The Thursday night football NFL schedule in Week 5 has an NFC north matchup with the Minnesota Vikings visiting the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field and the game starts up at 8:25 pm ET on the CBS channel and NFL Network as Aaron Rodgers and the Pack host Teddy Bridgewater and the Vikes and this is a big matchup within the division.
The Packers come into the game after a win against the Chicago Bears and they will visit the Miami Dolphins next and they are 2-2 on the season. The Packers rushing attack has not done much of anything this season and they have a favorable matchup with Minnesota in Week 5. The Packers have alternated losses and wins this season and they are about to play their third NFC North division matchup in a row against the Vikings. The team opened with a loss to Seattle before winning against the Jets and they lost to Detroit on the road before winning against Chicago last weekend.
The Vikings are hoping to have Teddy Bridgewater in the lineup and if he can't go, the team will use Christian Ponder instead. Matt Cassel is out for the season with an injury and Bridgewater is getting his chance now as a rookie. Coming into the season the Vikings had high expectations and they also expected to have Cassel and Adrian Peterson, but clearly things have not worked out that way.
Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon have been very solid coming in for Peterson and they helped the team win against the Falcons on Sunday and now they are back after a short week. Bridgewater had to leave that game with an ankle injury and with the short turnaround, he may not have had enough time to recover back. The Vikings have played well since the Adrian Peterson situation and they did not come into the season with high expectations after winning five games last season.
The NFC north is pretty wide open even with the Lions plying well, as they have shown in the past that playing on the road can be an issue. Everyone is 2-2 and the Lions are 3-1 and this game could be big for both the Vikings and the Packers come the end of the season. The Packers have had three divisional games in a row and they next will go on the road against Miami to end this three games on the road in four weeks stretch. The team has a bye in Week 9 and that comes after games against the Panthers and Saints.
