Green Bay Packers v. Vikings: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

It wasn’t always pretty but the Green Bay Packers are NFC North Champions and here is the good, the bad, and the ugly form their performance in Minnesota.

In a way this game between was a bit of a microcosm of the Green Bay Packers’ season up to this point. In the end it certainly wasn’t always pretty but they came away with the win, which is really all that matters.

Green Bay now improves to 12-3 on the season after claiming their first ever win at U.S. Bank Stadium. But that isn’t all that happened as they also won the NFC North and with a win next week in Detroit they will secure the NFC’s No. 2 seed. In fact, if they win that game and Seattle beats San Francisco, the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC will run through Lambeau Field. I can’t imagine that there were many out there back in August who would have predicted that.

However, before we start looking ahead to next week’s game and playoff scenarios, let’s take a look back at the Packers’ performance from Monday Night with the good, the bad, and the ugly from what we saw from them on the field.

The Good

Aaron Jones

Prior to this game the Minnesota Vikings had allowed an average of just 99.0 rushing yards per game this season, the eighth fewest in all of football. But just like in their week two matchup, they had plenty of trouble slowing down Aaron Jones for the entire game. While things would start poorly for Jones as he fumbled on the opening possession and struggled to find running room, in the end he would total 154 rushing yards on 6.7 yards per carry with two touchdowns. Including a 56 yard touchdown run to put the game away in the fourth quarter.

Za’Darius Smith

There are no superlatives left to describe the play of Za’Darius Smith and what he means to this Green Bay Packers team, both on and off the field. But on Monday Night he was back at it, and put together what may have been his best performance of the season. Which is really saying something. Smith lived in the Minnesota backfield as he would total seven total tackles, including five for a loss, along with five quarterback hits and 3.5 sacks. What an incredible performance.

Davante Adams

Despite fumbling, which is incredibly rare for him, Davante Adams put up another terrific performance against the Minnesota Vikings. And this type of game against the Vikings is becoming the norm for Adams. In the end, he was targeted 16 times and caught 13 of them for 116 yards.

The Green Bay Defense

When this Packers team needed their defense the most, they came through on Monday Night with their best performance of the season. And even though they were put in some very difficult situations, they shut down the Minnesota offense.

The Vikings would finish 4-15 on third downs, as well as 0-2 on fourth, along with just seven total first downs, 139 total yards, at only 2.6 yards per play, and Kirk Cousins was sacked five times. It’s also worth noting that the Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen would combine for just three receptions on nine targets for 57 yards. The Packer defense was simply, dominant.

The Bad

Aaron Rodgers

While he did perform better in the second half, overall this was not a good performance from Aaron Rodgers. His final stat line would read 26/40 for 216 yards with an interception and only 5.4 yards per attempt. Rodgers had some erratic throws and not to mention that there were some questionable decisions made once again.

He took a sack on the sidelines in the first half instead of just dumping the ball out-of-bounds, then he almost had a second pick in the end zone as he tried to fit a pass into a very tight window, and he also burned the team’s final timeout with seven seconds left before half with the play clock at zero. But as he usually does, he made some nice throws as well in the second half that helped put this game away. Yet with that said, his play overall lands him in the “bad” category.

The Ugly

The Turnovers

The Green Bay Packers came into Monday Night’s game with one of the best turnover differentials in the NFL but in the first half we saw some very sloppy play and it unexpectedly came from all three of their playmakers.

On the opening drive Aaron Jones would fumble, two possessions later Aaron Rodgers would throw an interception – and as I mentioned above he nearly had another – then Davante Adams would fumble as well. We also can’t forget that Jimmy Graham also put the ball on the ground, but luckily Geronimo Allison was able to jump on it. And this all happened before halftime!

Overall the Packers dominated this game as they had more first downs, total yards, ran more plays, and held the ball longer than Minnesota, but if it wasn’t for the defense playing so well, those sloppy turnovers very easily could have been the reason that they lost.