Sep 29, 2024; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Minnesota Vikings place kicker Will Reichard (16) kicks a field goal against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Mandatory Credit: Tork Mason/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images.
The Vikings ship survived the treacherous second-half waters in a big divisional win on Sunday at Lambeau Field against the arch-rival Packers. They now set sail across the pond to face the stout New York Jets defense and their struggling offense led by old foe Aaron Rodgers.
The Vikings are a perfect 3-0 in regular-season games in London, with their last visit in 2022 when they beat the Saints 28-25.
The Vikings-Packers game turned from a first-half blowout when the Vikings seemingly had the Pack buried at 28-0 into a nail-biter in the fourth quarter. QB Jordan Love recovered from a bad first three quarters to lead a rally that cut the lead to 28-22 before Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson combined on two big plays to set up a Will Reichard field goal. Byron Murphy overcame a rough game where the Packers targeted him often and had an interception and a forced fumble in the final seven minutes.
Jefferson made a tremendous sideline catch on third down to help drain several minutes off the clock before the Packers scored again, but only had time for an onside kick that Josh Oliver recovered.
The Vikings have navigated through perhaps the toughest three-week stretch of their season with victories over three 2023 playoff teams—San Francisco, Houston, and Green Bay. It’s quite an accomplishment, but Coach Kevin O’Connell insists that nothing that’s happened so far matters. I beg to differ—4-0 is a phenomenal start that no one saw coming except possibly some highly optimistic Vikings players and coaches.
Can the Vikings reach 5-0 heading into their bye week before the huge matchup on October 20 at home against the defending NFC North champion Detroit Lions, who are looking up at the Vikings in the standings through Week 4?
Here are my other reactions to the win over the Packers:
1. What a start!—with clutch plays galore on offense and defense led by a hot start from Sam Darnold (now the NFL passer rating leader at 118.9 after a three-TD, one-pick game), the Vikings were dominating at 28-0 in the second quarter. The game started to flip when Brandon Powell was hit hard and had to be replaced for one punt return by Jalen Nailor, who lost the ball in the sun and muffed a punt that he shouldn’t have tried to catch, leading to the Packers’ first TD with 15 seconds left in the first half.
The Vikings won the rushing (120-86) and turnover (plus 1) battles, two key elements in this victory.
2. Jefferson, Addison, and Nailor are a terrific trio—they all made big catches in the game. Nailor’s 31-yard reception on 3rd-and-14 set up the first TD, a 29-yard perfect strike to Addison on a hitch-and-go. With Pro Bowl corner Jaire Alexander out injured, Jefferson drew a pass interference call to set up Josh Oliver’s two-yard TD off play-action with the Packers D keying on Aaron Jones.
Addison made a great move on a jet sweep for the third TD early in the second quarter, aided by an excellent block from Jefferson.
The fourth TD in the first half was a 14-yard TD toss from Darnold to Jefferson on a perfect pass in the right corner of the end zone. It was set up by Shaq Griffin’s interception of Love who Blake Cashman pressured on the play.
Jefferson later made three huge catches in the fourth quarter, the first two of 17 and 27 yards, to set up Will Reichard’s 33-yard field goal to put the Vikings ahead 31-22. Jefferson then helped to drain a couple of minutes and the last Packers timeout with a phenomenal sideline grab of 13 yards on 3rd-and-12 with 4:08 left, which O’Connell wisely challenged and won after it was initially ruled incomplete (the officials should have known better with the NFL’s best wide receiver). That drive stalled on a failed Nailor jet sweep on 4th-and-1.
3. Credit to the O-line: The Vikings’ offensive line has played very well overall through the terrific start to the season, leading the rushing attack that has outgained every opponent. Credit also goes to the defense for containing the Packers’ run game, which led the league entering the game.
Darnold has been sacked just 11 times this season. He was hit only three times and sacked twice in Green Bay (including his first lost fumble of the season on a strip sack by Keisean Nixon that set up the Packers’ third TD). The Packers’ defensive line or edge rushers did not have any sacks, which shows the fine work by the entire O-line.
4. Don’t overuse Aaron Jones as was the case in his return to Lambeau: Jones played 82% of the offensive snaps on Sunday vs. only 12% for Ty Chandler and 6% with neither on the field. It’s understandable that Jones would play a lot more than Chandler against his former team, but Chandler is close enough in ability to Jones that they should split time or come close to it in most games as Jones has battled injury issues in the past and the team needs him to be healthy in December, January or dare we say February.
The Vikings tried hard to get Jones in the end zone for a Lambeau Leap, including when Darnold threw a third-quarter pick, which was a questionable play call and a rare bad decision by Darnold to make the risky throw on 2nd-and-1 from the Green Bay 20 with the Vikings leading 28-7. However, it appeared to be a bad call by the officials, as NFL interception leader Xavier McKinney didn’t appear to possess the ball before going out of bounds.
