Vikings Play from Behind in Loss to Packers

By Eric Goska

Lambeau Field hours before the Packers and Vikings renewed their rivalry there.

Being a frontrunner is not for the easily rattled.

Green Bay assumed that position early in its 21-16 squeaker over the Vikings. Now, by virtue of that win, the team sits alone in first place in the NFC North Division.

If they didn’t figure it out Sunday, the Packers will in the days ahead: the team out front always draws fire.

Matt LaFleur’s regular-season debut at Lambeau Field was notable for a number of reasons. In addition to knocking off a division rival, Green Bay accomplished two other feats worthy of mention.

One was a rarity. The other was a first in this long-standing series that dates to 1961.

Green Bay’s offense scored touchdowns the first three times it had the ball. The team had never done that in 115 previous regular-season clashes with the Vikings.

Green Bay’s early haul put Minnesota squarely behind the eight ball. For just the sixth time in the history of the series, the Vikings trailed on the scoreboard every time they snapped the ball.

This type of opening was what the experts had said the Packers needed to do in order to win: get a lead early and force Minnesota to abandon its formidable running game.

Bart Starr was honored by the Packers at halftime.

But Mike Zimmer’s Vikings refused to back down. Instead of folding, Minnesota spent the better part of three quarters chipping away at the Packers’ advantage before running out of time.

In a turnabout from the opener, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ offense clicked. Instead of minus-12 yards as it earned in Chicago, the unit posted 167 first-quarter yards against Minnesota.

The Packers used 19 plays to travel 75, 63 and 33 yards their first three times out. Thirteen of the plays gained six or more yards.

Rodgers was nearly perfect, completing 10 of 11 passes for 141 yards. He connected with running back Jamaal Williams and receiver Geronimo Allison on touchdown passes.

Aaron Jones plowed in from two yards out for the third score as Green Bay went up 21-0 with just 44 seconds elapsed in the second quarter.

Minnesota had never fallen behind by that many points so quickly in a game against the Packers.

The Packers had twice before scored touchdowns on their first two drives against the Vikings. Paul Hornung and Ron Kramer did it in a 28-10 win in 1961. Elijah Pitts and Jim Taylor got there in a 28-16 triumph in 1966.

But in those games, at least, Minnesota ran a few plays while not trailing on the scoreboard. Sunday, every time Garrett Bradbury centered the ball (60 offensive snaps), the Vikings were in arrears.

That’s a lot of time spent playing catch-up.

Points! Points! Curly Lambeau always points!

The Vikings found themselves in such a situation five times previously against the Packers. They lost each time.

Four of those contests occurred more than 35 years ago. The fifth was more recent, and it, too, was decided by five points.

On Dec. 17, 2000, Green Bay and Minnesota combined for more than 800 yards. The Packers got out front 10-0, then withstood everything the Vikings threw at them. They escaped with a 33-28 decision.

Minnesota’s moxie was on display again Sunday as well. Dalvin Cook reeled off a 75-yard touchdown run and piled up 154 yards on the ground. Kirk Cousins fired passes of 61 and 45 yards, respectively, to receivers Chad Beebe and Stefon Diggs. The latter resulted in a touchdown that cut Green Bay’s lead to five points in the third quarter.

Defensive end Danielle Hunter and defensive tackle Linval Joseph each sacked Rodgers once in the second half. Rodgers was twice forced to throw the ball away on a three-and-out drive late in the second quarter.

After gaining 176 yards in the opening 16 minutes, Green Bay managed just 159 in the closing 44. Minnesota, which picked up 53 yards in the first 16 minutes, helped itself to 368 down the stretch.

In the end, Cousins could not deliver. He completed four of eight fourth-quarter passes for 35 yards and one first down. His throw from the Packers’ 8-yard line with five minutes, 10 seconds to go was intercepted by cornerback Kevin King in the corner of the end zone.

Cousins’ last offering went to Adam Thielen who lateraled to Diggs. Diggs tried to do the same, but his effort hit the turf and was recovered by Green Bay’s Tramon Williams.

That was the 60th and final play in Minnesota’s futile attempt to catch the front-running Packers.

Behind the Eight Ball

The six regular-season Packers-Vikings games in which Minnesota trailed on the scoreboard every time it ran an offensive play.

