Is it possible that a 75-yard touchdown pass can come at the wrong time? It certainly did for the Packers. Despite a toe injury—which probably was the result of that two-week lay about because of his COVID bullshit—Rodgers had on paper a decent enough game, 385 yards passing and four touchdowns. But the large chunk of the production came after the Packers had fallen behind 23-10 in the third quarter. The defense, which had only given up 52 points in the previous five games, had just given up a touchdown on a long drive and a two-point conversion for the Vikings to take a 31-24 lead with 2:17 to play.
That was not a lot of time left to score a game-tying touchdown, but the strike to Marquez Valdes-Scantling took only nine seconds off the clock. 2:08 left to play and the defense having but little rest time before finding themselves back on the field. An apparent interception was wiped out by the replay official, but then Kirk Cousins completed back-to-back passes for 45 yards, and then a 12-yard run by Dalvin Cook led to the inevitable field goal and a 34-31 Viking win.
The Packers racked up 467 yards of offense in the game, and had only one three-and-out. But Mason Crosby missed another relatively short-range field goal try that proved critical. Crosby has now missed 8 of his last 17 attempts, and three of those misses were the difference between potential overtime and losses in this game and against the Chiefs.
But the majority of the blame should still fall on that supposedly great defense, “resting” on its laurels after shutting out a Seahawk team that was clearly hampered by the injured play of Russell Wilson. The defense—coming into this game third in the NFL in yards and points allowed, and has kept the Packers in a position to win when the offense was only averaging 20.4 points a game over the last five, had its worst game since the opener against the Saints, allowing touchdown drives totaling 162 yards on just 13 plays in the first half, and in the second half on three scoring drives in which the Vikings offense simply picked its spots while going seemingly effortlessly down the field, converting on all five third-down plays.
The Packers have one more game before their bye, at home against the Rams to face Matthew Stafford in a new uniform. Stafford seems to have a career “rejuvenation,” while his old team, the Lions, has yet to win a game all season with Jared Goff. Obviously that means the Rams are just a better put-together team than the Lions, and it could be another long day for the defense.
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