Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday September 29th, the Green Bay Packers hosted the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field. Entering this game, the Packers trailed by one game to the Vikings for the NFC North lead. There were big expectations for this game at Lambeau Field, but the Packers were not able to get the win at Lambeau Field. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The Packers started this game on defense after they decided to defer to the second half. They nearly got off the field on their first possession when Isaiah McDuffie almost picked off a Sam Darnold pass. On the next play, the defense gave up a big pass from Sam Darnold to Jalen Nailor on third and 15 from the Minnesota 40 yard line. On the play after that, Darnold found a wide open Jordan Addison for a 29 yard touchdown that, with the extra point, gave the Vikings a 7-0 lead with 11:53 left in the first quarter. The Packers offense, led by QB Jordan Love, was able to move the ball down the field on their first possession. They got all the way to the Minnesota 14 yard line before the drive stalled. Elgton Jenkins committed a false start penalty on third and 8, causing Green Bay to face a third and 13 from the 19. On that third down play, Dontayvion Wicks dropped a pass that would have at least got the first down. Green Bay didn’t get any points after Brayden Narveson hit the right upright on his 37-yard field goal attempt. After the missed field goal, the Vikings went down the field for another touchdown. Their two-yard TD pass from San Darnold to Josh Oliver was set up by a pass interference penalty against Eric Stokes that set up the first and goal to begin with. The extra point was good after the TD, increasing the lead to 14-0 with 1:37 left in the quarter. On the ensuing drive for Green Bay, Jordan Love tried to force a throw to Christian Watson and was picked off. Even worse was that Watson hurt his ankle on the play. The Vikings took advantage of the opportunity by scoring another touchdown. The drive ended with an end-around TD run by Jordan Addison that, with the extra point, increased the lead to 21-0 with 20 seconds left in the quarter. The Packers tried to get a score to cut the lead on their next possession, but they came up short thanks to a sack of Jordan Love on second and 8 from the Minnesota 21, an incomplete pass on third and 18, and a second missed field goal attempt by Narveson. The Vikings punted on their next drive, but got the ball back quickly after Jordan Love’s pass bounced off of Romeo Doubs’ hands into the hands of Shaq Griffin, who returned the pick to the Green Bay 4 yard line. From there, Justin Jefferson caught a pass for a TD that, with the extra point, increased the lead to 28-0 with 5:28 left in the second quarter. There was still time for Green Bay to get some points before halftime. Unfortunately, they got a lot of bad luck on their next drive. On back to back plays, there was a challenge on whether or not a pass was caught. The first one occurred on first and 10 from the Minnesota 34 yard line. Jordan Love (who thankfully didn’t get too hurt from the scramble on the previous play) threw a pass to Romeo Doubs that was initially ruled a 17-yard catch. It was challenged by Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell. The challenge was successful and the pass was ruled incomplete. On the next play, Jordan Love threw a pass that I thought was completed to Dontayvion Wicks, but was ruled incomplete. Even after a challenge by Matt LaFleur, the ruling stood as called. The drive ended after two more incomplete passes. After the turnover on downs, each team punted on their ensuing drive. On the punt by Daniel Whelan, the return man for Minnesota muffed the ball in a fair catch attempt. The fumble was recovered by Bo Melton, who I thought scored a touchdown. The problem was that there is a rule that says that any recovered fumbles after a muffed punt can’t be advanced after the recovery. Because of that, the Packers had to settle for first and goal from the Minnesota 3 yard line. Jordan Love threw a pass to Romeo Doubs that would have been a touchdown had Doubs controlled it when his feet were on the goal line. Instead, Doubs was ruled down at the one. Matt LaFleur signaled for timeout to an official that looked in his direction. For some reason, the official didn’t give him the timeout, leading to a tirade that caused the Packers to suffer a 15-yard penalty. To avoid the 10 second run off, a timeout was called. Thankfully, Love and Jayden Reed connected for a 15-yard touchdown that ended Green Bay’s scoring drought. The score at halftime was 28-7 in Minnesota‘s favor, but there was a chance of a comeback in the second half for Green Bay.
