Vikings think they have a good plan for handling Green Bay's highly ranked defense

The Vikings' 27-20 win over the Chargers on Sunday ended a two-game losing streak, kept the team in the middle of the NFC wild-card race and seemingly reinvigorated an offense that had been fuming at its own futility.

Wide receiver Adam Thielen also hopes it set a precedent.

"It was a good showing of what the formula kind of has to be to win games," Thielen said Wednesday. "It's a little bit different league nowadays. You have to be able to be aggressive, and you have to be able to convert in aggressive situations to win games, because there's just so much firepower, offenses can score points. Especially this offense this week, obviously. They're one of the best in the league, and they can score points like the best of them."

Minnesota's 381-yard performance in Los Angeles came after a week of internal discussions about being more aggressive on offense. It showcased Kirk Cousins' efforts to get Justin Jefferson and Thielen the ball after a cautious passing game cost the Vikings against Dallas and Baltimore. Cousins threw for 294 yards Sunday, with 208 of them coming on 14 completions to his two Pro Bowl receivers.

The next test of the Vikings' offensive assertiveness comes Sunday against a Packers defense that ranks third in the league against the pass, posted the fourth shutout of the season against the Seahawks on Sunday and held Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson to a combined 511 passing yards over the past three weeks.

Only two opponents have scored more than 27 points against the Packers this season, and none have posted more than 264 passing yards. Even without cornerback Jaire Alexander and pass rusher Za'Darius Smith on injured reserve, Green Bay's defense — so often a liability during Aaron Rodgers' time with the team — has been an asset to an 8-2 team.

Aaron Rodgers misses practice with toe issue

"It's a credit to the depth they have, the scheme," Cousins said. "It's really a great team defense. When you look at some of the players, again, who I have a lot of respect for, who aren't playing, and then the production they have, it says a lot about their unit. Great challenge for us; we'll have to have a good week preparing to put a good plan together."

After their loss to the Buccaneers at home in the NFC Championship Game, the Packers replaced defensive coordinator Mike Pettine with Joe Barry, the Buccaneers' linebackers coach on Tony Dungy's 2002 championship team who'd most recently worked under Brandon Staley in the Rams' split-safety scheme that's inspired copycats around the league.

The scheme, in effect, dares offenses to win by committing to the run or sustaining drives without the benefit of big downfield plays, and the Vikings did it against Staley's Chargers despite the fact Cousins attempted just three passes of 20 yards or more. They thrived on intermediate routes that attacked the second and third levels of the Chargers' defense, with Cousins connecting on four of his seven passes between 10 and 19 yards downfield.

"It's just kind of seeing that formula, and I think there's areas that we look at in the film where we could have been even more aggressive, so that's exciting," Thielen said. "But at the end of the day, you can say it all you want, and you can talk about being aggressive and how that helped, but you still have to execute. Because it can be aggressive play-calling or aggressive this or that, but you've still got to go out there and execute and win, which is tough in this league. But that's what good teams do."

Thielen has battled plenty with Alexander over the past few years, but won't see him Sunday as the Pro Bowl corner remains on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.

His influence, though, shows up on the film Thielen's watched of Packers cornerbacks like first-round pick Eric Stokes or Kevin King, who became one of the goats of Green Bay's NFC title game loss but has enjoyed a resurgent 2021 season.

"[Alexander] still brings that leadership to that group," Thielen said. "He's probably around there. You can tell that the rookies are playing very similar to the way that he does and bringing that same energy and that passion to the game. It's a tough task for us, and again, that's what you look forward to in the league."

Should the Vikings emerge with a win over the Packers on Sunday, they'd be back at .500 with a renewed belief they can wind up in the postseason.

If they can carry forward the offensive approach they used against the Chargers, they might have a template they can use the rest of the way.

"As frustrated as we all were, that was kind of a rallying point, to say, 'For how frustrated we all are, we're right there," Thielen said. "The important thing now is yeah, we gotta win, but we can't change our mind-set. We can't change what we're doing. So that's exciting, too, to see guys out here working this week, making sure that guys aren't just relaxing.

"No, it's attack mode. We've gotta go."