  Plays      Yards       Date                      Outcome

    57          177         Sept. 16, 1962       GB 34, Vikings 7

    51          306         Oct. 14, 1962        GB 48, Vikings 21

    57          338         Oct. 13, 1963        GB 37, Vikings 28

    68          347         Nov. 11, 1979       GB 19, Vikings 7

    56          400        Dec. 17, 2000        GB 33, Vikings 28

    60          421         Sept. 15, 2019       GB 21, Vikings 16

2020 Preliminary Modern-Day List

LOOKING AHEAD
By John Turney

via Pro Football Hall of Fame

QUARTERBACK -- Randall Cunningham, Jake Delhomme, Boomer Esiason, Jeff Garcia, Jeff Hostetler, Dave Krieg, Donovan McNabb

RUNNING BACKS -- Shaun Alexander, Mike Alstott, Tiki Barber, Earnest Byner, Larry Centers, Corey Dillon, Eddie George, Priest Holmes, Edgerrin James, Daryl Johnston, Thomas Jones, Maurice Jones-Drew, Eric Metcalf, Lorenzo Neal, Clinton Portis, Fred Taylor, Herschel Walker, Chris Warren, Ricky Watters

WIDE RECEIVERS -- Isaac Bruce, Gary Clark, Donald Driver, Henry Ellard, Torry Holt, Chad Johnson, Derrick Mason, Muhsin Muhammad, Jimmy Smith, Rod Smith, Hines Ward, Reggie Wayne

TIGHT ENDS -- Dallas Clark, Ben Coates, Keith Jackson, Brent Jones, Jeremy Shockey, Wesley Walls

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN -- Willie Anderson, Matt Birk, Tony Boselli, Lomas Brown, Ray Donaldson, Alan Faneca, Kevin Gogan, Jordan Gross, Chris Hinton, Kent Hull, Steve Hutchinson, Lincoln Kennedy, Olin Kreutz, Chris Samuels, Jeff Saturday, Brian Waters, Richmond Webb, Erik Williams, Steve Wisniewski

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN -- John Abraham, La'Roi Glover, Casey Hampton, Chester McGlockton, Leslie O'Neal, Simeon Rice, Richard Seymour, Justin Smith, Neil Smith, Greg Townsend, Bryant Young

LINEBACKERS -- Carl Banks, Cornelius Bennett, Lance Briggs, Tedy Bruschi, James Farrior, London Fletcher, Seth Joyner, Wilber Marshall, Clay Matthews, Willie McGinest, Sam Mills, Chris Spielman, Takeo Spikes, Darryl Talley, Zach Thomas, Jessie Tuggle, Patrick Willis

DEFENSIVE BACKS -- Eric Allen, Steve Atwater, Ronde Barber, LeRoy Butler, Nick Collins, Merton Hanks, Rodney Harrison, Albert Lewis, John Lynch, Terry McDaniel, Tim McDonald, Troy Polamalu, Bob Sanders, Troy Vincent, Darren Woodson

PUNTERS/KICKERS -- K David Akers, K Gary Anderson, K Jason Elam, P Jeff Feagles, K Jason Hanson, P Sean Landeta, K Ryan Longwell, K Nick Lowery, P Reggie Roby, P Rohn Stark, P Matt Turk

SPECIAL TEAMS -- Johnny Bailey, Josh Cribbs, Mel Gray, Brian Mitchell, Steve Tasker

Why You Still Cannot Reply on Starting Lineups Listed by Gameooks

PERSPECTIVE
By John Turney

We've posted on this before, but here are a couple of examples from the first seven days of the 2019 NFL season.

This is the starting lineup for the Panthers for Week 1—

 This is who actually started—

Now, of course, it's not a huge deal but this information is picked up by media outlets and also by Pro Football Reference.com and it remains there and then, sometimes years later we have to deal with the
misinformation that began with the gamebooks.

Here is the Bucs starting lineup for last night's game—

However, Ndamukong Suh is the nose tackle and Vita Vea is a three technique (DL or DT).

Again, it's not much but the NFL and NFLGSIS opened the door for scrutiny when they insisted on listing the actual starters rather than the usual starters. The usual starters would be the base offense or defense, but sometimes a team would open in goal line due to a long kickoff or would open in 3-wide or 4-wide and the defense would counter with nickel or dime.

Fair enough, but then they need to be consistent, that's all. We all know it's a nickel/3-wide or more league but that does not mean that's necessary 'base' because that word has a specific meaning.

Anyway, if you see oddities (as we have) in starting lineups don't assume they are accurate. The only real way to know for sure (to the degree that it matters) is to look at the film of the first snap.

I Need To Be Educated, I Guess

By John Turney

After the Packers at Bears game a Twitter account said this:

To which I said in essence that the reason the Packers didn't play their base 3-4 defense was because the Bears didn't play a traditional base offense, with 12 or 21 personnel, what is known in playbooks as a base offense. Instead, they played 11 personnel which a defense would naturally counter with something other than a base defense—nickel or dime. So, Packers simply countered what the Bears were doing, nothing out of the normal, they were matching what they were seeing. If they didn't leave their base defense at home—well that would be a story.

Then I got this response:

So, here are presnap screenshots of the Bears personnel and formations. For the life of me, I only see personnel and groupings that are not 12 or 21. There are a couple of short-yardage situations where heavy personnel is in but in general the Bears and in 11 and the packers in some for of sub defenses. 

I am pretty sure I am not "factually false". But hey, I could be wrong I guess.