Thoughts on Week 12 (2025): Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings

That win was a sigh of relief to be sure. Entering Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers were starting their toughest stretch of the regular season. 5 of the last 7 regular season games for the Packers are against NFC North rivals. This stretch started with Sunday’s clash with the Vikings at Lambeau Field. As always, the goal is to go 1-0 every week. Thankfully, the Packers took care of business against the Vikings. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.

The Packers started this game on the defensive side of the ball. The Vikings’ first drive started at their own 35 after the kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback. After a couple of runs by former Packer Aaron Jones and a 15 yard catch by Justin Jefferson, the Vikings were in range for a field goal. Thankfully, the Packers defense made sure that the Vikings only got three points on their opening drive. The 52-yard kick by Will Reichard was good, giving Minnesota a brief 3-0 lead a little over two minutes into the game. After the kickoff return by Savion Williams, the Packers started their first drive at their own 30 yard line. Due to Josh Jacobs missing the game due to the knee injury suffered last week against the Giants, the main running back for the Packers was Emanuel Wilson. He did get stuffed for nothing on his first run attempt, but he did set up a short third down with a 7 yard catch. Christian Watson caught a 12-yard pass while keeping his feet in bounds to convert a third and 3. Two plays later, the Packers got a first and 10 at the Minnesota 23 when there was a defensive pass interference penalty on the Vikings’ Josh Metellus (who clearly held on to Luke Musgrave’s arm on the play). Three plays later, the drive ended with a one yard touchdown run by Emanuel Wilson that was set up by an 18 yard catch and run by Dontayvion Wicks on the previous play. The extra point kick was good by Brandon McManus, giving the Packers a 7-3 lead with over 9 minutes left in the first quarter. The Vikings did get a first down during their second drive, but they failed to get into scoring range and had to punt the ball back to Green Bay. Starting from their own 2 yard line (kudos to the Vikings’ punter), the Packers were able to get out of that tight situation. During this drive, the Packers faced a third and 10 from their own 19 yard line. Jordan Love threw up a pass as he was getting blitzed by a Vikings defender. Thankfully, the pass was caught by Wicks for a 14 yard gain. After that, the drive stalled thanks to a combination of incomplete passes, a false start penalty, and a sack of Love on third and 15 from the Green Bay 28. During the Packers’ third time on defense, Keisean Nixon had to leave the game with a stinger injury after running into Devonte Wyatt on the sideline. As a result, Kamal Hadden was put into the game on defense. The Vikings were able to get into scoring range in the hopes of getting more points. Rather than take the field goal, they decided to go for it on fourth and 1 from the Green Bay 17. RB Jordan Mason was stuffed on the play, resulting in a turnover on downs. The Packers then went on a 17 play drive that took over 8 minutes of game time. The drive mostly consisted of run plays by Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks. There were a couple of pass plays in the drive, including an 18 yard pass from Love to Romeo Doubs that gave the Packers first and 10 at the Minnesota 19. The drive stalled after that play and the Packers had to settle for a field goal. The kick was good from 32 yards out, increasing the Packers’ lead to 10-3 with a little under two and a half minutes left in the first half. The Packers defense was unable to keep the Vikings away from scoring range. However, they did force Will Reichard to attempt a 59 yard field goal. Kudos to Will for making the kick, decreasing the lead to 10-6 at halftime.

The Packers started the second half on the offensive side of the ball looking to extend their lead. During this brief drive, Jordan Love scrambled for a 13 yard gain before going out of bounds at the Minnesota 45. The drive stalled after three more plays, but the Packers caught a break when the Vikings’ punt returner muffed the punt. Zayne Anderson recovered the fumble at the Minnesota 5 yard line. 2 plays later, Emanuel Wilson ran it in for his second touchdown of the game. He was able to reach the ball over the goal line for the score. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 17-6 with a little under 11 minutes left in the third quarter. The Vikings’ first drive of the second half ended in a three and out thanks in large part to Micah Parsons getting his first sack of the day on JJ McCarthy. The Vikings did get some yards on the two next plays, but not enough to get the first down. After the punt, the Packers took over at their own 8 yard line. On third and 5 from the 13 yard line, Christian Watson was able to catch a 6 yard pass to convert that third down. Watson then caught the next pass for an 11 yard gain. Three plays after that, the drive stalled when Emanuel Wilson was stuffed for a two yard loss on third and one from the Green Bay 39. The punt by Daniel Whelan was fair caught at the Minnesota 13. From there, the Vikings started their next possession, which resulted in another three and out. Aaron Jones was tackled for a one yard loss on first and 10, and JJ McCarthy was sacked on back to back plays, with the second one being so close to resulting in a safety. He was tackled in the end zone, but the officials ruled him down at the one yard line. Romeo Doubs had plenty of room to run on the punt return, but he only got 5 yards on the return. Still, the Packers took over at their own 45 yard line. Emanuel Wilson started the drive with a 13 yard run to the Minnesota 43. After two more runs by Wilson, the Packers had a first and 10 at the Minnesota 29 at the start of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, the drive stalled after three more plays and the Packers had to settle for a field goal. The kick was good from 30 yards out, increasing the lead to 20-6 with a little over 12 minutes left in the game. The Vikings’ next drive, which started at their own 19 yard line, ended in another three and out. Devonte Wyatt was able to get his second sack of the game on third and 17 from the 12 yard line. After the sack, which was almost a safety, the Vikings punted back to Green Bay. Starting from the Minnesota 40 yard line thanks to a nice punt return by Romeo Doubs, the Packers were able to add three more points to their score during their next drive. The field goal from 40 yards out was good, increasing the Packers’ lead to 23-6 with a bit over 7 and a half minutes left in the game. After that score, the Packers were able to seal the win thanks to forcing JJ McCarthy to throw a pick on back to back drives. Rashan Gary got in from behind to tip the first pass that was intercepted by Isaiah McDuffie (who played solid in Quay Walker’s absence). After the pick by safety Evan Williams, a group of Packers defenders mocked the Vikings’ “SKOL” chant and clap in the end zone, which was a perfect capper to end the game. Malik Willis helped the Packers offense run out the rest of the clock and seal the 23-6 win. With this win, the Packers are now 7-3-1 on the season.

