World’s Best Preview: Packers-Vikings history lessons

The series: Including a split of a pair of playoff games, the Packers lead the series 60-54-3. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is 5-4-1 against Green Bay, including 5-1-1 in the last seven. Zimmer has led the Vikings to a 2-2-1 mark in his five regular-season treks to Lambeau; the Vikings had gone 0-4-1 in their previous five visits.

Green Bay is 0-3-1 in the last four games; it hasn’t gone winless in five games vs. Minnesota since coming up empty nine straight times from 1975 through 1979.

The last time: Plenty has been written about Minnesota’s run-heavy focus against Atlanta last week. In a 28-12 victory, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins threw the ball only 10 times. However, he’s torn apart the Packers in three regular-season starts: 375 yards, three touchdowns and a 145.8 passer rating while with Washington in 2016, 425 yards and four touchdowns with the Vikings at Lambeau Field last year and 342 yards and three touchdowns in the rematch. The three-game total: 1,142 yards, 10 touchdowns vs. one interception, and a 129.3 rating.

Red-hot Rodgers: Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has seven career games against Minnesota with a passer rating of at least 130. That’s the most in NFL history by a quarterback against one team. Zimmer, however, has turned the tables a bit since becoming Minnesota’s coach in 2014. In Rodgers’ first three games against the Zimmer-led Vikings, he had seven touchdowns vs. zero interceptions. In the last six games, Rodgers has seven touchdowns vs. two interceptions.

Video: Rodgers on home-heavy schedule

“Coach Zimmer has kind of come up with the double-A mug package that a lot of teams around the league have tried to adapt to his scheme,” Rodgers said. “He did it back in Cincinnati and obviously some of the guys he worked with there are doing it around the league. But he has been the innovator and then adapted as well as teams try to figure out ways to pick it up.”

Low-scoring win: Green Bay won 10-3 at Chicago to start the season. The Packers hadn’t scored so few points in a road win since knocking off the Jets 9-0 in 2010. The Packers hadn’t gone on the road to beat Chicago by scoring 10 or fewer points since 1932.

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