The first third quarter drive for Green Bay ended in a three and out after a catch by Dontayvion Wicks was challenged by Kevin O’Connell and overturned to an incomplete pass. After the punt by Daniel Whelan resulted in a fair catch at the Minnesota 18 yard line, the Vikings started their first possession of the third quarter with a goal to get more points. They got all the way to the Green Bay 20 yard line before the drive ended in an interception at the 2 yard line by Xavier McKinney, which stood as called after a replay review. With that pick, which was the fourth in four games for McKinney, the Packers got the ball with 10:18 left in the third quarter. The drive ended in a three and out after Dontayvion Wicks couldn’t catch the pass on third and 6 from the Green Bay 6. Thankfully, the Packers defense forced the Vikings to punt back to them. A highlight was Quay Walker getting a sack of Sam Darnold. After the punt went in the end zone for a touchback, the Packers made another attempt at getting more points on the board. During the drive, there was a costly holding penalty on Tucker Kraft that nullified a 23-yard run by Emanuel Wilson. Still, there was a chance for the Packers on fourth and 8 from the Minnesota 32 yard line. Jordan Love threw a pass to Dontayvion Wicks that should have been caught for a touchdown. Instead, the ball bounced off his hands and went incomplete, resulting in a turnover on downs. Thankfully, the Packers defense forced the Vikings to punt after a three and out. Starting from their own 11, the Green Bay offense went down the field on a long scoring drive that covered 89 yards in just under 4 minutes. Jordan Love was able to complete some good passes and end the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks. The extra point was good, cutting the lead to 28-14 with 11:38 left in the fourth quarter. The Packers quickly got the ball back after Keisean Nixon came out of nowhere and strip-sacked Sam Darnold. The fumble was recovered by Edgerrin Cooper, giving the Packers offense the ball at the Minnesota 20. They quickly took advantage by scoring a touchdown in two plays. Tucker Kraft fought his way to the end zone for the 13-yard touchdown and also caught the two point conversion that decreased the lead to 28-22 with 10:16 left in the game. The defense was not able to keep the Vikings from adding to their point total on their next possession, but at least they only allowed a field goal to keep it a two possession game with 6:50 left in the final quarter. Jordan Love started the next drive with a 36-yard pass to Dontayvion Wicks that gave the Packers first and 10 at the Minnesota 34. The next play didn’t go so well as he went for a touchdown when there was still time left. The ball was overthrown and picked off in the end zone for a touchback. The Packers defense was able to force a three and out and give the offense another chance. Unfortunately, that ensuing drive ended when Tucker Kraft was stripped of the ball when going for extra yards. The fumble was recovered by Minnesota, ending another opportunity at a score. The Packers defense was able to make a goal line stand and give the offense another chance with 2:18 left in the game. A quick 5 plays later, and the Packers decreased the lead to 2 points with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Love to Dontayvion Wicks and the extra point by Brayden Narveson. It was now up for the Packers to recover the onside kick. The onside kick itself was not executed well and went straight to the Vikings, ending the game with the Packers losing at home to Minnesota for the second straight season. The 31-29 loss changes the Packers’ record 2-2 on the season so far.
(Here are the highlights/lowlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube channel. Click on “Watch on YouTube”)
On offense and defense, it was a tale of two halves for the most part. I’ll talk about the offense first. Jordan Love made his return to action after missing the very end of the Brazil game and the next two weeks with his sprained MCL. Even against a tough Vikings defense, he was able to keep himself healthy, though there were a couple of nervous moments. One in particular was when he scrambled for a few yards and got hit. Thankfully, he was able to play the rest of the game even though he got hit numerous times by the defense. The offensive line, plus additional blockers, did their best to keep Love upright throughout the game as they only allowed one sack. Love was not that great in terms of production until the second half. He honored Brett Favre, who was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, before the game by wearing a Favre jersey on his way to work. During the game, Love became the first quarterback since Favre in 1999 to throw for 4 touchdowns and three interceptions. Two of those interceptions were his fault and the other one was a ricochet into the hands of a Vikings defender. The one intended for Christian Watson should not have been thrown to begin as it was into triple coverage and it got Watson hurt in the process. Hopefully Watson recovers from the high ankle sprain fully soon. The interception in the fourth quarter should not have happened. There was still plenty of time left so there was no need for Love to go for the home run ball. The run game wasn’t very productive due to the fact that the Packers had a big deficit to come back from, which they nearly did. Just like the Eagles game in Week 1, there were too many self-inflicted errors by the Packers, including dropped passes (Dontayvion Wicks had the most of those), turnovers, and penalties. In addition to his fumble, Tucker Kraft was responsible for the holding penalty that nullified a big run by Emanuel Wilson. All of these errors need to be accounted for as soon as possible, or they might come back to haunt them later this year.