Jone had a great game with 93 rushing yards and four catches for 46 yards, a total of 137 combined yards.
5. The Vikings’ defense did a fine job in the first half as the Packers tried to establish a run game but only gained 43 yards (and 86 for the game but the Packers went into passing mode when they fell far behind, and Love got more comfortable in the second half). It looked early as if Love should not have started as he threw low several times and lacked mobility. But he clearly came on late in the game with 202 passing yards and three TDs in the fourth quarter.
The defense forced four turnovers (three on Love’s interceptions). But the Vikings’ pass rushers, who hit Love 10 times and sacked him once, seemed to tire late in the game. The Vikings know they need to be better at closing out games with a big lead, but the Packers deserve credit for battling back and making it a close game.
6. On defense, Blake Cashman is having an All-Pro caliber season. He had 11 tackles to lead the D, along with one tackle-for-loss and two QB hits. He now has 34 tackles to lead the team.
7. I think it’s good for the Vikings to face adversity and still come out on top against a strong divisional opponent. The Vikings’ early surge on both sides of the ball put a lot of pressure on the Packers, who dropped five passes, had four turnovers, and kicker Brayden Narveson missed field goals from 37 and 49 yards to help the Vikings.
The Vikings won the battle of rookie kickers as Reichard converted all four extra points and the critical field goal with 6:50 remaining to provide the winning points. He has made all 20 of his kicks this season (6 for 6 on field goals and 14 for 14 on extra points. He also has reached the end zone with his kickoffs whenever asked to do so.
Both teams had penalty issues, but the Packers were worse (eight for 68 yards vs. seven for 55 yards for the Vikings).
8. I’ll have my Vikings-Jets preview and prediction on Friday. The Vikings enter the game tied for the highest scoring margin differential (+57 points). They still lead the league with 17 sacks entering Monday night, and Darnold leads the league in TD passes with 11 and a 118.9 passer rating.
The Jets are 2-2 after a 10-9 home loss in the rain to Denver. Rodgers finished the game limping after he was sacked five times and took 14 QB hits so the Vikings’ pass rushers could have a big day. The Jets were penalized 13 times, including five false starts by their offense. But the Jets have the league’s top-ranked pass defense, led by All-Pro corner Sauce Gardner, who will surely match up with Jefferson.
Will the Vikings have Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson back in the lineup since he’s eligible to be activated from PUP this week? It should be another exciting game. The Vikings are an early 2 ½ point favorite, and I would expect that number to go up as the week progresses, considering the Vikings’ hot start and the Jets’ offensive issues.
Around the NFL in Week 4 & a look ahead to Week 5:
1. In the NFC North, the Bears held off the Rams 24-18 in Chicago as Caleb Williams avoided turnovers for the first time, and D’Andre Swift had 165 combined yards rushing and receiving with one TD on the ground. The Bears defense forced two Matthew Stafford turnovers.
2. Kansas City stayed unbeaten and atop the AFC West with a 17-10 win over the Chargers in L.A. But the Chiefs lost top receiver Rashee Rice to a possible ACL injury. The Steelers suffered their first defeat at Indianapolis. Baltimore gave Buffalo their first loss with a convincing 35-10 win in which Derrick Henry rushed for 199 yards (including an 87-yard TD).
Detroit beat Seattle on Monday night, and that leaves the Vikings and Chiefs as the only unbeaten teams through Week 4.
Rookie QB Jayden Daniels continued his fine start in leading 3-1 Washington to a 42-14 victory in Arizona. Atlanta beat New Orleans 26-24 on a 58-yard walk-off field goal by Younghoe Koo to improve to 2-2, one game back of Tampa Bay, who crushed the Eagles again—as they did in last year’s wild-card round. The Bucs are at the Falcons on Thursday night with first place in the NFC South on the line.
In the NFC North, Detroit has a bye week, and the Packers are at the Rams. Meanwhile, the 2-2 Bears host Carolina on Sunday after the Vikings-Jets game, which has an 8:30 a.m. CT kickoff.
Other key games include 2-2 Baltimore at 1-3 Cincinnati in an important AFC North game, Buffalo at Houston in a battle of 3-1 division leaders, 2-2 Dallas at 3-1 Pittsburgh on Sunday night, and the Chiefs will try to reach 5-0 when they host the 2-2 Saints on Monday night.
Jeff Diamond is a former Vikings GM, former Tennessee Titans President and was selected NFL Executive of the Year after the Vikings’ 15-1 season in 1998. He now works for the NFL agent group IFA based in Minneapolis and does other sports consulting and media work along with college/corporate speaking. Follow him and direct message him on Twitter– @jeffdiamondnfl