A wounded offense woke from it’s slumber, a confident defense got humbled and the Green Bay Packers hope for a quick resolution to the NFC North Division title is on pause after the Minnesota Vikings walked off the Pack 34-31 at U.S. Bank Stadium before the second largest crowd to fill the venue. The victory pulls Minnesota back even at 5-5, still very much in the Wild Card conversation and they’re two and a half games behind the 8-3 Packers who were knocked off the number one seed perch in the NFC.
After a sluggish start, the offense got rolling in the second half and it set up a frantic, shootout finish with Greg Joseph booting a 29 yard field goal on the game’s final play handing Matt LaFleur only his second divisional loss. Minnesota got the first one in a surprise last year at Lambeau Field.
It was a wide receivers on parade afternoon with both Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins nearly matching each other pass for pass. Rodgers had his best satistical day of the year, completing 23 of 33 for a season high 385 yards and four touchdowns. The first went to tight end Josiah Deguara whose 25 yard catch was his first touchdown as a pro. Davante Adams caught a 10 yard strike in the third quarter and an 18 yarder in the 4th that pushed Green Bay in front 24-23.
Justin Jefferson was the star for the Vikings with 8 receptions for 169 yards and two scores. He was a booth review from a third tumbling to the goal line on a 56 yard hookup which led to Dalvin Cook’s one yard run for a 9-3 lead. Adam Thielen (8/82) got into the act with a 10 yard scoring catch where he made Kevin King miss at the goal line. Jefferson caught a little curl route from out of the backfield in front of safety Henry Black for a 9 yard score that build Minnesota’s lead to 23-10 in the third quarter. Cousins barely got the ball off on a Darnell Savage blitz with just over two minutes to play and Jefferson outmaneuvered rookie Eric Stokes for a 23 yard scoring play. Cook’s two point conversion around left end made it 31-23 with only 2:17 left.
The Packers got it back even on one snap as Rodgers hit a streaking Marquez Valdes-Scantling behind Xavier Woods for a breathtaking 75 yard touchdown.
Savage came close to giving Green Bay a shot for the win but he couldn’t quite gather in an interception at the Packer 37 on the first snap of the final series. The Vikings then made back to back big plays when Krys Barnes missed a tackle on a Cook catch that went for 19 yards. Rasul Douglass turned on a sideline route but the ball whizzed right past him into the surprised hands of Thielen who turned and raced up the sideline for 26 more. Minnesota then forced the Packers to burn their final timeouts and took a couple of knees to set up Joseph’s game winner with :02 remaining.
LaFleur summed up a wild and crazy day in a basement room at what the locals call “The Vault.”
There were plenty. From defensive breakdowns in coverage to an inordinate number of penalties (8 for 92 yards). Holding calls and false starts kept the Packers behind the sticks early in the game. While the did recover by converting 7 of 11 third down snaps, they couldn’t cash in completely. The offense hit a 37 yard pass to Davante Adams on the very first snap of the game but had to settle for an impressive 54 yard field goal from Mason Crosby. Driving to the Minnesota 14 early in the second quarter, they came up empty when Crosby’s confounding season continued, hitting the left upright from 32 yards away, his 8th missed field goal of the season.
Meanwhile, the defense didn’t get a stop until late in the second quarter as Minnesota built of 16-3 lead. The unit was playing without Rashan Gary because of an elbow injury and while Preston Smith was generating pressure (2 sacks and a forced fumble), there wasn’t much help from backups Jonathan Garvin and Tipa Galeai. More troubling was the secondary play. King was benched after the Thielen touchdown in favor of Douglas and the Viking passing game was winning a vast majority of the matchups.
Disaster struck the offense early in the fourth quarter when Elgton Jenkins went down. The Pro Bowl guard had been playing at a Pro Bowl level at left tackle for David Bakhtiari who despite practicing for the past couple of weeks, has been deemed still not ready to play. Jenkins had to be led, gingerly, to the sidelines and while nothing was officially confirmed by the Packers, the NFL Network reported it was an ACL tear that will require surgery and end his season. With rookie center Josh Myers still out with a knee injury, the Packers are now down three starters on the offensive line. Even Rodgers let out an audible sigh when asked post-game about the prospects of losing Jenkins. Yosh Nijman finished the game at left tackle.
Rodgers has his own medical issues to deal with. He hasn’t practiced since October 22, first because of COVID and last week, with an undisclosed toe injury. It first surfaced just as he came back from the Resvere/COVID-19 list the day before the Seattle game in which he played without practicing. He only took about 15 snaps in Friday’s light workout before the Minnesota trip. Rodgers even headed to the locker room late in the first half to get more treatment, forcing Jordan Love to take a kneel down before intermission. After the game, Rodgers would only say the toe, or toes, hurt…. a lot.
That will have to wait one more week as the Packers will host the 7-3 Los Angeles Rams Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field. The Rams, with another explosive offense led by Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and the addition of Odell Beckham Jr., and a star studded defense that added Von Miller to the lineup with Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, need a win to keep pace with 9-2 Arizona in the NFC West. They’ve dropped back to back games but are coming off their bye week to regroup. The Packers won’t have that luxury until after Sunday’s important NFC showdown.
