The Green Bay Packers delivered a knockout punch to retain their undisputed hold of the regular season title as the best team in the National Football Conference on an 11 degree night at Lambeau Field Sunday.
Sure, they got a little help from the Arizona Cardinals earlier in the day but they weren’t about to leave the 77,832 shivering fans in suspense any longer by routing and eliminating the Minnesota Vikings from the playoffs with a resounding 37-10 victory to secure the number 1 seed in the NFC for the second consecutive year.
Aaron Rodgers continued his torrid stretch to the finish line with two touchdown passes, one to Allen Lazard and another to Davante Adams who is rewriting the team’s receiving record book. A.J. Dillon hammered his way into the end zone twice and the Packer defense throttled the short-handed Viking offense allowing a scant 206 yards and just 27 on the ground.
In the process, Head Coach Matt LaFleur became the most successful coach in NFL history, that’s 102 years of history mind you, by reaching 39 wins in his first three seasons at the helm. A third straight year with a 13-3 record is another new benchmark and there’s still one more to play in Detroit next week.
It was a slow start on the frigid tundra as the offense reached the Minnesota red zone three times in their first four possessions but managed only a pair of Mason Crosby field goals sandwiched around a fourth down failure in close. But the defense stymied the Viking offense playing with Kirk Cousins due to a positive COVID-19 test and Adam Thielen because of season ending ankle surgery. Backup quarterback Sean Mannion, making his third start of his seven year career simply couldn’t make the plays required. He still had two premier playmakers at his disposal but the Packers completely neutralized Dalvin Cook who finished the night with 13 yards gained on 12 touches and Justin Jefferson was a non-factor with six receptions for 58 yards.
Rodgers and the offense heated up late in the second quarter when he found Lazard for a 20 yard scoring grab. He high pointed the contested catch against Kris Boyd in the corner of the end zone to give Green Bay a 13-0 lead. After a third straight, three and out from the defense, Rodgers found Adams three times in a two minute drive including a 17 yard back shoulder beauty right before his 11 yard rolling touchdown catch with a minute left in the half.
The Vikings finally got on the board with an impressive 51 yard field goal from Greg Joseph on the final play of the half.
Green Bay scored on both possessions in the third quarter on an A.J. Dillon five yard run and Crosby’s third field goal of the night from 37 yards out.
Minnesota’s only touchdown of the night, a 14 yard Mannion to K.J. Osborn catch was set up by a crazy play. Mannion found tight end Tyler Conklin over the middle but safety Adrian Amos delivered wicked hit that sent the ball soaring back toward the line of scrimmage. Minnesota center Garrett Bradbury caught the ball just before it hit the ground and rumbled up field for 21 yards against a very surprised defense. Up to that point, it was the Viking’s longest play of the game.
But Dillon scored again, plowing over from 7 yards out with 8:41 to play to get the Minnesota bus drivers to warm up the vehicles.
It was the most complete victory among the 13 so far for Green Bay, even the special teams came through with surprising plays. Newly acquired receiver David Moore became the primary returner and he delivered the longest punt return of the year with a 21 yard dash. The defense bounced back in a big way against the run. After allowing 219 yards to Cleveland last week, they completely took away Minnesota’s ground attack and turned their offense into a malfunctioning, one dimensional attack.
The Packers did benefit from new COVID protocols allowing players to return as soon as five, rather than 10 days in the health protocols. That allowed more than a half dozen players including Marcedes Lewis, Corey Bojorquez, Kevin King, Oren Burks and Ben Braden to get back in uniform.
The Packers did place Jaire Alexander on the Reserve/COVID-19 list before the game and while he was just activated from injured reserve last week, wasn’t in line to play anyway.
The win snapped the Vikes two game winning streak against the Packers and kept them perfect at Lambeau, the only team to go unscathed at home this season and home is where they’ll stay for the playoffs, needing two more wins to reach Super Bowl XVI in Los Angeles.
The game produced a batch of milestones and records worth detailing.
Beginning with LaFleur. He’s the first coach in NFL history to win 13 games in each of his first three years. His 39 victories moves him past George Seifert for the most in three years. He’s now 22-2 at home, and NFL standard.
Then there’s Aaron Rodgers. He’s now had 12 games (out of 15 played) with at least two touchdown passes without an interception, the most in a single season in NFL history breaking a tie with Tom Brady. He’s accomplished that feat six games in a row, tying Don Meredith for the second longest such streak. It’s 11 straight division games without a pick and at least two TD passes, another NFL record. Since 2020, Rodgers has now thrown 36 touchdowns without an interception in NFC North matchups. He’s thrown 56 touchdown passes against the Vikings alone, breaking Brett Favre’s record of 54 and it’s the most TD passes any quarterback has thrown against Minnesota.
How about Davante Adams. He had 11 catches for 136 yards and a touchdown. He’s now up to 117 receptions for the year, breaking the franchise record he set last year by 2. He has 1498 receiving yards on the season, 21 away from Jordy Nelson’s team record. He’s up to 8006 yards for his career, moving him past Don Hutson for number 4 on the team’s all time list. He joins Marvin Harrison and Larry Fitzgerald as the only players in NFL history with at least 650 catches, 8000 yards and 70 plus touchdowns in his first 8 seasons. Sunday night was his 31st 100 yard game, just one behind James Lofton’s team record. He’s also caught a TD pass in 12 straight Sunday night games, extending his own league standard.
The running back tandem of Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon has made history. Both have eclipsed 1000 yards from scrimmage this year. It’s only the 4th pair to do so and the first since Eddie Lee Ivory and Gerry Ellis accomplished the feat back in 1980. Jones had 76 yards rushing on only 8 carries and with 4163 yards for his career, moved past Ryan Grant for number 5 on the team’s all time list.
There was so much to celebrate in the regular season home finale but after coming up one game short of the Super Bowl in each of the past two seasons, including last year’s extreme disappointment at Lambeau Field, the 2021 Green Bay Packers are bound and determined to finish the job as the calendar has turned to 2022.
