The Packers hosted the Vikings in a classic NFC North rivalry in week two of the NFL season. Minnesota was coming off a 28-12 win over Atlanta at home and the Packers took down the Bears by a 10-3 score on the road.
Getting off to a quick start, the Packers took the first possession of the game and marched 75 yards on four plays, culminating in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Jamaal Williams. Controlling the game the entire quarter, Green Bay struck again with a 12-yard pass from Rodgers to Geronimo Allison to go up by 14 after the first quarter.
The Packers started the second quarter the way they started the game, going 33 yards on four plays, ending in an Aaron Jones two-yard touchdown run to go ahead 21-0. On the next possession, the Vikings struck quickly on a 75-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook to cut the lead to 21-7. A Dan Bailey field goal cut the lead to 21-10 at the half.

With the Packers’ offense continuing to sputter, the Vikings drew closer with a 45-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Stefon Diggs. The PAT was blocked and the Packers lead was 21-16. The defenses took over forcing a combined nine punts. The Packers game up with an interception and a forced fumble at the end of the game to seal a 21-16 win.
For the Vikings, Cousins completed 14-of-32 for 230 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Cook led the rushing attack with 154 yards on 20 carries. Adam Thielen led the receivers with five catches for 75 yards.
Rodgers threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Aaron Jones ran for 116 yards on 23 attempts and Davante Adams paced all players in receiving with seven catches for 106 yards.
A Look Ahead to Next Week
The Packers look to improve to 3-0 as they face the 0-2 Broncos next week at Lambeau Field. This game should in theory be a much easier one than the last two as the Packers are heavily favored by most betting outlets.
It is highly unlikely that the Denver Broncos are going to pose much of a threat — especially considering they will be playing at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Following week 2’s loss to the Chicago Bears, Broncos QB Joe Flacco was quoted as saying ‘[we] need to learn to win football games’. Yes, you do, Joe — just probably not this one against the Packers in Green Bay.
To be fair, the Broncos did manage 27 first downs against a Bears defense that the Packers only managed 13 against in week 1. They relied heavily on their passing game, but that is not likely a good strategy in Lambeau with the speed of the Packers’ secondary and with The Smiths bringing pressure. Darnell Savage left the previous game in a boot with trainers, but according to Rob Demovsky it was a precaution. Recent reports indicate it is a bone contusion, but he should be playing Sunday in some capacity. This is fantastic news as getting as much productivity from a rookie as they have so far has been a boon for the defense.
I looked over the first 3 series by the Packer offense. I understand we want to run the ball and for the queen game we almost had a 50/50 split of runs/pass. But you have Rodgers and running the ball is not how your bread is buttered. I agree running is important with the reasons being obvious to educated fans. But Rodgers and the Packers didn’t build their success running the ball when their offense was dominant.
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In the first 3 series the offense had 11 pass attempts with 10 completions. They had 8 running plays. So you had 11 against 8, which prorated during an entire game would leave you with about 65% pass against 35% run based on 68 plays. I think that’s the neighborhood where you ideally want to live with Rodgers as your QB with a bit of flexibility for a few more runs. In those 3 series passing the ball gave us 141 yards, while rushing yielded 30 yards.
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I keyed in on those drives for obvious reasons, those drives were the only success the offense had scoring. Whats troubling to me is that through the first 15 minutes and 44 seconds, the Packers gained 171 yards and 21 points. In contrast…in the last 44 minutes and 16 seconds of the game the offense gained 164 yards and zero points. That is highly troubling to me. But…i’ll stick to my theory of this being a new offense, and if….we keep making progress. It’s all good. If not…it’s a safe bet i have more to say.
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Iv’e said for years and years and years….The Packers success rides on the arm of Aaron Rodgers. That’s as true the first time i said it, as it is today. The viking game proved no different.
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The Packer/Bronco game should follow suit similar to the Bear and viking games. More later, maybe. Today is all about the Badgers …GO BUCKY!!
Lol Michigan. Lol Jim Harbaugh
Brew Crew dominates, Badgers dominate. Was a great day, and Harbaugh can eat a dick.
Total Packers, proving the DK effect since 2005.
Dunning-Kruger for the curious. It is commonly projected onto others. Nothing to see here.
Sound familiar?
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https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27662172/an-84m-game-manager-vikings-trying-figure-kirk-cousins
It’s a familiar misuse of stats. The narrative is that Cousins somehow intentionally loses or loses it and thus loses. This is derived by the won-loss record alone. It’s a team game.
First, the Redskins are and have always been a mess. Those stats need to be disregarded entirely. Rodgers would have had the same success with them as Cousins. Perhaps bit less actually.