I was expecting the Packers defense to play great again at home. Well, they did play well for a half. The first half was not great at all, as they allowed Sam Darnold of all QBs to lead the Vikings to four touchdown drives in the first half. Darnold pretty much had all day to throw as the pass rush was nowhere to be found against an offensive line that wasn’t that great in terms of pass protection. The lack of pressuring Sam Darnold early on was definitely frustrating to watch. Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark should have had better games than they had yesterday. Even then, the game could have been much different had Isaiah McDuffie held on to the interception on the first drive. That dropped pick was followed by the two straight pass completions for Minnesota. Jaire Alexander and Carrington Valentine were missed on Sunday in the defensive backfield. Keisean Nixon could have had an interception had he looked for the ball on the TD pass that he gave up to Justin Jefferson in the second quarter. There were too many easy catches for the Vikings receivers on Sunday. Nixon redeemed himself by forcing a fumble after sacking Sam Darnold in the second half. Xavier McKinney continued his interception streak in the second half. Hopefully he gets a pick in each game. Aaron Jones had some good runs in his return to Lambeau, but the Packers defense kept him from scoring a touchdown. He still got his leap into the stands after the game, which irritated me. Jeff Hafley’s unit gave the Packers chances to complete the comeback in the fourth quarter. I just wish that the offense avoided the turnovers in that quarter. I’m hopeful that the defense will have a bounce back game against the Rams next week. One thing that they will have to overcome is the lack of Devonte Wyatt on the defensive front for a bit. Hopefully he recovers soon from his injury.
On Special Teams, there were not a lot of good things for Green Bay. A couple of highlights were Daniel Whelan averaging over 60 yards on his three punts and Bo Melton recovering a muffed punt that set up the Packers’ TD at the end of the second quarter. I thought that Bo Melton scored a TD on that play, but there’s some weird rule that says that any muffed punt that is recovered can’t be advanced. Brayden Narveson made his extra points, but he missed two field goals that should have been made. Those two missed field goals were ultimately the difference between a win and a loss for the Packers on Sunday. Had the field goals have been made, the Packers didn’t have to rely on the onside kick. Because of the new rules about teams having to declare the intention to do an onside kick, I just think that those attempts (for the most part) will be unsuccessful.On the positive side, there were no blocked field goals or punts. There were also no big kickoff or punt returns by either team. To be perfectly honest, Rich Bisaccia should be on the hot seat if things don’t improve very soon on Special Teams.
Before I conclude this post, I want to talk about the “Gold Package” situation. There was no excuse for the stands at Lambeau Field to be filled with too much purple. It was a noon game, not a night game. Milwaukee is about a two hour drive to Green Bay, plus there are plenty of options to get to and from Green Bay, including busses. In addition, there were some fans that left before the final minutes. I kinda get that they wanted to beat the traffic, but they could have witnessed a miracle comeback had the onside kick been executed much better. The Gold Package fans better show up in the games against the Lions and Bears later on this season.
Overall, the Packers had too many self-inflicted errors in this game. Had it not been for the turnovers, missed field goals, and penalties, the Packers would have won this game against Minnesota. In fact, self-inflicted errors are the main reason that the Packers are 2-2 instead of 4-0 on the season. On the plus side, the Packers have split with the Vikings for the past few seasons. Because of that, I have a feeling that they will get their revenge in Week 17. For now, the Packers need to prepare for a west coast trip in Week 5. Their opponent is the Los Angeles Rams, a team that is banged up to heck and back. Still, Green Bay needs to execute well on all sides of the ball to win that game. I believe the Packers will be ok from this point on. Jordan Love should get back to his normal self very soon. Coaching needs to be better and there can’t be too many self-inflicted errors. I’ll be back to cover the Rams game next week. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great week ahead. Go Pack Go!
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