Turnovers and Parsons Doom Vikings in Green Bay
The drama and disappointment of the 2025 Vikings season continued in full force as the second half unraveling at Lambeau Field resulted in a 23-7 loss to the Packers. To add injury to insult, QB J.J. McCarthy — off another inconsistent day— has now landed in concussion protocol.
Turnovers and Micah Parsons doomed the Vikings in Green Bay as critical mistakes and defensive dominance shaped the outcome from start to finish.
McCarthy has not been ruled out of next Sunday’s game at Seattle by Coach Kevin O’Connell. He reported symptoms on the flight home, and the Vikings’ medical team placed him in concussion protocol, but he attended team meetings on Monday.
McCarthy was sacked five times and hit 10 times in the game. He led an offense that was relatively productive in the first half (141 total yards, including 86 rushing and 55 passing) as the Vikings trailed 10-6 at halftime.
It All Crashed for the Vikings on Sunday at Lambeau
The game turned early in the third quarter after a Vikings defensive stop was followed by Myles Price’s bad play in not getting out of the way of a punt that bounced back and hit him, with the Packers recovering the ball at the Minnesota 5-yard line, leading to a quick TD and a 17-6 deficit for the Purple.
The second half was a disaster on offense with four net yards as the Vikings abandoned the run (three carries for seven yards over the final two quarters), and the Packers’ pass rush, led by All-Pro Micah Parsons, had all five sacks after halftime.
Parsons beat Christian Darrisaw twice for sacks and ran over Ryan Kelly to set up a goal-line sack by Devonte Wyatt. McCarthy threw two interceptions in the last 7:36 (one when Rashan Gary beat Justin Skule after Skule replaced Darrisaw, who left with a foot injury–and Gary’s pressure forced an errant throw, and the other pick came on an overthrow of an open Jalen Nailor).
McCarthy has thrown 10 picks in six games, including two in four of his starts. His 57.9 passer rating ranks last among regular starters this season.
Now, McCarthy’s reunion game next Sunday at Seattle with last year’s Vikings starter, Sam Darnold, is in jeopardy, and we’ll see how the week unfolds for him. If he can’t go, Max Brosmer will likely get his first start unless the coaches decide to go with practice squad QB John Wolford, who has four career starts with the Rams (2-2 record).
With their third straight loss after the upset win in Detroit, the Vikings almost certainly have to win their last six games to get to 10 wins for a shot at a playoff spot. It’s a tall order for a team that keeps making too many critical mistakes across all three phases.
Here are my other reactions from the Vikings’ loss to the Packers:
1. For the third straight week, the Vikings defense played decently as they were put in a bad spot by the inconsistent offense, but the D produced no turnovers: they held the Packers offense to 16 points aside from the five-yard TD drive after Price’s miscue. But they could’ve done a better job stopping backup RB Emanuel Wilson, who started for the injured Josh Jacobs.
Wilson rushed for 107 yards on 28 carries with two TDs. The Packers had 146 yards on the ground as they worked the clock (37-23 minute edge in time of possession). Jordan Love only threw 21 passes with 14 completions for 139 yards.
2. In the current three-game losing streak, the team is minus 8 in turnover ratio. The Vikings were plus 12 (third best) last season, but are now minus 12 on the season, which is second worst in the league (the 2-9 Jets are minus 13). The nine takeaways are the fourth fewest (after leading the league with 33 last season). The 21 giveaways are the most in the NFL, interestingly, just one more than this week’s opponent, Seattle, which has the fourth-worst ratio at minus 7.
The other three NFC North teams are all on the plus side—Chicago leads the league at plus 16, Detroit is plus 5, and Green Bay is plus 4. That’s a big part of the reason those three teams all have at least seven wins (Chicago: 8-3, Green Bay: 7-3-1, Detroit: 7-4).
3. Special teams miscues are killing the Vikings. For the third straight week, there was a major blunder: Price’s kickoff return fumble against Baltimore, the 56-yard kickoff return by Devin Duvernay of Chicago in the final minute to set up the winning field goal in the Bears game, and Price’s punt return miscue on Sunday.
On the plus side for special teams, Will Reichard is having an All-Pro caliber season, having missed only two kicks, and one of those was probably hit by a camera wire in London. He set an NFL record in cold and windy Lambeau Field when he made his fourth field goal of 59 or more yards this season. Reichard also converted from 52 yards. Ryan Wright also had an excellent game with a 55.5-yard average on four punts.
4. Run game effective before it was prematurely abandoned by O’Connell when the Vikings fell behind by 11 points: in the first half, the Vikings rushed for 86 yards to help balance the offense for McCarthy, who wasn’t sacked and didn’t turn it over until the second half, when the Vikings ran it only three times for seven yards.