(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you’re interested.)

On offense, the Packers did well enough to score over 20 points for the second straight week. They were a bit short-handed on Sunday as they were without Josh Jacobs, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Reed (who did come back to practice from injured reserve this past week). In addition to those injuries, Jordan Love was playing through a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder. Luckily, Love didn’t need to be Superman to win against the Vikings on Sunday. The game plan was focused on the run game, which was led by Emanuel Wilson running for 107 yards and 2 touchdowns on 28 attempts. The offensive line deserves credit for the efficiency of the run game, though there were times where the Vikings defense stopped running plays behind the line of scrimmage, including a few times on third and short. Considering that the Eagles defense called out the “Inside Zone Run” two weeks ago, I was irritated that the Packers still ran that play a few times on Sunday. I understand that Love was a bit banged up on Sunday, but there should have been at least a couple of shallow cross passes drawn up. At least Love didn’t turn the ball over on Sunday, though there were some close calls. There were only two penalties on offense, with both of them being false starts. Hopefully more players are ready and available for the Thanksgiving game in Detroit. That game needs top notch execution from all involved.

On defense, the Packers played a great game as they kept the Vikings out of the end zone on Sunday. The only points that the Packers allowed to the Vikings were two field goals, with both of them in the first half. After those field goals, the Vikings were held scoreless in the second half and had 4 net yards of total offense in that half. JJ McCarthy had a nightmare day as he was sacked a total of 5 times on Sunday, with two sacks each by Devonte Wyatt and Micah Parsons (who should be the top candidate for Defensive Player of the Year due to his impact on Green Bay’s defense). He also threw two picks in the fourth quarter, which helped the Packers seal the 17-point win in the end. Even though Keisean Nixon got hurt in the first half (which hopefully isn't too serious of an injury), the secondary still played well against the Vikings receivers outside of a couple of nice catches by Justin Jefferson (who I don’t feel bad for since he signed an extension with Minnesota). It was a great performance by Jeff Hafley’s unit against a Vikings offense that hasn’t been great no matter who has been at quarterback. I’m thankful that the Vikings said no to Aaron Rodgers (who missed the Steelers’ loss to the Bears due to a left wrist injury). They also let Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones go elsewhere (to the Seahawks and Colts, respectively). At the end of the day, the Packers had to play the guys in front of them, which they did very well on Sunday. Hopefully that great defensive play continues on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit.

On Special Teams, the Packers played a solid game on Sunday. There were no penalties, turnovers, or blocked kicks. Brandon McManus made every kick, Daniel Whelan punted well (plus did a better job keeping the laces facing away from the kicker), and the whole operation went smooth. For once, there was a big play on Special Teams when there was a muffed punt by the Vikings that was recovered by Zayne Anderson early in the third quarter. That turnover by the Vikings helped set up Emanuel Wilson’s second touchdown run of the game and put the Packers up by double digits for good. There was a nice punt return by Romeo Doubs that helped set up a field goal, but that was it for punt/kick return highlights. At least the Packers did not allow a huge kickoff or punt return to the Vikings on Sunday. I give credit to Rich Bisaccia’s unit for doing a good job on Sunday. Hopefully that consistency continues as the weeks go by.

Overall, I was happy to see a mostly stress free win for the Packers. I did wish that the Packers ran up the score more, but they won in double digits against a division rival, which is always a good sight for the eyes. The Packers already have twice as many division wins as last year, when they went an abysmal 1-5 against the NFC North. Next up for the Packers is a chance to sweep the Detroit Lions for the first time since 2020. It will be a tough game at Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day, but I am sure the Packers will be ready for any challenge. I’ll be back later this week for the recap of that game. In the meantime, I am celebrating a Victory Monday. Have a great week, everyone. Go Pack Go!