Vikings Dethrone Packers In NFC North, But Does It Matter?
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The Minnesota Vikings used a record-setting comeback to beat the Indianapolis Colts and clinch the NFC North. What does it mean to the Green Bay Packers in the short and long runs?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Minnesota Vikings officially dethroned the Green Bay Packers as kings of the NFC North on Saturday with an unprecedented, unthinkable victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Are the Vikings long for the throne?
The answer, it would seem, is no.
Sure, you’d much rather be the Vikings than the Packers. With an 11-3 record, Minnesota is guaranteed to be playing a home game on the weekend of Jan. 14-15. With their 5-8 record headed into Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, the Packers might be home, period. After losing seven of eight games at one point, the Packers will need to end the regular season with five consecutive wins – including at home vs. the Vikings on Jan. 1. That feat seems as farfetched as overcoming a 33-point deficit.
Minnesota looks a bit like the 2019 Packers, a team with an uncanny ability to win close games. The Vikings are eight games over .500 but have outscored their opponents by only two points. Other than their 23-7 victory over Green Bay in Week 1, their other 10 wins have all been decided by one score.
Saturday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, who were 4-8-1 and had lost six of their last seven games, should have been a championship coronation. They were quarterbacked by 37-year-old Matt Ryan, who seemingly is a decade beyond his MVP season of 2016. He entered the day with the ghastly combination of ranking last in the NFL in average air yards per attempt and interceptions. They were coached by Jeff Saturday, whose only coaching experience was in high school.
The Colts, with star running back Jonathan Taylor getting only one touch before leaving with an injury, led 33-0 at halftime. The Vikings gave up touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams.
The Vikings responded by staging the biggest comeback in NFL history to earn a stunning victory. Kirk Cousins threw four touchdown passes and Justin Jefferson, K.J. Osborn and Dalvin Cook combined for 470 yards of total offense.
It was an unforgettable way to clinch a division title, with the obvious footnote that they needed an epic comeback against a horrendous opponent to pull it off.
Afterward, the Vikings celebrated like they had done something big, which brought back memories of former Packers coach Mike McCarthy saying, “We don’t hang division banners around here.”
Under first-year coach Kevin O’Connell, Minnesota is a stunning 10-0 in games decided by one score. Under first-year coach Matt LaFleur in 2019, the Packers went 9-1 in one-score games before getting whacked by San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
A year later, the Packers were a juggernaut. They won 10 games by more than one score and probably would have gone to the Super Bowl if not for David Bakhtiari suffering a torn ACL during a late-season practice.
Can the Vikings take that next step, or are they destined to be one-year wonders? Limited help will be available in the 2023 NFL Draft, with just four picks and none in the second round. Limited help will be available in free agency, with the Vikings having the eighth-worst cap situation at $12.4 million over the projected cap, according to OverTheCap.com.
The Packers’ future isn’t especially bright, either, but if the Vikings are destined for regression, the Packers could be right back in the NFC North chase.
That’s for the future. How about today?
That 33-point halftime deficit showed the Vikings’ overall weakness. Even notable homer Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk had given up. Not just on the game but the season.
If Green Bay can somehow get into the playoffs, the door is open to make a run. Sure, the Packers are bad enough to lose to just about anybody. Two weeks ago, they needed an 18-0 fourth quarter to beat the three-win Bears, who were down six starters on defense alone.
But they’re good enough to beat just about anybody, too. That’s the any-given-Sunday nature of the NFL, with a few great teams and a few terrible teams and everyone else just chasing their tails like bored puppies.
The Vikings need Cousins, Jefferson and Cook to be at max greatness to overcome their defense. The 49ers are hot but they’re still being led by a rookie third-string quarterback. The Packers have beaten the Cowboys. If you combined the Commanders, Giants and Seahawks, you still might not have a championship contender.
In the NFC, only the Philadelphia Eagles look like a legitimate championship team. The Packers, at least, were competitive in their trip to Philly last month. With the return of Romeo Doubs this week, Aaron Rodgers has his full group of perimeter weapons for the first time since Week 2.
All along, the question has been whether the young receivers could become difference-makers for the stretch run. Christian Watson is a budding star. If Doubs can play like he did at times during the first half of the season, a passing attack revolving around Watson, Doubs, Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb would be formidable.
“Obviously, we’ve been running the football pretty well most of the season,” Rodgers said this week. “The emergence of Christian and his dynamic ability’s been, obviously, a very welcome sight. We’ve got to find ways to get him the football and then everybody else, let’s just do our roles and score points. If we can get ahead of teams at home – we have three out of four at home – we can put some things together.”
Sure, Joe Barry’s defense could get in the way of all of that but there are enough playmakers on that side of the ball to steal a game.
If Green Bay can sneak into the No. 7 seed, is there any reason to fear a first-round trip to a No. 2-seeded Minnesota? Win that game and the Packers would have a six-game winning streak and all sorts of momentum.
Music icon Prince was born in Minneapolis and his career is celebrated at U.S. Bank Stadium. Among his hits was “Purple Rain.” Let’s see how long the team in purple’s reign atop the NFC North will last.
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