LAMBEAU ESCAPE

VIKINGS 31

PACKERS 29

For one half of football today, the Minnesota Vikings played about as complete and dominant as a team possibly can. For the other half...😬

At least we get to start with the good stuff. The Vikings 1st half blitzkrieg began with the opening drive, as the offense drove right down the field. A long 3rd down conversion to Jalen Nailor was followed immediately by a touchdown throw to Jordan Addison, in his 1st action since week 1.

Jordan Love was also seeing his 1st action since week 1, and he drove the Packers into field goal range. But, this 1st half was so blessed that the Packers kicker missed a relatively short field goal. 

The Vikings offense rolled to touchdown #2 on a drive aided by a few Packer penalties. Sam Darnold hit Josh Oliver for the score.

Things began to really get out of hand when Love was soon picked off by Kamu Grugier-Hill (on a play that also injured Christian Watson). The Vikings rolled to another touchdown, a shifty run by Addison.

But the dream half wasn't done yet. The Packers missed another field goal. The Vikings had to punt on the ensuing drive, but even that was okay cause Ryan Wright's punt pinned the Packers deep. And just a couple plays later. Love misfired again and was picked off by Shaq Griffin.

Darnold made probably his best throw of the season, an absolute pinpoint throw to Justin Jefferson, for the touchdown. JJ was doing his Griddy dance, and the Packers and their fans were utterly lifeless.

But then a small mistake led to a bigger mistake and gave the Packers life.

On 3rd and 1, Darnold could have easily run for a 1st down, but opted to fire one into a crowd for Brandon Powell. It was incomplete, and Powell got sandwiched between 2 defenders.

He was still unavailable when the Packers next punted. Nailor was back for the punt. With very little time left in the half there was no reason to even field the punt, but Nailor, staring into the sun, did try, and as it went over his head he let it graze his fingers, gifting the dead Packers a huge break.

Love hit a TD throw moments later, and a still overall excellent half ended with the Packers breathing.

It wasn't exactly a momentum swing. The Packers went 3 and out to start the 3rd quarter. And the Vikings were driving again. Addison made a fantastic leaping catch. Aaron Jones busted a long run. Darnold scrambled. But then we had a true momentum swing. Already well within field goal range, Darnold took a shot to the endzone and was intercepted at the 2.

Even up multiple scores, you just can't give away points like that. Still, things looked well in hand. The Vikings' defense turned Green Bay over on downs. But the Vikings offense had bogged down. 

The Packers finally had a real touchdown drive. The pass rush that was barely there all day started leading to goes in the secondary, and soon it was 28-14.

Any comeback (or blown lead) has that one disaster play, and it happened early in the next Vikings drive. Darnold was chased down from behind for a strip sack. The Packers recovered deep in Vikings territory and only needed 2 plays to score again (plus converting a 2). So, in just a couple minutes of real time, it was 28-22.

The next Vikings drive was imperative to get points. A couple of big Jefferson connections got the Vikings into field goal range. And after a busted play led to a sack that was all they got, but Will Reichard nailed the kick to provide a 2 score breathing room.

The next 2 Packer drives ended quickly in turnovers, first a Byron Murphy endzone pick, and then a Murphy forced fumble. 

The Vikings offense got the ball and hit a couple of big plays (including a splendid sideline top tap by Jefferson) to get deep in the redzone for a chance to ice the game. KOC decided to go for a 4th and 1 inside the 5, but an end-around Nailor run was stuffed.

Alright, but up 9 with barely 2 minutes left and the Packers 96 yards away, what was there to worry about?

Well, a lot apparently as nobody covered a receiver, and let Love zip the Packers the distance in barely a minute to cut the lead to 2. This wasn't even prevent defense. More like give up defense.

The onside kick was covered easily, but there was a little bit of a sour taste after this win.

The hope is that the defensive issues in the 2nd half were more of just playing things kind of vanilla and not that the Flores D was figured out, like it was in that Bengals game last year. On offense they were too insistent on passing when running it more would have kept things under control.

It could even be that at 28-0, they collectively took the foot off the gas and just kind of assumed victory. But the Packers are good, and we're not going to just lay down, and you should have known that you needed to keep at it for the full 60 minutes. At least they got that slap of reality in a game they still won. 

And they did win. 4-0, and winning 3 of the toughest games on the schedule in a row. Darnold was still mostly good. O-line was excellent. Defense made big plays even after halftime.

There remains another level this team can rise to, and it is tremendously exciting to know that they still could have their best football ahead of them.