he just turned 35. You factor that in with the injuries and there are openings for Ponder to take chances."

2)The Vikings won't likely have success in slowing down Packers star Aaron Rodgers.
Good grief. Rodgers' numbers are ridiculous right now. He's completing 70.3 percent of his passes, averaging 340 yards per game and has thrown 17 touchdown passes already. His weakest performance this season registers as a 28-for-38, 297-yard, three touchdown performance in a decisive Week 3 win in Chicago.

"Honestly, what he's done best in my eyes is he's found a way to control all the egos around him," Dunne said. "They have all these different receivers and an incredible tight end in Jermichael Finley. And they all want the ball. But Rodgers has simply thrown to the guy who's open. He has had a knack for finding the right mismatch in every game. And it's been a different story in every game."

In six games, four different Packers – Greg Jennings, Finley, James Jones and Jordy Nelson – have led the team in receiving yards.

3)The only chance the Vikings have of slowing Rodgers and the Packers receiving corps is by keeping them off the field. In other words, the Vikings must control the clock.
Dunne said Atlanta and Denver made concerted efforts to run frequently against Green Bay in hopes of running clock and keeping the Packers offense on the sideline as long as possible. Of course, that blueprint led to the Broncos being beaten 49-23 and the Falcons falling 25-14. But hey, maybe it's a strategy the Vikings can have more success with.

"If Adrian Peterson can have some early success and the Vikings can get a touchdown and force a turnover, they can give themselves a chance to hang around," Dunne said. "But you're going to have get takeaways. You have to. Because each and every game, Rodgers has figured it out and gotten on a roll. So it's going to have to be a lot of Peterson."

On the bright side for Peterson and the Vikings, Green Bay is far from invincible against the run. Rams running back Steven Jackson rushed for 96 yards on 18 carries against the Packers last Sunday. Two weeks earlier, Denver's Willis McGahee had 103 yards on 15 carries.

4)It may sound like a broken record by now. But the Packers, like every other Vikings opponent, are worried about containing Jared Allen.
Allen has had a sack in all six games this season and leads the NFL with 9.5 sacks overall. Even in a very ordinary performance Sunday in Chicago, he had a sack of Jay Cutler in which he forced and recovered a fumble that led to the only Vikings' touchdown of the night.

Now Allen gets a chance to take on Packers left tackle Marshall Newhouse, who has started the past two games after Chad Clifton went down with a serious hamstring injury. That's a mismatch Green Bay will have to account for.