Good morning, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers were looking to win their 9th game of the season. They were on the road against a Minnesota Vikings team that, at 4-5, was desperate for a win to keep up in the playoff chase. The Packers were sloppy in the first half, but they got so close to pulling off a comeback victory. Want to know what exactly happened at U.S. Bank Stadium? Let’s find out now.
The Packers offense took the field first after the opening kickoff, which went for a touchback. The drive started great with an Aaron Rodgers pass that was complete to Davante Adams, who took it to the Minnesota 38. After that, however, the drive stalled after 3 more plays. Rodgers tried a deep shot to Marquez Valdes-Scantling on third and 8 from the 36, but the pass went out of bounds. Mason Crosby was called upon to attempt a 54-yard field goal. The kick was good, giving Green Bay a 3-0 lead less than 2 minutes into the game. That lead did not last long as the Vikings got into scoring range on their first offensive possession. After a 42-yard catch and run by Justin Jefferson gave Minnesota a first and 10 from the Green Bay 28, the Packers defense made sure that the Vikings didn’t score a touchdown. On third and 5 from the 23, Preston Smith sacked Kirk Cousins for a loss of 10. Greg Joseph was able to make the kick from 51 yards away, tying the game at 3-3 with 9:14 left in the first quarter. The Packers offense were not able to do anything substantial on their next drive and were forced to punt. On third and 9, Rodgers was sacked for a loss of 5 after holding on to the ball for too long. He lost the ball but was able to recover the fumble. The punt was fair caught at the Minnesota 16. From there, the Vikings offense went down the field for their first touchdown of the day. The 1-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook was set up by a Kirk Cousins pass to Justin Jefferson, who was ruled short of the goal line when his knee touched the ground. The extra point kick was missed, leaving the score at a weird 9-3 in Minnesota’s favor. The Packers tried to answer back with a score of their own on their next drive. During this drive, the Packers faced a third and 12 from their own 36 yard line. On this third down, Rodgers connected with Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 39-yard pass play that got Green Bay to the 25 yard line of Minnesota. 5 plays later (including 2 incomplete passes in a row), Mason Crosby was called upon to cut the lead to 3 points. Unfortunately for him, the field goal try from 32 yards away hit the left upright and bounced out, leading to no points for Green Bay. From their own 22, the Vikings took over and were able to score a touchdown to increase the lead to 16-3. During this possession, Darnell Savage got an interception of Kirk Cousins that was nullified by a roughing the passer penalty on Kingsley Keke. 3 plays after that penalty, Kirk Cousins connected with Adam Thielen for a 10-yard touchdown pass. After an exchange of punts, the Packers offense took over at their own 26 yard line with 4:18 left in the first half. After nearly of half full of iffy play by the offense (mostly due to a lack of focus on the run and a few errors by Aaron Rodgers), the Packers offense was able to go down the field and score a touchdown. The drive ended with a wonderful touchdown pass from Rodgers to Josiah Deguara. On the play, Rodgers rolled to his left and threw a perfect pass to Deguara for the score. The extra point kick by Mason Crosby was good, cutting the lead to 16-10 right before halftime. The Vikings tried desperately for something, but failed to do anything substantial (other than completing a big pass play that was ruled incomplete after review). For some reason (most likely the toe issue), Rodgers went inside the tunnel early. Thankfully, the score stayed at 16-10 at halftime.
