Highlights from Packers 41-17 victory over Vikings

The Green Bay Packers sent a message to the Minnesota Vikings and the rest of the NFL with a dominant performance on Sunday afternoon.

Green Bay needed to win to keep their playoff hopes alive, and that’s exactly what they did. Their special teams and defense helped the Packers put a ton of points on the board and put this game away early.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns from the beginning. Green Bay had a punt blocked, setting the Vikings up with the ball on the one-yard-line for their second possession. The good news is that Green Bay’s defense came to play. After forcing a three-and-out on the Vikings’ first possession, they held strong again and only allowed a field goal.

Here are all the wonderful highlights from the Green Bay Packers’ 41-17 whooping of the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17.

That gave the Packers exactly what they needed and quickly changed the momentum. Before their offense could even get back on the field, Keisean Nixon finally did what he’s been flirting with for weeks and returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

The Packers continued to score in unconventional ways. Darnell Savage, who was benched a few weeks ago, had a nice game and returned an interception for a touchdown off a tipped pass.

Following a Mason Crosby field goal that put Green Bay up 17-3, the Packers’ defense was back at it again. This time it was Adrian Amos who picked off an errant Kirk Cousins pass for their second turnover of the day (spoiler: there were more turnovers to come).

Green Bay’s offense finally got involved in the scoring when Aaron Rodgers found Robert Tonyan for a touchdown. They had been struggling up to this point and weren’t playing the prettiest football, so this had to feel good.

The Packers weren’t done scoring in the first half, however. They quickly stopped the Vikings, got the ball back, and Crosby hit a 56-yarder to go into halftime up 27-3

Kenny Clark came up huge with the Vikings driving halfway through the third quarter. He strip-sacked Cousins and recovered the fumble to give the offense the ball back.

The Packers’ offense later scored to begin the fourth quarter when AJ Dillon rumbled into the end zone.

Rudy Ford wanted to have some fun as well. He picked Cousins off to force the Vikings’ fourth turnover of the game–all thanks to Cousins.

Rodgers ran for another touchdown to give Green Bay a demanding 41-3 lead. Minnesota scored a couple of garbage-time touchdowns and that was all she wrote. The Packers must win in Week 18 to get into the playoffs.