The Green Bay Packers had as bad of a performance as you could have expected from this team in the first half against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. At Lambeau Field, they were down 28-0 close to halftime, and a sequence of mistakes starting in the first drive was the main reason for the awful result.
In the second half, the Packers were much better and made the game surprisingly close, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit. After all, the Vikings won 31-29, moving to 4-0 in the season, while Green Bay falls to 2-2.
Mistakes all around
Isaiah McDuffie dropped an interception during the first drive, and it turned into a Vikings touchdown. Nobody knew it at that point, but mistakes for the Packers ended up being the theme of the game.
In the first offensive drive, Elgton Jenkins had a huge false start in the red zone on third down, and Dontayvion Wicks dropped the following pass.
In the following drive, there was a facemask by Edgerrin Cooper and an offside by Devonte Wyatt. In the second offensive drive, Jordan Love misread the defense, throwing a pick to linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill — to make things worse, wide receiver Christian Watson got hurt on the play.
Keisean Nixon missed a tackle for a Jordan Addison's rushing touchdown, and there was also a false start by running back Emanuel Wilson on a third and one.
Romeo Doubs had two huge drops — the first one generated second's Love interception, and the second one was inside Vikings' territory.
In addition to everything else, the Packers will probably go back to the kicker market soon. Brayden Narveson missed an easy 37-yard field goal in the first drive, and then missed a 49-yarder in the third drive.
Late in the game, when the Vikings were ahead by nine points, Jordan Love also had his worst mistake of the game. It was first and 10, and he threw an unnecessary arm punt, being intercepted in the end zone after misreading Brian Flores' proposed coverage. The following drive ended with a fumble from Tucker Kraft.
With all these mistakes and a good, well-coached game from the Vikings, the final result was never a question. It was just a matter of how much.
Positive attitude
The game was essentially over before halftime. Expect that it wasn't. Head coach Matt LaFleur said coming back to the second half that he wanted to see what his team was about. And the Packers, in fact, had a much better performance in the second half.
From a disastrous performance, they turned it into a close game in the fourth quarter. It was 28-22 with ten minutes to go.
That happened because the defense finally forced turnovers — a pick by Xavier McKinney and a forced fumble by Keisean Nixon. Also, because Jordan Love started to be more efficient. Green Bay had solid drives, scoring multiple times.
It wasn't enough to get the win, but it still leaves a better taste for what the rest of the season may look like.
Zero pass rush
The Packers are paying big money to Rashan Gary and Preston Smith, they used a first-round pick to add Lukas Van Ness. Watching the defense on the field, you wouldn't see that the team has invested so much in the edge rushers. Outside of an outlier game against an awful Tennessee Titans' pass protection, the Packers have had a lot of trouble to create pressure, and it was particularly bad against the Vikings.
Sam Darnold has all day to throw. Even the interior of the defensive line, which was presumably a favorable matchup for the Packers, couldn't create much. Jeff Hafley started sending some blitzes, and those are the best plays of the day — a sack from Quay Walker and the sack-fumble from Keisean Nixon.
The situation is particularly troubling for Rashan Gary. The Packers expected him to be an elite edge rusher and paid him like one, but he was completely dominated by Vikings right tackle Brian O'Neill. It was not an outlier, either. In the previous three weeks, he had only six pressures — which is third on the team, behind Devonte Wyatt and Kenny Clark. He had a 53.2 PFF pass rush grade.
The lack of pass rush was exposed on Sunday, without Jaire Alexander and Carrington Valentine . The starting cornerback trio had Eric Stokes, Corey Ballentine, and Keisean Nixon. In base, Ballentine left the field, so Nixon was forced to unusually move outside. In these circumstances, the defense needed good play upfront, and it didn't have it.
Related: Packers WR Christian Watson is carted off the field after concerning injury
Local News