The Vikings had no issue getting a touchdown on their first second half drive. The 14-play, 75-yard drive took 6 and a half minutes off the game clock. The possession ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Justin Jefferson that was too easy for the receiver. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 23-10 with 8:26 left in the third quarter. The Packers responded right back with a touchdown of their own. The drive did not start well as Elgton Jenkins was called for offensive holding during a 7-yard run by AJ Dillon. After that penalty, however, the Packers were able to go down the field for a touchdown. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers scrambled for an 18-yard gain despite the toe issue. 2 plays after that (including an end-around from Equanimeous St. Brown), Rodgers found Davante Adams for a 10-yard touchdown that (with the extra point by Mason Crosby) cut the lead to 23-17 with 3:35 left in the quarter. The Packers defense was able to force the Vikings to punt, though they almost got a turnover. On third and 10 from the Green Bay 40, Cousins was sacked by Preston Smith for a 10-yard loss. The fumble was recovered by Minnesota, wasting an opportunity for a turnover. As a result of that, the Packers had to start their next drive at their own 6 yard line. On the third play of this drive, which was a sack of Aaron Rodgers, Elgton Jenkins unfortunately suffered a knee injury that turned out to be a torn ACL. The Packers overcame the sack to get a first down on third and 6 with a 13-yard pass completion to Davante Adams. On the following play, Rodgers connected with St. Brown for a 26-yard catch and run that got Green Bay to the Minnesota 38. A few plays later, the Packers scored a touchdown on a non-intentional play. It was third and 6 from the 18 yard line. As Rodgers tried to signal for a timeout, but he was snapped the ball. He caught the snap from shotgun and found Davante Adams, who juked a defender, in the end zone for a touchdown pass. The extra point kick was good, giving Green Bay a 24-23 lead midway through the final quarter. The Packers defense was not able to hold on to the lead. The Vikings were able to go down the field to retake the lead with a touchdown after a 5 and a half minute drive. On third and 3 from the Green Bay 23, Kirk Cousins was able to throw the ball before he was hit on a safety blitz. Justin Jefferson caught the pass and went in for a touchdown that gave the Vikings the lead. A two-point conversion was good after Dalvin Cook went in untouched, making the score 31-24 with 2:17 remaining. The Packers tied the score right away with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Just like that, the score was tied at 31-31. All the defense needed was a stop to give the Packers a chance to win. They almost got that stop with an interception of Kirk Cousins by Darnell Savage. I say “almost” because the interception was ruled incomplete after a replay review (to me, that was a catch). The defense wasn’t able to keep the Vikings from running out the rest of the clock and making the field goal easy for Greg Joseph. He made the field goal from 29 yards away as time expired, giving Minnesota a 34-31 win. With the loss, the Packers are now 8-3 on the season.
On offense, the Packers did not get things going until late in the second quarter. Aaron Rodgers had a tough day until the touchdown drive in the second quarter. After that, the offense was able to score on each possession in the second half. Rodgers finished the day with 23 pass completions for 385 yards and 4 touchdowns. 2 of those touchdowns went to Davante Adams while Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Josiah Deguara got one each (MVS with the 75-yarder in the fourth quarter and Deguara with the TD right before halftime). It was tough for Green Bay to get the running game going partly due to a few situations where the Packers had a first and 20 or a second and 15. AJ Dillon was able to produce 53 yards on the ground and 44 yards through the air. The offensive line played through some tough situations, including the unfortunate injury to Elgton Jenkins that will make him miss the rest of this season and (probably) part of next year. The second half was much better than the first half for pass protection, which also included blitz pickups by Dillon and others. There was a wonderful play in which Rodgers gave the ball to Randall Cobb, who pitched it to AJ Dillon for a good gain of yards. I felt that the offense played well after that slow start. I just hope that those slow starts stop happening though, especially with the Rams coming up this upcoming Sunday.
Of course, the defense did not get the stops when the offense was carrying the load. The secondary was torched all game long as they let Kirk Cousins throw for 341 and 3 touchdowns. It didn’t help that the Packers let a few turnover opportunities slip away. There was the strip sack that was recovered by Minnesota. Darnell Savage had a couple of interceptions that were either called back due to penalty or ruled incomplete (by the way, that pick in the fourth should have stayed as called). Justin Jefferson went for 169 yards and 2 touchdowns on 8 catches, while Adam Thielen added 82 yards and one touchdown on 8 catches, including a catch and run that set up the game-winning field goal. This was definitely a day where Jaire Alexander was dearly missed. Rashan Gary was also missed in this game (he was inactive with the elbow injury). The pass rush tried their best, and even got a couple of sacks from Preston Smith, but Cousins was able to throw for those yards anyway. I am sure that the defense will rebound after this loss, but it needs to be next week.
Special Teams on Sunday wasn’t always bad, but there were still some issues. For one thing, Steven Wirtel wasn’t fully accurate with his snaps on punt attempts. Another issue was that Mason Crosby missed an easy field goal by hitting the left upright. At least there were no crucial fumbles or blocked kicks. I just want every side of the ball to play their best at the same time. I hope that is very soon.
Overall, it was a tough loss for the Packers on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers had a great game, but the defense wasn’t able to get the stops to win the game. The Packers still have a shot at the number 1 seed in the NFC, but they have to win the rest of their games to get that (plus a loss for Arizona). Next up for Green Bay is a home game at Lambeau Field against the Los Angeles Rams in a playoff rematch. I’ll talk about this game later. Have a great day and happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.)
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