On their way to winning their 13th game of the season and securing home-field advantage in the playoffs, the Green Bay Packers absolutely handed it to the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 37-10.
With QB Kirk Cousins out for the Sunday night affair due to being an unvaccinated positive case of COVID, it was long-time backup Sean Mannion who stepped in and made the start. The Vikings’ offense was never able to get anything going against the Green Bay defense, struggling so much that he was (temporarily) benched in favor of rookie Kellen Mond in the fourth quarter.
But for Green Bay, they struggled through a three-point first quarter and exploded in the second, putting up 17 points to put the game away early.
A Mason Crosby field goal was supported by two passing TDs from Aaron Rodgers, a 20-yard throw to Allen Lazard, and an 11-yard connection to Davante Adams with around a minute left in the first half. Minnesota finally got itself on the board on a 51-yard boot from Greg Joseph, putting the game at 20-3 after two quarters.
More of the same from the Packers in the third quarter, as AJ Dillon and Crosby helped stake the Packers out to a 30-3 lead, with Mannion finding KJ Osborn for a short score just as the third quarter wrapped up, putting the score at 30-10 heading into the final quarter of the game.
Dillon scored his second TD of the game, this time from seven yards out, helping bump the Packers to 37 points, which began the onslaught of second-stringers entering the game to tie a nice little bow on it.
On the day, the offense for the Packers looked like a well-oiled machine – Rodgers was his MVP self (29/38, 288 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs), Adams continued to shine (11/136/1), and the RB tandem of Aaron Jones (106 total yards) and Dillon (83 total yards, 2 TDs) made it look easy all night. Sunday also marked another record-breaking performance for Adams, as he broke the team record for receptions in a season (116), the same record he broke and re-set last season.
Moving on to face the hapless Detroit Lions for the final regular-season game of the year, the Packers will likely be trotting out their B-squad, as they will not have anything that they will need to be playing for. With the top spot in the NFC wrapped up, they are free to just sit back and enjoy themselves during Week 18, watching the rest of the NFC playoff slate get determined so they can begin scouting for the playoffs.
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Mike Johrendt has been an avid fan of the Packers ever since he can remember. He is now a writer at PackersTalk and you can follow him on Twitter at @MJohrendt23
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