Five Good Questions with Acme Packing Company

Once again, it’s time for our weekly exchange of information with the SB Nation site dedicated to this week’s opponent of the Minnesota Vikings. This week, it’s time for our annual trip to Lambeau Field with the purple taking on the Green Bay Packers, which means we’re talking with Acme Packing Company, SB Nation’s home for Packers football.

This week I had the pleasure of exchanging questions with Kris Burke over at APC. Once he has the post with my answers to his questions up over there I will put it up here for everyone to see, but for now here are the questions that I sent him and his answers.

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1) This will be the first game between these two teams in the Jordan Love era. Love has had his struggles so far this season, particularly over the past few weeks. How does the fanbase view him to this point in his first season as the full-time starter?

A lot of fans are willing to go to war for Jordan Love, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but dismissing any criticism thrown his way is a little much.

Yes, the team around him is young and (right now) not that good. The front office and coaching staff haven’t done a very good job setting him up for success.

Yet the accuracy and decision-making issues from his last year at Utah State keep popping up and aren’t necessarily improving. That is a concern.

That all being said, the vast majority of fans are rooting hard for the kid and a lot of that has to do with how the end of the Rodgers era played out the last several years.

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2) Love’s struggles seem to be detracting from a very good season from the Green Bay defense, which has only allowed more than 20 points twice this season. If you were an opposing offensive coordinator, how would you attack the Green Bay defense?

Simply run the ball and attack the perimeter off play action. The Packers continue to struggle against the run and more than likely will be down Jaire Alexander again on Sunday.

The Packers are very much a “bend but don’t break” defense and if the Vikings find success they’d be wise to keep doing what they’re doing. Joe Barry has been very slow to adapt to anything new an offense throws at him.

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3) It seems like the Packers deal with a ton of injuries every year, and this season is no exception. Are these injuries just perpetual bad luck for Green Bay or do you think there could be something more to it than that, like pre-season preparation or whatever else?

The “blame the training staff” excuse has always been a lazy criticism to me. Sometimes stuff just happens.

That said, something definitely isn’t right with Green Bay in terms of injuries. Starters saw more playing time in preseason than in past years. So the preseason prep theory isn’t quite as solid as it once was.

I still lean bad luck but something might actually be amiss with the training staff. It’s hard to tell when you’re not in the building.

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4) Give us one “under the radar” player on each side of the ball that you think will play a role in Green Bay’s success on Sunday.

On offense, it has to be Dontayion Wicks. Good things have happened when the rookie touches the ball but the Packers inexplicably don’t get him the ball often enough. Maybe Matt LaFleur wises up on Sunday.

Defense, I’d have to say Kenny Clark. For some reason he’s not talked about enough as one of the league’s best defensive linemen so to me he’s still under the radar. He will have a challenge with Garret Bradbury who hasn’t allowed a pressure this season.

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5) DraftKings Sportsbook has set the over/under for this one at around 44 points. Given that both of these teams average around 21 points/game, do you think there’s any chance they go over that number in this one or do you think we see a defensive struggle on Sunday?

If the game does go over, I’d be willing to bet the Vikings win in a blowout.

Consider it a vote of no confidence in Green Bay’s offenses. It takes everyone!

Thanks to Kris for taking the time to answer our questions for this week!