Good evening, everyone. The Green Bay Packers took on the Minnesota Vikings at an empty U.S. Bank Stadium earlier today. The game was a very high-scoring affair with the Packers winning it in the end. I am here to give you my thoughts on what exactly happened in this game. Without any further delay, let’s get right into it.
The Packers started this game on offense. During the first drive, they looked efficient in terms of moving the ball down the field. The lack of crowd noise gave Aaron Rodgers a chance to catch the Vikings defense with a hard count on the third play. He was successful in this a couple of more times, which I will go over in a bit. They got all the way to the Minnesota 10 yard line before the drive stalled. After an incomplete pass to Aaron Jones, the Packers settled for a 31-yard field goal by Mason Crosby. The Vikings responded with a touchdown on their first drive, which also showed that the run defense for Green Bay still needs some improvement. The 1-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook gave the Vikings a 7-3 lead with 3:27 left in the first quarter. The Packers offense went down the field to respond with their own touchdown. Unfortunately, the drive went downhill when they got near the goal line. After Aaron Jones was ruled short of the goal line on first and goal, there was an incomplete pass on second down (intended for Jones). On third down, Aaron Jones was stopped short by Anthony Barr, setting up a fourth and goal from the 1 yard line. Davante Adams dropped the touchdown pass on fourth down, giving the Vikings the ball. The defense responded 2 plays later with a sack of Kirk Cousins by Jaire Alexander for a safety, which made the score 7-5. Tyler Ervin’s punt return after the safety gave the Packers prime field position on their own 44 yard line. For a third straight drive, they went down to the red zone but could not get in the end zone. After three straight incomplete passes from the Minnesota 12 yard line (plus Intentional Grounding called on Rodgers on third down), the Packers had to settle for a second field goal by Crosby. He made it from 43 yards away, giving the Packers an 8-7 lead. The Packers defense forced the Vikings to go three and out on their next drive, which included Za’Darius Smith’s first sack of the season on third and 8 from the Minnesota 27. After the punt was fielded by Ervin, the Packers had the ball at their own 40 with 6:04 left in the first half. It was during this drive that Rodgers caught the defense offside again. Like the previous one, the play was blown dead with no chance of a free play. During the drive, Rodgers sneaked it in to convert a fourth and 1. The drive ended with a touchdown pass on the run from Rodgers to Davante Adams, who made a great tip toe catch in the end zone. The touchdown gave Green Bay a 15-7 lead that was quickly increased to 22-7 in only a matter of 25 seconds. Jaire Alexander intercepted Kirk Cousins on a second down pass. That interception set up another chance for Green Bay to get a touchdown. Aaron Rodgers threw a perfect deep pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who caught the pass for a 45-yard touchdown. The Vikings quickly made it to field goal range, partly thanks to a terrible call on Darnell Savage for lowering the head (it was all shoulder to me). The field goal by Dan Bailey cut the Packers lead to 22-10 at halftime.
