Ben Goessling, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Vikings' coverage fares well vs. Rodgers

MINNEAPOLIS -- Aaron Rodgers has faced Mike Zimmer's defenses three times in the last two years now, and the Green Bay Packers quarterback seems to be taking note of the Minnesota Vikings coach as one of the few defensive strategists he's yet to fully solve.

Rodgers had thrown for 656 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception in the Packers' last two games, which each had him wearing a baseball cap by the fourth quarter as Green Bay piled up 108 combined points. But facing a coach who's been able to stifle him on more than one occasion, Rodgers was never able to get the Packers' offense into top gear.

He completed 19 of his 29 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns Sunday, but the Packers finished their season sweep of the Vikings thanks largely to running back Eddie Lacy's 125 rushing yards (and Rodgers' own ability to gain another 34 yards scrambling). Rodgers has now faced Zimmer four times in his career -- twice this season, as well as in 2013 and 2009 when Zimmer was the Bengals' defensive coordinator -- and three of those games rank among the quarterback's 27 worst days, in terms of average yards per attempt.

"It was different playing against a Mike Zimmer team," Rodgers said. "Mike is a great football mind, and he had a great plan for us again. He had a great plan for us the first time [On Oct. 2], but we were able to turn turnovers into points. They put a lot on Xavier [Rhodes] and Captain [Munnerlyn] and Josh [Robinson]. Those guys tackled well, they covered pretty well and you've got to give them credit."

The Packers have thrived on the deep shots they've been able to take, particularly to Jordy Nelson, but the Vikings took those away Sunday, with a game plan that put safeties Harrison Smith and Robert Blanton in coverage over the top of Rhodes, Munnerlyn and Robinson (who played most of the game with the Vikings in nickel). Zimmer asked his corners to reroute receivers, and Rodgers wasn't able to find much downfield; he completed just four of the 11 throws he attempted longer than 10 yards, according to ESPN Stats & Information, and the 29-yarder he hit to Randall Cobb -- just behind tight coverage from Munnerlyn -- was his only completion that traveled more than 20 yards in the air.

"We just tried to show them different looks, confuse them a little and play tighter coverage," Munnerlyn said. "[Secondary] Coach [Jerry] Gray, and Coach Zim, they've been preaching it all week; 'They don't like guys to get up in their face and knock off their timing,' and that's what we did today. We just got up in their face and challenged them. We know they're great receivers. They've got a great quarterback, but at the same time, we feel like we're a pretty good secondary."

The danger with the Packers, of course, is that Lacy can punish defenses that opt to stay back in coverage, and he did that well enough for Green Bay to win Sunday. But teams that slow Rodgers down typically have done it by making him settle for shorter throws, and if the Vikings can pair their coverage approach with a better run defense and a more consistent pass rush -- they pressured Rodgers just 15.2 percent of the time, despite blitzing on 36.4 percent of his dropbacks -- they could have a solid plan for Zimmer's future duels with the quarterback.

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