In the first half, Aaron Jones ran for 42 yards (5.3 average), and Jordan Mason picked up 41 yards (4.6 average) as the Vikings stayed close to the Packers. Jones and Mason each had only one second-half carry, which amounted to poor play-calling when McCarthy was under siege in the passing game and had no time to hit open receivers downfield (more quick screens and slants should’ve been called, along with more running plays).
The Vikings can forget about ever calling the T.J. Hockenson QB sneak after he was stuffed on 3rd-and-1 at the Green Bay 17 in the second quarter, before Mason was stopped on fourth down with Hockenson missing a block on DE Kingsley Enagbare, who made the play.
5. The Vikings’ third-down struggles continued: the offense converted only 2 of 9 (22.2%) and was 0 for 1 on fourth down. The defense allowed 7 of 14 third downs to be converted, many on short runs by Wilson.
Pro Bowl Edge/OLB Jonathan Greenard has been greatly missed the last two games with his shoulder injury, both in the pass rush and on run defense. The Vikings had only one sack on Love (by Dallas Turner, who has replaced Greenard in the starting lineup and is improving), but the Vikings could use both of them in passing situations.
Around the NFL Observations from Week 12
1. The Vikings’ fellow NFC North teams all won on Sunday. The Packers had the easiest time with the Vikings. Detroit trailed the Giants by 10 points twice, including in the early fourth quarter, before sending the game to overtime on Jake Bates’ 59-yard field goal and winning on Jahmyr Gibbs’ 69-yard TD run, followed by Aidan Hutchinson’s game-ending sack of Jameis Winston.
The Bears struggled at home to beat the Aaron Rodgers-less Steelers 31-28 with Caleb Williams tossing three TD passes and Rodgers’ replacement Mason Rudolph turning it over twice.
Chicago is clinging to a half-game lead over Green Bay and a one-game lead over Detroit, which could change this week as the Bears head to Philly for a tough Black Friday matchup after the Packers and Lions meet in Detroit on Thanksgiving. It’s a rematch of Week 1 when the Packers dominated the Lions 27-13. The Bears face the Packers the following week, during a challenging two-week period for Chicago.
2. Kansas City (6-5) kept its playoff hopes alive by rallying from a 20-9 fourth-quarter deficit to beat Indianapolis 23-20 in overtime.
The Cowboys trailed 21-7 before they came back to beat the Eagles 24-21 in Dallas behind 354 passing yards and two TDs from Dak Prescott. The Dallas D shut out the Eagles in the second half as the Cowboys (5-5-1) kept their slim playoff hopes alive.
The Chiefs are at Dallas in the second Thanksgiving Day game. Baltimore—winners of five straight—hosts Cincinnati in the night game on Thanksgiving. The Ravens are now tied with the Steelers for the AFC North lead at 6-5 after a 23-10 home win over the Jets. Baltimore and Pittsburgh will meet in Weeks 14 and 18. So all three games this Thursday have playoff implications, which should make for exciting games.
The Rams at 9-2 (with six straight wins) are the NFL’s best team through Week 12 after crushing Tampa Bay 34-7 behind likely MVP Matthew Stafford’s three TD passes. He now has 30 TD passes and only two interceptions this season.
The surprising Patriots have the AFC’s best record at 10-2 after their 26-20 win in Cincinnati. Drake Maye continued his strong second season with 294 passing yards and one TD (with one pick).
In one other game of note, Kirk Cousins threw two TD passes (one pick) as the Falcons ended a five-game losing streak with a 24-10 win at New Orleans. Could Cousins wind up back in Minnesota to challenge McCarthy for the starting job next season if the next six weeks don’t go a lot better for young J.J.?
Vikings-Seahawks: I’ll be back on Friday to preview next Sunday’s matchup with Darnold and the surprising 8-3 Seahawks in Seattle. Perhaps by then, we’ll know if McCarthy is expected to start.
Darnold would love to show the Vikings they made a mistake by not keeping him for at least one more year on a franchise tag, but he’s certainly happy to be in Seattle with a playoff contender. He rebounded from a four-interception game in the Week 11 loss to the Rams by throwing for 244 yards and two TDs (both to star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba ) in Sunday’s 30-24 road win at Tennessee.
Darnold has a 106.2 passer rating to rank fifth with 19 TDs, 10 interceptions, and a 69.5% completion rate. He has been sacked only 11 times, the fewest among regular starters. Smith-Njigba leads all NFL receivers with 1,313 yards, and his seven TDs rank fourth. He’ll be a big challenge for the Vikings’ secondary.
Titans QB Cam Ward had a fine game against the Seattle defense that ranks seventh overall (14th against the pass and 4th against the run). Ward had 256 passing yards, one TD toss, and 37 yards rushing with a TD on the ground. So perhaps McCarthy can have a better game this week if he plays.
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