From start to finish, the Green Bay Packers dominated the Minnesota Vikings in a must-win matchup and kept their playoff hopes alive–and, yes, that includes on the defensive side of the ball as well.
“Really proud of our team tonight,” said coach Matt LaFleur. “I thought that was a complete football game, really in every phase for four quarters.”
Coming into the game, the Packers defense had surrendered career games in back-to-back-to-back weeks to Tommy DeVito, Baker Mayfield, and Bryce Young–with DeVito and Mayfield being named NFC Offensive Players of the Week following their respective matchups.
Prior to Green Bay taking the field on Sunday night, DeVito had been benched the week before, while Tampa Bay and Carolina combined for 13 points after each dropped 30-plus on the Packers.
Although the Vikings have had inconsistency at the quarterback position since losing Kirk Cousins for the season, this was still an offense that showed it could move the ball through the air. Minnesota entered Sunday’s game averaging the sixth-most yards per pass attempt as a team, while Justin Jefferson totaled 225 receiving yards in just the last two games. KJ Osborn and Jordan Addison had also combined for over 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns between them.
To make matters even more challenging for what has been a porous Packers’ pass defense as of late, the team was without Jaire Alexander due to a team suspension, and Eric Stokes had been placed on IR, leaving Green Bay to defend Jefferson and Co. with Corey Ballentine, Carrington Valentine, and Keisean Nixon.
However, when it was all said and done, Jefferson was held to just five receptions on 10 targets for 59 yards. Addison had 28 yards, and Osborn didn’t have any.
“We’ve had a lot of guys step up,” added LaFleur. “CV going in there at corner. Corey Ballentine stepping up, getting the call last minute to go in there and start. Anytime you can come out a game holding Jefferson to 59 yards, I think you’ve got a good chance of winning the football game.”
As they have in previous games, Valentine and Ballentine were challenging the Minnesota receivers. The Green Bay secondary also benefitted from having Darnell Savage back on the field from both a leadership and communication perspective–two aspects that LaFleur has praised Savage for this season.
With that said, the Packers’ success on the back-end began with their play along the defensive front. Specifically, the Green Bay pass rush did an excellent job of getting after both Jaren Hall and Nick Mullens, making both extremely uncomfortable. After all, a cornerback’s best friend is a quarterback pressure.
The Packers finished the game logging a whopping 14 quarterback hits, with just about everyone getting in on the action, with nine different players hitting the quarterback. According to Next Gen Stats, Green Bay pressured the Vikings’ quarterbacks on 50 percent of their dropbacks, and 13 players recorded at least one pressure, tied for the most on one team this season.
Along with the Green Bay pass rushers winning their one-on-one matchups, Joe Barry continued to utilize stunts, and as he did against Carolina, he tried to force the issue with the Minnesota quarterbacks by dialing up blitzes. Pressure would also force both Viking turnovers: a strip sack from Preston Smith and Kenny Clark forcing a hurried, off-target throw by Hall.
“I thought our defense came ready to play,” said LaFleur. “You’ve got to give hats off to Joe Barry and our defensive staff for coming up with a great game plan. I know he’s taken a lot of heat lately. I know it’s one game, but I was happy for him, our staff, our players, to go out there and put on a performance against a really good offense. Just really proud of those guys.”
The scoreboard will say that the Vikings scored 10 points, but the Packers’ defense held them to just three, with a special teams blunder being responsible for the other seven.
This was a much-needed performance by the Packers’ defense, not only because a loss for Green Bay meant that they would have been eliminated from playoff contention but also because of how the previous three games had gone for them.
On both sides of the ball, it was a tremendous effort by this Packers team. But as LaFleur said afterward, this victory doesn’t mean anything if they don’t take care of business next week at home against Chicago, where it will be win and Green Bay is in the playoffs. For the defense specifically, that means building off this performance and not letting it become the outlier over the last month of the season.
“We have a ton of people working their butt off, both in that coaching hallway and in our locker room,” said Joe Barry on Thursday. “I just want to win for the Green Bay Packers. I don’t care about individual or anything like that.
“But that’s my mindset. That’s my want every week. Guys work their butt off, they prepare, go out, and practice every day, every week with the mindset to go win a football game. So that’s our goal every single week, and it would make me happy if that happens.”
