OLB Chad Greenway is having another solid year for the Vikings so far in 2009.  He has played in 7 games this season and he has 40 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, he has forced 1 fumble, has defensed 3 passes and he has 2 interceptions.  Greenway is a good all-around football player who is just as effective defending both the run and the pass.  The Vikings seem to be waiting for the right game to send Greenway blitzing a lot and it could be tomorrow in Green Bay.

The Minnesota Vikings (6-1) are on the road Sunday against Brett Favre’s former team the Green Bay Packers (4-2).  This game has a lot of hype going into it and Lambeau Field will be electric due to Favre’s return.  Favre loves the big stage and will have a lot of emotions flowing through him, but he seems to thrive in those situations.  I think Favre and Adrian Peterson will be able to do what they did last time against the Packers, where they put up 30 points.

The Packers have a very good quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, but they simply cannot protect him to save their lives.  Rodgers still puts up very good numbers, despite getting sacked nearly five times a game.  Jared Allen had 4.5 sacks last game against Rodgers and the Packers, so he will probably get a lot of double teams in this rematch.  That will open things up for other guys like Kevin Williams, Ray Edwards, and Pat Williams to attack Rodgers.  If the Vikings can shut down running back Ryan Gran, then they can really key in on Rodgers and the Packers will be in big trouble.  This game should be exciting and it will be interesting to see how the Green Bay crowd reacts to Favre, and vice-versa.  I think the Vikings will come out with another win in this one, as the Packers just can’t seem to protect Rodgers enough.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Minnesota Vikings 34, Green Bay Packers 31

The Minnesota Vikings will be without Antoine Winfield for the next 4-6 weeks due to a fracture in his right foot.  Winfield has played in 6 games this season for the Vikings and he has made 30 tackles, defensed 4 passes and picked off 1.  28-year old Benny Sapp will replace Winfield in the starting lineup and that is a huge downgrade.  Sapp has played in 7 games for the Vikings this season and he has 16 tackles and he has defensed 2 passes.  This injury will definately hurt the Vikings as Winfield is a force defending the run or the pass.

Two turnovers killed the Vikings in this game yesterday.  The first one was when Brett Favre lost a fumble in the 4th quarter that was returned 77 yards for a TD by OLB LaMarr Woodley of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  But the other turnover was the final nail in the coffin for the Vikings as Steelers’ LB Keyaron Fox returned a interception that bounced off a Vikings’ player 82 yards for a TD with only 1 minute remaining in the game.  If the Vikings didn’t turn the ball over at the end of the game they would have either forced overtime or they would have beaten the Steelers.  Brett Favre completed 34 of 51 passes for the Vikings yesterday for 334 yards with 1 interception.  The Steelers did a good job of defending the run as Adrian Peterson finished up this game with 69 yards rushing on 18 carries (3.8 ypc) with a TD.  Peterson also caught 4 passes for 60 yards (15.0 avg) in this game.  Sidney Rice had another monster game for the Vikings with 11 catches for 136 yards (12.4 avg).  Percy Harvin also had a solid game as he caught 3 passes for 42 yards (14.0 avg) and he also returned 5 kickoffs for 167 yards (33.4 avg) with a 88-yard TD.  The Vikings finished up with 386 total yards of offense in this game (89 rushing, 297 passing) as they held onto the ball for 36:58.

Linebacker E.J. Henderson and CB Cedric Griffin led the way for the Vikings’ on D with 7 tackles apiece.  The Vikings played pretty well on defense only allowing 13 points against a offense that is pretty high powered.  The Steelers finished up with 259 total yards on offense (106 rushing, 153 passing) in this game.  The Vikings are now 6-1 on the season.

The Minnesota Vikings (6-0) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2) will get together at Heinz Field and it should be a great game to watch.  The Vikings will likely still come out running the ball against the Steelers with Adrian Peterson who shredded the Ravens’ D for 143 yards rushing last week.  That should worry the Steelers a little bit as the Ravens had a better run defense coming into last week than they did.  The Steelers are only allowing 74.5 yards rushing per game this season but that is mostly because teams are having success throwing against them this year (200.7 yards per game).  Brett Favre has been outstanding this season (109.5 QB Rating) and he will likely have success against the Steelers’ D as long as the Vikings O-Line gives him time to throw the football.  WRs Sidney Rice, Bernard Berrian and Percy Harvin will likely keep the Steelers’ CBs busy deep.  On the short stuff Favre prefers to use TE Visanthe Shiancoe and Chester Taylor. 

The Vikings are allowing 248.5 yards passing per game and star CB Antoine Winfield will likely be out for this game.  Those two factors will lead the Steelers to throw the ball early and often in this game.  WRs Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Mike Wallace and TE Heath Miller will cause matchup problems for the Vikings’ D in this game.  But, the Vikings bring the heat in the passing game as they already have 21 sacks this season.  Ben Roethlisberger has been great this season but he sometimes gets careless with the football when he gets popped a couple of times in the game.  DE Jared Allen (7 1/2 sacks) is the master of the big play for the Vikings’ D so the Steelers’ #1 priority has to be to keep him away from Big Ben.  The Vikings have a big defensive line so they should be able to handle Rashard Mendenhall in the running game.

PREDICTION:  VIKINGS 27, STEELERS 24