Vikings' 41-17 loss to the Packers shuffles the NFC playoff picture

GREEN BAY, WIS. — The first day of 2023 began with such promise for a team, and a fan base, that has treated this season as a renewal.

Temperatures pushed near 40 degrees, ushering a larger-than-normal contingent of Vikings fans eastward in smooth driving conditions. Late-afternoon sun shone brilliantly over Lambeau Field; the stadium's video boards delivered news the Vikings would still have a chance at home-field advantage through the playoffs with the Eagles' loss to the Saints.

Three-hundred sixty-four days before, the Vikings had left Lambeau Field with freezing fingers and frayed nerves, after a 37-10 defeat that eliminated them from playoff contention and assured they'd have a new head coach.

This time? The Vikings, not the Packers, had already clinched the NFC North. The Packers, not the Vikings, were fighting for their postseason lives. Kevin O'Connell, the coach whose first NFL win came in the Vikings' Sept. 11 thumping of Green Bay, was bidding to become the first Vikings coach in 30 years to sweep the Packers in his first season. Former Packers linebacker Za'Darius Smith and running back Dalvin Cook egged on the Lambeau Field fans at the end of pregame warmups, as if to say the Vikings were no longer afraid of their biggest rival and the NFC North's longtime standard-bearer.

But as the sun faded out of view, Lambeau's grass grew slippery and the Packers' points piled up, the Vikings were left to question just how solid their footing is before the playoffs.

Plagued by mistakes ranging from slips to drops and coverage busts, the Vikings lost 41-17 to Green Bay on Sunday afternoon, in a defeat that cost them a chance for the No. 1 seed and put the Packers back in position to reach the playoffs. Until the Vikings scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, they trailed by 38 points; had the margin held, it would have matched the largest loss to the Packers in team history.

Even with two late touchdowns passes — one from Kirk Cousins to Jalen Nailor, the other from Nick Mullens to K.J. Osborn after the Vikings pulled starters — the loss was the seventh worst at Lambeau Field in franchise history and their third by at least 17 points this season. The Packers had kickoff and interceptions returns for touchdowns for the first time in the same game since 1967, when Vince Lombardi's final team did it in a win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

"When we lose, we lose bad," wide receiver Justin Jefferson said. "We have to find a way to fix that."

The Vikings can no longer claim the NFC's top seed, and they would need a win over the Bears next Sunday, as well as a 49ers loss to the Cardinals, to reclaim the second spot and ensure a potential divisional round matchup with San Francisco would take place at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The manner in which they lost, however, was again as concerning as the matter of the defeat itself.

Against a team that had produced takeaways in nine consecutive games, the Vikings turned the ball over four times, including twice in Packers territory. After coaches and the team's equipment staff "strongly encouraged" players to wear seven-studded cleats for traction on Lambeau Field's slick surface, multiple Vikings players slipped on the grass in the first half and switched their cleats during the game. Darnell Savage returned a pass off T.J. Hockenson's hands for a touchdown; Keisean Nixon raced through a gap in the middle of the Vikings' kickoff coverage unit for a 105-yard score.

The Vikings lost center Austin Schlottmann because of a broken left fibula, and played most of the game without right tackle Brian O'Neill, who will have a MRI on the calf injury he sustained on Savage's interception. The Vikings took a pair of false start penalties after snap count issues with Chris Reed, who was playing center for the first time in his career.

Jefferson caught only one pass for 15 yards, as the Packers slowed him down with Jaire Alexander pressing him and a safety helping the corner over the top. When Alexander broke up a pass near the Vikings' sideline right before Savage's interception, Alexander did Jefferson's "Griddy" dance to mock the receiver. Jefferson wondered after the game why Alexander hadn't been called for taunting.

On defense, the Vikings sacked Aaron Rodgers only once and allowed the Packers to run for 163 yards.

Not one phase of the Vikings' operation was spared from responsibility.

"We're going to get the opportunity to host a playoff game," O'Connell said. "We've earned that right. But now we've got to look at every asset of our football team as a viable contributing member. We're going to need everyone. I've been telling our team all year that we're going to need absolutely everybody."

The Packers' midseason slide might have led more season ticket-holders to put their seats for the Jan. 1 game up for sale; Vikings fans made up a larger portion of the Lambeau Field crowd than they often do in Green Bay. The purple-clad contingent roared early, when Josh Metellus broke through the line of scrimmage and blocked Pat O'Donnell's punt, becoming the first player since 1995 to block punts in back-to-back weeks. It gave the Vikings the ball at the Packers' 1, with a chance for an early touchdown.

On first down, Cousins threw for Jefferson, who slipped for the second time in the Vikings' first four offensive plays. On second down, the Packers stopped Cook for no gain, and Schlottmann — playing for the injured Garrett Bradbury — sustained the injury that would take him out of the game. T.J. Slaton then tackled Cook for a 1-yard loss, and the Vikings settled for a field goal from the Packers' 2.

The Packers ended the first quarter with as many first downs (2) as touchdowns, thanks to Savage's and Nixon's scoring returns.

Rodgers hit Robert Tonyan for a 21-yard touchdown in the second quarter to put Green Bay up 24-3, on a play where Tonyan cruised past Metellus as the Vikings' lone deep safety. Mason Crosby's 56-yard field goal on the final play of the first half bounced off the crossbar and through the uprights, for his longest kick since 2020.

The Packers led 27-3 at halftime, and two fourth-quarter touchdowns put things out of reach.

"This game is a momentum-based game," O'Connell said. "When you do not sustain drives offensively, eventually, it's just too much for your team to overcome. That's where we've got to find ways, in all phases of our team, to limit the momentum being that avalanche that has tended to happen."

As fans filed out of the stadium, the "Go Pack Go" chants from Packers supporters thundered as loudly through the Lambeau Field concourse as they have in years after a win over the Vikings.

The day, for all its promise, ended with a familiar chill.