Clay Matthews and the Green Bay Packers kept their promise in Saturday night's 24-10 wild-card victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
The Packers held Adrian Peterson to (just) 99 yards on the ground after vowing all week the Vikings running back would not repeat his Week 17 heroics.
With Joe Webb filling in at quarterback for the injured Christian Ponder, the Vikings were a ghost ship, but Packers safety Charles Woodson said the switch under center didn't alter Green Bay's approach.
"No disrespect to Ponder, but bringing a guy into the box is not about Christian Ponder, it's about one guy and that's Adrian Peterson," Woodson told ESPNWisconsin.com's Jason Wilde. "Our main focus, we knew whether it was Ponder or Webb, was to keep 28 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."
Green Bay never masked its intentions. The Packers pursued Peterson from the first snap and never gave much thought to Webb's arm.
It would have been interesting to see what Ponder could have accomplished, because he orchestrated a string of clutch third-down passes in the regular-season finale. The Vikings sure could have used a few of those Saturday night.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
