The Green Bay Packers routed the Minnesota Vikings 24-10 to enter the second round of the National Football League playoffs on Saturday.
The Packers outshined the Vikings in all the departments of the game behind Aaron Rodgers and Charles Woodson in a lopsided game. They had a better defense, and their offense attacked the opponents quite frequently.
''Our defense played great,'' The Associated Press quoted Rodgers as saying. ''Our defense tonight played at a championship level and that's what you need in the playoffs.''
Rodgers completed 23-of-33 passes for 274 yards and had one touchdown against the Vikings.
Christian Ponder's triceps injury forced the Vikings to bring Joe Webb in his place.
"Yesterday he improved enough to where you began to think 'maybe' but today when we took him out it just wouldn't have been smart to play him. We made a decision to go with Joe," Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier told reporters.
Minnesota took a 3-0 lead with 9:26 remaining in the first quarter, when Blair Walsh hit a 33-yard field goal against the Packers.
In the last minute of the first period, DuJuan Harris had a touchdown and Mason Crosby added a point after touchdown to give the Packers a 7-3 lead to enter the second quarter.
With 3:25 left in the second period, Crosby kicked a 20-yard field goal to extend the Packers' lead to 10-3. John Kuhn increased the lead to 17-3 with a touchdown and Crosby had a PAT.
Nothing worked for the Vikings in the first half. The third quarter was the same for them, as Rodgers passed to Kuhn in the middle for a 9 yard gain and Crosby again had a PAT, to further increase the gap to 24-3.
The Packers' victory was almost ensured as they entered the last quarter with a huge lead.
Webb tried to instill some life in the game by hitting a pass to Michael Jenkins to the right for a 50 yard gain and Walsh had a PAT to cut the Packers' lead, but nothing happened after that, and Minnesota lost the game by 14 points.
Webb was like a novice, as he did not throw even a single pass during the season. He could not hit on the target and was sacked three times. He had a TD in the fourth quarter but it was too late by then.
''No disrespect to Ponder, but ... it's about one guy and that's Adrian Peterson,'' Woodson said. ''Our main focus, whether it was Ponder or Webb, was to keep 28 (Peterson) from getting off. And if we were going to keep him from getting off, put the ball in the quarterback's hands, whatever quarterback it was, we felt good about what was going to happen.''
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