When Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway puts on tape of the Seattle Seahawks offense, he sees a whole lot of what he sees on the Vikings' practice field every day.

He sees an offense that mirrors what the Vikings do. He sees a scheme that is not overly complex from a formation standpoint. He sees a team determined to start by establishing the run, then working off of that with a play-action passing game. Familiar? Yes. Even more so because many of the Vikings' vets were here when Darrell Bevell – the Seahawks offensive coordinator – was doing the same job here through the 2010 season.

But that doesn't mean Seattle will be easy to stop.

"I don't know if it gives us an advantage," Greenway said. "You still have to go out and play and react. But we do have a better sense of what (Bevell) is trying to accomplish, having been around him so much – the type of scheme, the type of passing game he's going to utilize off what he's doing in the running game. And that play-action stuff. They're going to throw some (bootleg plays) at you, try to suck the linebackers up and throw over the top of you. All these things we know. But we have to go out and play the game."

Fellow linebacker Erin Henderson agreed. "You have a good idea of how they want to do things, what they want to get done," Henderson said. "But you won't know for sure until you go out and see their first 15 plays."

Despite the good numbers Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch has put up, the Seahawks have struggled to move the ball consistently and to score points; the team ranks 30th in the NFL in yards gained and 27th in scoring.

For the Vikings to make sure that continues they have to stop the Seahawks running game first. That's a goal that, considering the problems Minnesota has had stopping the run of late, won't be easy to reach.

But familiarity might breed defensive consistency.

"They are built very similarly to us," Greenway said. "I mean, the biggest thing for us is going out and playing in a very tough environment. We'll see if we can handle it or not. This will be a huge game for us."

Thinking of home

Henderson is from Aberdeen, Maryland, which is about 45 minutes north of Baltimore. He has a lot of family there, as well as some family that lives in the New York area. So he has spent a lot of time the past few days keeping in contact with people back home to see how they're dealing with Hurricane Sandy.

"They didn't get hit to bad in Maryland," Henderson said. "Just some high winds and a bit of rain, stuff like that. But I had some family in New York that got affected a little bit more. It was kind of devastating to see some of the pictures they sent us. Everybody made out OK, though."

Still, Henderson said it hasn't been easy to be in Minnesota while family out east dealt with the storm.

"You want to be there with them, and be there to support them as best as possible," he said. "But you have a job to do. You have responsibilities you have to tend to here. It's just a matter of trying to communicate as much as possible on the phone, make sure everything is OK."

A game of inches

It's not just last Thursday's game that is bothering Vikings punter Chris Kluwe. Halfway through the season Kluwe ranks 11th in the NFC with a 43.5-yard punting average and eighth with a 39.9 net average. Both are down from his career averages.

"I'd say mediocre," Kluwe said when asked to assess his season so far. "I'd like to, obviously, be leading the league in both gross and net. Unfortunately sometimes you don't punt well."

The difference between a good punt and a bad one? Less than you might think. Kluwe said he was rushing himself a little bit, trying to go a little too fast. "And my drop hasn't been super consistent," he said. "That's something to hopefully hone in on and try to get corrected."

Kluwe said a drop that is even an inch off can change a kick. "Or maybe the ball is tilted three or four degrees forward or three or four degrees back," he said. "That can change the entire outcome of the kick. It's a very small window that you have to hit in order to kick the ball well."