GREEN BAY, Wis. – A dominant defensive performance highlighted the Green Bay Packers’ 23-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field was the start of a stretch that could define Green Bay’s season with three consecutive division games, including one on a short week against the Detroit Lions.
Before looking ahead to a Thanksgiving showdown, the Packers had to take care of business at home against the Vikings. The Packers had a decided advantage at quarterback, but that was the case in losses to Cincinnati and Carolina, too. This time, Green Bay’s defense answered the bell, especially once they got a two-score lead in the second half.
With more on that and a plus performance in an unlikely category, here is our Packers weekly report card.
Pass Offense
The passing offense is the one bugaboo from Sunday. They were not asked to do much, but they also did not produce much.
Jordan Love was 14-for-21 for a measly 139 yards, and had a long completion of 18. He was only sacked once, which was a big point of emphasis coming into Sunday’s game due to the complex pressures designed by Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
Christian Watson was the team’s leading receiver with 49 yards on five catches. He continues to emerge as the team’s go-to playmaker in passing situations.
Romeo Doubs continued his trend of quiet games since the return of Watson with just 23 yards on two catches. Overall, the passing game gained only 142 yards as the offense leaned heavily into a ground-heavy attack in order to limit mistakes and hand the game to their defense.
“Especially a defense like this, you never know what you’re going to get at all times with pressures and different coverages where you know you’ve just got to be smart,” Love said.
“You’ve always got to be smart, but it’s different situations. If you’re down, obviously, we’d be pushing it if it’s closer game, but with a two-score lead and defense playing like that, you’ve definitely just got to be smart in those situations, keep trying to do what you’re doing. If a big play presents itself, take it, but just be smart at the end of the day.”
While the ground-heavy approach may have been the way to play on Sunday, they’re going to need to figure out a way to be more consistent in their passing game. The potential returns next week of Matthew Golden, who was inactive with shoulder and wrist injuries, and Jayden Reed, who was designated for return from injured reserve on Friday, could help.
The reality in the NFL is games are won more often in the air than on the ground. The Packers have a lot of money invested in their quarterback and will need that entire group to play better with the high-scoring Lions on deck.
Grade: D
Rush Offense
The rushing offense was dealt a big blow before the game started when Josh Jacobs was ruled inactive due to a knee injury. Jacobs pushed to play but gave way to a backfield tandem of Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks.
All Wilson did was take the ball and run with it to the tune of 107 yards on 28 carries. It was the team’s first 100-yard game this season. He was given a game ball for his efforts.
The Packers, thanks to the way their defense was playing, wanted to lean on their ground game. Did they ever lean on it, to the tune of 146 yards on 42 carries. Wilson took the bulk of those, and the majority of his yards were earned the hard way.
The Packers may have found something by a switch they made on the interior of their offensive line. Jordan Morgan, who had started six consecutive games at right guard, rotated with rookie Anthony Belton in the first half. It was Belton for the entirety of the second half as the Packers continued to chew up Minnesota’s run defense.
“I just think it’s his style of play. He’s a mauler and he does a great job,” LaFleur said of Belton. “I love the way he plays the game. Certainly, that’s going to be we’ve got to look at the tape and see how it fared for us. But he’s done a great job.”
It will be interesting to see how Green Bay lines up its offensive line on Thursday in Detroit, but with these results in the run game, it’d be hard to argue against Belton replacing Morgan in the starting lineup.
Grade: B
Pass Defense
Sunday’s game is a tale of two halves. Green Bay and Minnesota were gridlocked in a 10-6 game at halftime. The goal for the Vikings was simple. They wanted to run the ball as much as possible to shorten the game and ease the burden on quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
Their strategy worked in the first half. Minnesota had one true dropback pass in the first half, which resulted in Green Bay’s front getting pressure.
Once Emanuel Wilson’s second touchdown of the day made the score 17-6, the defense smelled blood and pounced quickly. Minnesota’s first play from scrimmage was a sack by Micah Parsons in which he beat their left tackle Christian Darrisaw clean before throwing McCarthy to the ground.
Minnesota’s second series did not fare much better. A tackle for loss from Evan Williams in the run game forced Minnesota to throw on consecutive plays.
The first was a sack from Parsons, his 10th of the season, making him the only player other than Reggie White to have 10 or more sacks in the first five seasons of their careers. The second resulted in Parsons running over center Ryan Kelly and freeing up Devonte Wyatt for his first sack since the second week of the season.
“Just going into practice, we were just going over protections and I saw a look in practice and I said if they’re going to slide hard to me this way, because I understand if I’m to the side they’re going to slide hard, can I back half it and work back to the center,” Parsons said. “I told D-Wy when it comes to the game, I am going to blow this center up.”
