MINNEAPOLIS -- Initially, the Minnesota Vikings maintained the same approach on defense after Aaron Rodgers was knocked out of Sunday's game with a broken collarbone.
Whether it was Rodgers or backup quarterback Brett Hundley, Minnesota wanted to stop the run (Green Bay had 72 yards rushing), collapse the pocket (at points, Hundley was forced to throw under tremendous pressure) and get to the quarterback (Hundley was sacked four times).
But as the game wore on, Minnesota was able to key in on Hundley in ways that might have been more difficult had Rodgers been in the game.
“Well, obviously it’s not the same guy,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “We stuck with the plan for a little while after that to see what was going on. Then ... as we got up by two scores, then we kind of changed some of the things that we were doing.”
Rodgers’ absence in the Vikings’ 23-10 win didn’t just change the dynamic of the game. It changed the outlook of the NFC North. The Packers quarterback could miss the rest of the season, and Green Bay is no longer the clear-cut favorite to win a sixth division title in seven years.
Before Week 6, Green Bay had a 64 percent chance of winning the NFC North, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index, with the Vikings next in line with a 21 percent chance. If Rodgers is out for the remaining 10 games, the likelihood of Minnesota capturing its second division title since 2015 increases drastically -- to 53 percent -- according to FPI.
The Vikings expressed some disappointment about Rodgers' injury postgame. No one knows what it’s like to lose a quarterback (or multiple quarterbacks) better than the Vikings.
“I think he is the best quarterback in the NFL right now,” Vikings defensive end Brian Robison said. “You never want to see a guy get injured. You want to compete against the best, so obviously we want to compete against him. That is still a very good Green Bay football team that we were able to get a win against.”
The Vikings finished a three-game stretch against division opponents at 2-1, with wins over the Bears and Packers and a loss to the Lions, the game in which they lost Dalvin Cook for the season. Minnesota has won two in a row and sits atop the NFC North at 4-2. The Packers are also 4-2, but the Vikings currently own the tiebreaker.
The Vikings will get a chance to even out their record against the Lions on Thanksgiving at Detroit, facing a team that allowed 52 points to the Saints on Sunday.
Minnesota will also get another shot at the Packers on Dec. 23 and host the Bears on New Year’s Eve in the regular-season finale.
The path to a division title suddenly is a lot more manageable, especially with the way the Vikings have looked through the first six weeks. Statistically, Case Keenum is performing like a top-10 quarterback. The run game is clicking even in Cook’s absence. As expected, the defense is dominating and can always be relied on to bail the team out if needed.
The breaks, for a change, finally are going Minnesota’s way.
But to get to a division title, the Vikings have to stay out of their own way.
That starts this week when Teddy Bridgewater is eligible to come off the physically unable to perform list and likely will return to practice. At some point, if Bridgewater is ready to play this season, Minnesota will have to decide whether they stick with Keenum, who has helped the team to four wins, or go back to Bridgewater, who hasn’t played since the 2015 season.
The division is there for the taking. With a major nemesis out of the way indefinitely, the Vikings look even more like legitimate contenders.
“I’m not into the soothsayer stuff,” Zimmer said. “Obviously [Rodgers is] a great player. It’s different when he’s not in there. There’s no doubt about it, but it’s just the way it is.”