World’s Best Preview: Inside the Vikings

David Bakhtiari’s return to the practice field for the Green Bay Packers was good news on Friday the 13th.

The Packers will need strong games from Bakhtiari, an All-Pro left tackle each of the last three seasons, and right tackle Bryan Bulaga on Sunday. That’s because Minnesota’s defensive end tandem of Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen is one of the best in the business.

Griffen has gone from a 273-pound gunner on the punt team to a three-time Pro Bowler with three seasons of double-digits sacks. He’s got 12.5 sacks in 19 career games against the Packers. He’s a player long held in high regard by Bakhtiari, even though Griffen accused Bakhtiari of being a serial holder this week.

“I think it’s fun,” Bakhtiari said of their twice-a-year matchups. “We’ve built an interesting relationship over the past years. I’ve got an immense amount of respect for him. I’m excited for the time he eventually gets out of our division, if that’ll ever happen. It’s always fun going against him because the one thing with our relationship, we both know that we both bring it, four quarters, 60 minutes and it’s just a heavyweight battle. It’s fun. There are times we always lock eyes at certain points. We get in the game, give each other a little head nod. It’s like, ‘OK.’ When boxers get in the ring, it’s mano-y-mano. Let’s go. Let’s have some fun.”

Griffen battled some personal demons last season and played in only 11 games with 5.5 sacks. He had a sack and two total pressures last week against Atlanta.

Asked if Griffen had rounded back into form, Bakhtiari quipped: “No, he looks stiff, slow. Nah, Everson’s Everson. He always brings a lot of energy. He’s extremely explosive and plays his game with power, can be explosive in his ability to do it all. He’s one of those rushers that I’m definitely going to look back on and remember as being on the elite side, and with that you’ve always got to respect their game.”

Hunter is coming off a career season of 14.5 sacks. Including a sack against Atlanta, he ranks fifth in the NFL with 35 sacks since the start of the 2016 season. With six total pressures, his pressure rate last week of 13.5 percent was fourth among defensive ends, according to Sports Info Solutions.

“He uses his length very well,” Bulaga said. “He’s a smart player, too. He does a good job against the run. A year ago, he got paid a lot of money. It’s pretty evident that he’s earned it. He’s a really good D-end and got to pay attention to him.”

Hunter was a case of expert drafting by the Vikings. Hunter had just 4.5 sacks in three seasons at LSU, including merely 1.5 during his final season in 2014. Minnesota looked at Hunter’s 6-foot-5 frame and 4.57 speed in the 40 and made him a third-round pick in 2015.

“I just think he was inexperienced coming out of college,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “He didn’t have many stats coming out of college, but we saw what we thought was a lot of athletic ability and a great person that works real hard. He works his rear end off. He’s big, strong, long, fast and he’s improved with his techniques all the time. I guess the biggest thing is with Danielle is he just kind of cut it loose a little bit more. Initially, he was one of those guys that didn’t want to make mistakes.”

Safety first: The Vikings have six Pro Bowlers on their defense, including Harrison Smith. He might be the NFL’s best all-around safety with his knack for making game-changing plays from the box or in center field. A first-round pick in 2012 taken one spot after the Packers selected Nick Perry, Smith is the only player in the NFL with at least 20 interceptions (20) and 12 sacks (12.5). He had nine tackles and two passes defensed against the Falcons and has four career pick-sixes.

“He is an elite safety,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “First of all, obviously, he’s got the athletic ability and the tools, but he’s so smart and you never know where he’s going to be. He does an unbelievable job disguising different coverages, so he’s a dangerous player and one that we have to know where he’s at at all times.”

The other safety is Anthony Harris, who dominated the Falcons with two interceptions and a fumble recovery. In his fifth season, he made a career-high nine starts last year, when he recorded his first three interceptions.

“Anthony’s a very smart guy, very dedicated to the team and understanding the responsibilities of what we’re asking him to do in different parts of the coverage and run support and things like that,” Zimmer said. “I think he sees things quickly and then is quick to react. He continues to get better. He obviously had a big game last week. He’s always been a good player for us when he’s gotten chances to play.”

Capt. Kirk: When the Vikings signed Kirk Cousins in free agency last offseason, he was supposed to be the missing piece to a team that had reached the NFC Championship Game the year prior with Case Keenum at quarterback. Instead, the Vikings went from 13-3 to 8-7-1 and out of the playoffs.

Cousins took a lot of flak for the downfall. At this point, he might be back to being one of the NFL’s more underrated quarterbacks. After leading the NFL with a 69.8 percent completion rate in 2015 while with Washington, Cousins completed 70.1 percent of his passes last season. He turned those into 4,298 yards and a career-high 30 touchdowns with a passer rating of 99.7. For his career, he ranks second in NFL history with a 66.6 completion percentage.

So, while much of the focus this week has been on the Vikings’ run-heavy beatdown of Atlanta last week, Cousins is good enough to win games through the air. With Cousins doing the dealing, receivers Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs joined Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster as the NFL’s only 100-catch tandems. In last year’s tie at Green Bay, Cousins threw for 422 yards.

“They’ve certainly got playmakers,” LaFleur said. “They’ve got the run game, and they’ve got Thielen and Diggs and (tight end) Kyle Rudolph; can’t forget about him. So, they’ve got weapons all over the field. And then I know Kirk Cousins pretty well. I was with him in Washington. Got a lot of respect for him. If you let him sit back there and have time, he’s going to pick you apart, because he’s extremely accurate.”

Man in the middle: The Vikings have stud defenders at all three levels, with Griffen and Hunter on the ends, Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks at linebacker and Xavier Rhodes and Smith in the secondary. Sort of lost in the shuffle – as much as any 329-pound man can get lost – is defensive tackle Linval Joseph. He made the Pro Bowl in 2016 and 2017 and started this season with five tackles and a sack.

Any plan to run the football - something the Packers must do a much better job of than last week - has to start with keeping Joseph out of the backfield.

“He’s a stout, long-armed run defender,” center Corey Linsley said. “He’s enormous. He’s a really big dude. I don’t think he’s changed his game too much. It’s going to be a battle.”

And he’s athletic. He scored on a 64-yard fumble return last season. With his 31st birthday approaching, he wants to get back to the Super Bowl after winning one as part of the Giants team that shocked the Packers in the 2011 playoffs.

“I was like, ‘I could get used to this,’” Joseph said. “Now to see how hard it is to get back to that, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ I understand how players play 15 years and don’t even win a playoff game. I can see it now. But I work every year to try to get another one. I feel like if I get a Super Bowl for Minnesota, then everything I signed up for and promised, I did.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google