Written By Sam Ekstrom (ColdOmaha.com)
Photo Credit: Kyle Hansen
Mike Zimmer doesn’t like to get caught up in the rivalry aspect of the Minnesota Vikings’ upcoming meeting with the Green Bay Packers. Never mind the 111 all-time games between the teams, or the fact that they share a border or the fact that they’ve squared off twice in the past four seasons with playoff spots on the line in Week 17. No, Zimmer would rather play the underdog card when he has the chance and heap some coals upon the Packers, who’ve beaten the Vikings soundly each of the past three seasons in Minneapolis. “We need to beat them a lot more often for it to be a rivalry,” Zimmer said Monday.
Green Bay has won 10 of the past 13 meetings between these clubs, including a playoff victory on Jan. 5, 2013 with Joe Webb quarterbacking for the Vikings. In the past 17 seasons, Minnesota only managed to sweep Green Bay in the regular season twice: once in 2009 with Brett Favre at the helm; the other time in 2005 behind a pair of last-second field goals by Paul Edinger.
Green Bay has done it seven times in that span.
“I think everyone around the league knows it’s a big rivalry,” said quarterback Sam Bradford, who may get thrown into the border battle fire Sunday night as Minnesota’s starting quarterback. “They’re a model of what everyone is trying to achieve.”
The Vikings are choosing the flattery route, despite the fact that they usurped Green Bay’s division crown last year for the first time since 2010. Minnesota speaks as if they are the understudies still trying to win the lead in the school play.
Last season, they wore T-shirts that said “Beat Green Bay” in the days leading up to a Week 10 loss to the Packers at TCF Bank Stadium. While it was meant as a motivator, it came across as a pedestalization of the division’s alpha dog. “When I first saw them, I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s not us,’” said cornerback Captain Munnerlyn. “It’s another game, so just treat it like a normal game.”
Captain Munnerlyn on the infamous “Beat Green Bay” t-shirts before last meeting: “When I first saw them, I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s not us.'”
— Sam Ekstrom (@SamEkstrom) December 30, 2015
The Vikings gutted out a 20-13 win to clinch the NFC North – a distinction that doesn’t mean much to Zimmer, other than what it represented philosophically. “I guess maybe the only thing we take away was that we were able to kind of play with the big boys a little bit,” he said Wednesday.
If national pontifications have any bearing, the Vikings are still the little brother in the NFC North. Nineteen of 20 experts at NFL.com declared the Packers the most likely team to win the division, and betting lines have Green Bay favored by a couple points in Sunday’s prime time bout.
It will take a lot for the Vikings to upset the established order. Green Bay has been dominant for nearly a quarter-century with one Hall of Famer in Favre and another future Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Unseating them, not just for a season, but for an era, will require time, success and probably the emergence of a franchise quarterback in Minnesota. Teddy Bridgewater was supposed to be the man, but a dislocated knee the Tuesday before the final preseason game tabled any discussion of that leap being taken this year. “Really an ascending player,” said Rodgers of Bridgewater on a conference call. “I felt terrible for him.”
Even if the Vikings beat the Packers Sunday night in front of a raucous crowd, it will not be realistic to view the victory as a trend-setter. Whether it’s Bradford or Shaun Hill doing the winning, neither are likely to be in Minnesota for years to come as Bridgewater allegedly will – or was, before the knee injury. The Vikings have beaten the Packers eight times since the calendar turned to 2005 – and they’ve needed six different quarterbacks to do it. That’s the type of quarterback continuity you’d expect from a college program with graduating players.
Green Bay has enjoyed decades of stability with Rodgers and Favre, while some fledgling franchises are still awaiting their first-ever top-tier quarterback. “We’re very blessed with the careers of Brett Favre and Aaron,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Wednesday. “I’d like to think Aaron is only at the halfway point of his career, but only the Good Lord knows that.”
The Vikings hope not.
Minnesota, however, does have organizational momentum that could even make Green Bay blush ever so slightly. Their ownership group spends. Their GM has a good history of drafting. Zimmer coaches without meddling. The have a pristine new stadium. And their young core – especially on the defensive side – is full of promise. They’ve also got the benefit of being mid-ascent. After improving by two wins and then four wins under Zimmer, fans feel like the Vikings have yet to level off, which is the most optimistic feeling of all.
As the Packers would surely describe, it’s easy to rise to the top, but much harder to stay there. Green Bay crescendoed out of nowhere to win the 2011 Super Bowl, only to come short each year after.
Green Bay would rather beat the best teams in the postseason than worry about the Vikings because they’ve already conquered the tiny village that is the NFC North. Their eyes are set on greater cities.
Once the Vikings reach the point where they can safely look beyond the NFC North plebes, they can say they’ve swung the rivalry in their favor, but as of now, that is still an aspiration instead of a reality.