The defense got to a good start in the second half, forcing the Vikings to punt after only a 6-play drive. Tyler Ervin fair caught the punt at the Green Bay 9, where the offense started their next drive. The drive went well until Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped a wide-open pass on third and 6 from the 41. After the punt by JK Scott, the Vikings had the ball at their own 19 yard line. The defense recovered after allowing Kirk Cousins to scramble for 2 straight first downs. On third and 8 from the Green Bay 44, Kevin King made a great stop on Olabisi Johnson that set up a fourth and 3. For some reason, Kirk Cousins went deep on fourth down. The pass fell incomplete, giving the Packers prime field position at their own 39. On the first play of the drive, Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped a beautiful deep pass thrown by Rodgers by not extending his arms for it. This was similar to the drop against the Bears in Week 15 of last season. Later in the drive, he got some redemption on a free play from the Minnesota 41. He caught that pass and was tackled just short of the end zone, which was a bummer. Two plays later, Davante Adams caught his second touchdown pass of the day, which increased the Packers’ lead to 29-10. The Vikings responded with a touchdown (a 37-yard pass from Cousins to Adam Thielen) in a drive that only took 1 minute and 16 seconds of game time. The 2-point conversion after the touchdown decreased the lead to 29-18. The Packers answered right back with another touchdown to get the lead up to 18. The 4-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Allen Lazard was set up by a 38-yard completion to Lazard that would have been a touchdown if he did not stumble after the catch. The 36-18 lead was cut to 10 after another touchdown by the Vikings, which happened on a 3-yard run by Dalvin Cook and a 2-point conversion. Once again, the Packers responded with another touchdown on their next drive. During the drive, the offense got out of a 1st and 20 (which was due to a holding penalty on Valdes-Scantling) with a 40-yard pass completion to Davante Adams. That pass completion helped set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Aaron Jones that increased the lead to 43-26. Minnesota once again decreased the lead with a touchdown on their next drive (plus a 2-point conversion), but that’s where the scoring ended. Davante Adams secured the onside kick, sealing the 43-34 win for the Packers. With the win, the Packers start the season 1-0 overall (plus in the NFC North).
Offensively, I thought that the Packers played very well throughout the game. They recovered from the 3 straight drives in the red zone where they scored only 6 points to score 5 touchdowns the rest of the game. Aaron Rodgers had a great game, throwing for 364 yards and 4 touchdowns with a passer rating of 127.5. In my opinion, there was no stopping Aaron Rodgers from doing whatever he wanted to do. Davante Adams led the receiving corps with 14 receptions for 156 yards and 2 touchdowns. The first touchdown was the tip toe catch in the right side of the end zone. Allen Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling each caught a touchdown during the game as well. Josiah Deguara got one reception for 12 yards and also was key to run blocking during the game. Aaron Jones led the Packers in rushing yards with 66 (plus a touchdown run late in the game). Tyler Ervin rushed for 38 yards exclusively on reverses and trick plays that were done wonderfully by the offense, coached very well by Matt Lafleur. Even with injuries to Lucas Patrick and Lane Taylor, the offensive line protected Aaron Rodgers very well, allowing only a few pressures and no sacks in the game. I hope that Lane Taylor makes a full recovery from the injury that he suffered during the game. One thing that I did not like was the offense wasting timeouts due to not getting the play off (including all 3 in the second half). Hopefully that does not happen too many times this season. The offense won the time of possession battle easily with over 41 minutes of having the football. What helped was that there were no turnovers at all for the Packers in the game. If the offense performs like this often, then there will be a great chance of the Packers getting wins.
Defensively, there were a few rough spots for the Packers. At times, the run defense was giving up some big runs, including 2 scrambles by Kirk Cousins. Dalvin Cook ran for 2 touchdowns, including one where he was mostly untouched going into the end zone. On the play that ended with an interception by Jaire Alexander (who also sacked Cousins for a safety), Kenny Clark exited the game with a groin injury. I hope that the injury does not keep him out for too long, especially with the other injuries to the defense (including rookie LB Kamal Martin). Christian Kirksey led the Packers with 12 tackles, while Krys Barnes had six tackles of his own. Rashan Gary helped set up the pick by getting into Cousins’ face during the play. Za’Darius Smith also got a sack during the game, and I have a feeling that he (along with Preston Smith) will get plenty of sacks this season. There was some worry because of the defense giving up 34 points, but most of those points were in garbage time in the fourth quarter. I am sure that they will fix those mistakes as the season goes on. On Special Teams, there were not any big mistakes made by the Packers. Mason Crosby made all of his kicks, plus JK Scott had a good punt (40 yards). Also, there were not any turnovers or penalties on Special Teams. If they keep that going, then they will be fine.
Overall, it was great to see the Packers win their first game of the season. Next week, the Packers will play at Lambeau Field against the Detroit Lions. In the meantime, I hope that you all have a good night. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
Comments