He did, and the pass rush, led by Parsons, blew up the entire second half for Minnesota’s offense. Minnesota’s passing game was largely helpless when asked to play in obvious passing situations and finished with 52 net passing yards. It was Green Bay’s second-best yardage total since the 2006 season.
McCarthy was sacked five times and picked off twice. Evan Williams and Isaiah McDuffie were the recipients of McCarthy’s errant throws. Wyatt had two sacks. McDuffie, who received a game ball, and Warren Brinson shared the other sack of the three that did not belong to Parsons.
Green Bay is going to face different tests, especially as the season turns toward December. It’ll face better quarterbacks than McCarthy, but it has shown when it can get teams into obvious passing situations, its pass rush has a chance to be lethal.
A big takeaway on special teams – more on that later – started the avalanche.
“Yeah, yeah. True pass rush. That’s what we been looking for,” Parsons said. “That punt was huge. Huge. Changed the whole momentum of the game. I think up until that point, if you go back and watch the film, I told the guys at halftime, they had eight passes. Five were play-action, there was one true dropback and we got pressure, and two of them were screens.
“So, I was like no one is going to let us pass rush. We got to go earn it and, in the second half thanks to that punt, we earned it and they came out and got some points, so it was big.”
Up next, the Packers will play at the Lions. Parsons and the pass rush tormented them for four sacks in Week 1. If they’re able to get Jared Goff and Detroit’s offense into obvious passing situations, this could be a repeat performance from the passing defense.
Grade: A
Rush Defense
In the tale of two halves, it was pretty clear what Minnesota’s plan was in the first half. The Vikings wanted to ride the backfield tandem of Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason to shorten the game against Green Bay’s offense and slow down their pass rush.
It worked. Minnesota trailed 10-6 at halftime. With its running backs averaging 5.7 yards per carry, it kept Green Bay’s defense off-balance.
During the second half, the Vikings’ backs touched the ball twice thanks to Green Bay’s special teams and offense giving them a two-score lead.
Their next test will come against the Lions’ backfield, which was quiet the first time these two teams met and will be out for revenge. Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 219 yards against the Giants on Sunday.
Grade: D
Special Teams
The biggest play of the game came on special teams.
Yes, you read that correctly.
With the Packers leading 10-6 in the second half, their first offensive series stalled, which forced Daniel Whelan to trot onto the field to punt.
Whelan unleashed a kick that Vikings returner Myles Price allowed to bounce in the shadow of his goal line. The results were disastrous for Minnesota. The ball bounced back into Price, and Zayne Anderson pounced on the football. Anderson, who created the fumble by pushing his blocker into Price, received a game ball.
Green Bay took over at Minnesota’s 5 and punched the ball across the goal line two plays later.
Green Bay’s special teams is often the butt of its own jokes, but had no such issues against Minnesota’s group, which came into the game as PFF’s No. 1-ranked unit and was a major reason why it believed it had a chance to earn an upset win.
This might have been the best performance in the Rich Bisaccia era. Brandon McManus made all his kicks. Whelan had three inside-the-20 punts. Romeo Doubs had a 16-yard punt return. They did not have any major gaffes, they were not penalized and they made a game-changing play.
Grade: A
Coaching
The murmurs and boos could be heard throughout the Lambeau Field crowd as coach Matt LaFleur and the offense played conservatively through most of the second half.
They finished the game with 42 runs and just 22 pass attempts. We’ve been hard on LaFleur for being too conservative in the past, but in a game in which they were facing an absolutely hapless quarterback, this was the correct move.
LaFleur’s strategy was even more prudent when you consider how well the defense was playing, a point he made when asked about it after the game ended.
“It was kind of a weird game where our defense really had control of the football game. I’ve never called the same run so many times consecutively,” LaFleur said. “It was like 3 yards and a cloud of dust but it was effective. Bottom line was I just thought with the way our defense was playing, we took the air out of the ball and said, ‘Go win it for us.’”
Whether it was intended or not, their defense should be well-rested for Thursday’s game thanks to LaFluer’s game plan. Sometimes being conservative is the smart way to play. With Packers quarterback Jordan Love’s injured shoulder and Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s obvious struggles, LaFleur was right to play the way he did.
For any potential benefit on Thursday, LaFleur wouldn’t admit it, but it can only help that they were able to cruise to victory while the Lions had to fight tooth-and-nail for an overtime victory.
“I don’t say anything’s ever an advantage when you go against a really good football team,” LaFleur said. “They’re one of the premier teams in the National Football League, for a reason. I think they’ve got great coaches, I think they got great players, great scheme. It’ll be a great challenge for us, but one our guys will be ready for.”
One thing he will have to figure out between now and Thursday is how to get his passing offense back on track. Although it was not asked to do much, it was not very effective, either.
Grade: B
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