Keep in mind when facing winning teams that those teams are winning an average of, what, 10.5 games per year? Thus, a team will lose two thirds of the time when facing a winning team. Just out of the gate expectation. Losing two thirds of those is typical.
You need to look at the individual games and look at the performance there. Last year, as a for instance, Cousins balled out in Green Bay with 4 TDs and over 400 yards of passing. Green Bay was 1-0 and thus had a winning record at the time. Cousins “won” that game as per personal performance. However, three missed Field Goals, 2 of them in overtime, an interception caused by Treadwell basically handing perfectly thrown ball over to the Packer leading to a TD, and a special team punt block allowed for a TD led to a tie instead of a win. Not. Cousins. Fault.
On a short week he went to L.A. and balled out a perfect game even with no pass protection and the Vikings lost due to D and not him at all. (38-31 in L.A. on a Thursday, travel cross country) The following week he went in to Philadelphia and had an amazing game in Philly (!) on grass and the Vikings won the game due to him. But the Eagles were 2-2 at the time so, despite being Super Bowl champs at home and going on to have a winning season and winning a playoff game this game is not counted as part of the convenient narrative that Cousins cannot beat winning teams.
How many games did Aaron Rodgers win last year against winning teams?
Did you guess zero? Ding ding ding, you win! It was zero! How many games did they not win against winning teams? Seven! 7 !!! Wow, huh? Rodgers is “just as bad” as Kirk Cousins! (Rodgers also lost to the, gulp, I shit you not, the Cardinals, at, I shit you not, HOME in Green Bay!)
To put it further in perspective, keep in mind Cousins had the second worst pass protection of any QB last year and the worst so far this year. He also had no run game last year. So he is producing the same results as Rodgers under much worse circumstances. Both last year and this year Cousins has a new offense to learn. I see you guys make plenty of excuses for Rodgers on that basis this year but none, of course, for Cousins.
Cousins currently is 3rd ALL TIME in QB passing accuracy. That is not the mark of a loser.
You guys can keep hating Cousins, jealous that he is nice, kind, down to earth — unlike SOME people who may quarterback your team — but you really are barking up the wrong tree.
Cousins had a bad game in Green Bay last week. It happens. No protection going on. Aaron Rodgers has actually had even worse games in his career. Yes. Yep. Check out the stats and you will see it. Gee, guess that means Rodgers is worse than Cousins! Packers are, what, 13-0-1 in September home games? The one tie being due to Cousins’ heroics. So I guess that means he’s better than those other 11-12 QBs the Packers played….. (which includes Russell Wilson by the way). That is the only logical conclusion if you entirely judge a QB’s worth on whether the team wins or loses.
Just thought I’d lay a little knowledge on you guys. Allow that foreign substance into your system. (Sarcastic)
Piffle, good luck on your recovery. (Not sarcastic)
I honestly appreciate that. So much so that if i get bored enough, i may even read your novel.
I’ve been pessimistic all season long, so why stop now.
The Broncos game will look just like the last two with the offense not getting off the ground, except for a few plays. Turnovers will be key. If the defense can’t bail out the offense again, the Packers will lose.
I will say this:
Including tomorrow’s game the Packers have faced a murderer’s row of defenses to start the year. Bears were #1 last year, Vikings were #4, and now the Broncos. Hard to get a read on your offense against them.
Deep, i’ll give the defense the credit for the win against the bears. But not against the queens. We didn’t know then but the game was over within 16 minutes into the game. The defense gave up 421 yards, which,usually ends in a loss, or a tight game. But the queens offensive incompetence got in the way. Like passing a brick up on 1st and goal. I can see throwing that ball (maybe) on 4th down with 5 seconds left, but only a moron throws it up for grabs on 1st and goal. Come to think about it, calling Cousins a game manager isn’t accurate, he’s not good enough to be a game manager (as proven).
It may come down to turnovers Deepsky, however I would also look at red zone TD %. The Packers defense is #2 in allowing red zone TDs. The Packers offense is #6 in converting red zone TDs. The broncos are near the bottom of the league on defense (#28) and offense (#30) in red zone TD % allowed and converted. A small sample size at this time, but next to turnovers the red zone TD % has in my opinion the biggest impact on final score.
I’m fairly certain I heard in training camp LaFleur and the offense put a lot of time on red zone offense, that means the defense also spent a lot of time on the same. The extra time spent in red zone situations has payed off so far. Next step getting the offense to perform consistently throughout the game outside the red zone.
UGA > Notre Dame, not that anyone here cares
That game was a lot closer than I expected. I thought Georgia was going to roll them.
College football in a nutshell. Good luck predicting. Why I love it.