The Good, Bad And Ugly From The Packers’ Loss To The Vikings

For the fifth time this season, the Green Bay Packers played a team that has a legitimate chance to win a Super Bowl.

On Sunday afternoon, the Packers fell to a dreadful 0-5 in those contests.

Minnesota downed visiting Green Bay, 27-25, in a game the Packers felt they desperately needed. Instead, Green Bay fell to 0-2 this season against both Minnesota (14-2) and Detroit (13-2), and 0-1 against Philadelphia (13-3).

Those teams all stand in the way of Green Bay (11-5) making a postseason run, and right now, the Packers have done nothing to show they can beat any of them.

When Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love was asked last week how badly his team needed to defeat one of the NFL’s elite teams, he didn’t mince words.

“Badly,” Love said. “Obviously we only have one more chance here this week, so definitely like I’ve talked about before, we’ve got to be able to go win these games against the really good teams in the league and set ourselves up for the situation we’ll be in for the playoffs — on the road playing good teams. So definitely a good test this week.”

It was a test Green Bay failed.

Minnesota scored 20 unanswered points in the second and third quarters and built a 27-10 lead. Green Bay scored the final 15 points of the game, but for 3 ½ quarters the Packers were thoroughly dominated by the Vikings.

If the Packers take any solace in their late rally, it’s fool’s gold. They were completely outplayed for most of the day and must find answers quickly or their playoff run will be short.

Here’s the good, bad and ugly from Green Bay’s loss to Minnesota.

THE GOOD

EDGERRIN COOPER: The rookie linebacker simply plays at a different speed than most NFL players and is quickly becoming one of the more impactful defensive players in football.

On Sunday, Cooper tied for the team lead with 11 tackles and had four tackles for loss.

“I think that we are highlighting him,” Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said of Cooper. “I mean, we’re sending him, he’s running games, yeah, I think we’re doing a good job of highlighting him right now and I’m not sure there’s much more we can do with him right now. I think as he continues to develop we can, but I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that right now.”

BE HIS VALENTINE: The Packers trailed, 20-3, midway through the third quarter when Carrington Valentine made a terrific read and intercepted Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold. Valentine returned the pick 31 yards to Minnesota’s 18-yard line, but fumbled.

Fortunately for Valentine and the Packers, defensive lineman Karl Brooks was ‘ Johnny of the Spot’ and recovered the fumble. Four plays later, Josh Jacobs had a 2-yard touchdown run that pulled Green Bay within 20-10.

THIS AND THAT: Karl Brooks sacked Sam Darnold for a 5-yard loss late in the first half. … Emanuel Wilson had his second rushing touchdown in as many weeks and his third rushing TD of the season. … Romeo Doubs had a team-high seven receptions.

THE BAD

FUMBLE-ITIS: Josh Jacobs fumbled in his first two games with Green Bay, then didn’t fumble again until Week 15 against Seattle. Jacobs fumbled on the Packers’ opening drive, though, on Sunday giving him four on the year.

Jerry Tillery forced the fumble and Cam Bynum recovered at the Minnesota 38 to kill a promising Green Bay drive.

NAILED IT: Minnesota took a 7-3 lead with 11:52 remaining in the second quarter when Sam Darnold hit Jalen Nailor for a 31-yard touchdown. Darnold had 3.28 seconds to throw on the play, the Packers had a bust in the back and Nailor was five yards behind safeties Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard for an easy score.

With the Packers paying much of their attention to the sensational Justin Jefferson, Nailor had five catches for 81 yards and a touchdown.

KILLER PENALTIES: Trailing, 10-3, in the final 2 minutes of the second quarter, the Packers had a third-and-1 from their own 39. Josh Jacobs ran for a first down, but error-prone wideout Dontayvion Wicks was flagged for an illegal formation penalty, and Love threw incomplete on the next play forcing Green Bay to punt.

Minnesota then drove to Green Bay’s 37-yard line, but Minnesota’s Will Reichard missed a 55-yard field goal on what appeared to be the final play of the first half. Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper was offsides on the play, though, and Reichard drilled a 50-yard field goal on his second chance to give Minnesota a 13-3 halftime lead.

Then midway through the fourth quarter, Josh Jacobs ripped off a 19-yard touchdown run, but right guard Sean Rhyan was called for holding on the play.

TAKE THE POINTS: Green Bay trailed, 7-3, late in the first half and faced a fourth-and-2 from the Vikings’ 23.

Instead of kicking the field goal, LaFleur went for it and Love threw incomplete for Jayden Reed. Considering the Packers lost by two, those three points would have been enormous.

THIS AND THAT: Keisean Nixon was hit with a 17-yard pass interference penalty against Justin Jefferson in the second quarter. … Defensive lineman Devante Wyatt and safety Zayne Anderson were both lost to concussions. … Daniel Whelan shanked a 29-yard punt early in the third quarter.

THE UGLY

SECONDARY SHREDDED: Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold threw for 377 yards, three touchdowns and posted a 116.1 passer rating against a Green Bay pass defense that wasn’t up to the challenge.

Darnold was rarely pressured and was sacked just once. Darnold then picked apart Green Bay’s secondary, completing passes to eight different players, including five players that caught at least four balls.

Green Bay did a respectable job against all-world wideout Justin Jefferson (8 catches, 92 yards), but Jalen Nailor (5-81-1), Jordan Addison (6-69-1) and T.J. Hockenson (5-68-0) all hurt Green Bay throughout.

FLORES > LAFLEUR: While the Packers made things interesting at the end with two late touchdowns, Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur lost his matchup with Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Green Bay’s first six possessions went fumble, punt, field goal, downs, punt and punt. By that time, the Packers were in a 20-3 hole they couldn’t escape.

The extremely creative and blitz-happy Flores had his way with LaFleur most of the day, which is a major reason the Packers fell short against Minnesota for the second time this season.

LOVE HURTS: Jordan Love’s final statistics were OK — 19-of-30 for 185 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions and a 91.7 passer rating.

For most of the game, though, Love was timid, inaccurate and couldn’t lead Green Bay’s offense anywhere.

Love had just 45 passing yards at halftime and 64 yards passing through three quarters.

In a game where Love needed to shine, he was thoroughly outplayed by Minnesota’s Sam Darnold.

WHERE’S JAIRE?: Green Bay cornerback Jaire Alexander sat out his sixth straight contest with a knee injury and has now missed 33 of the Packers’ last 67 games. There have also been five games Alexander has started, but couldn’t finish — such as Green Bay’s Week 11 contest in Chicago when he played just 10 snaps.

In all, Alexander played just four games in 2021, seven last season and seven this year. And at this point, it’s unclear if Green Bay’s will have its top cornerback for the postseason.