Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings: Full Report-Card Grades for Minnesota
Eddie Lacy rushed for 125 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 24-21 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
It was a far different contest than the last time these two teams met in early October when Aaron Rodgers threw three first-half touchdown passes to lead the Packers to a 42-10 rout.
The Vikings defense did a pretty good job on Rodgers all day long, holding him to just 209 yards passing and two short touchdown throws.
For their part, the Vikings offense never really got on a roll on Sunday and couldn't muster enough yards either through the air or on the ground.
Rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was once again too inconsistent, missing too many open throws that could've made the difference for the Vikings. He finished the afternoon with more passing yards than Rodgers but never got the offense into a groove.
While the Vikings hung in there against one of the best teams in the NFL, it never really felt like the outcome was in doubt. The Vikings' two touchdowns were their only two visits to the Packers' red zone all afternoon.
The Vikings defense deserves a ton of credit, especially considering the massive numbers the Packers have been putting up recently. To hold Rodgers and his group of talented receivers in check is quite an accomplishment, but it wasn't enough to get a win.
The Vikings fall to 4-7 with the loss, but now they get home games against the Carolina Panthers and the New York Jets, who are a combined 5-15 on the season. The Packers move to 8-3 and take over first place in the NFC North.
Quarterback
1 of 10
Teddy Bridgewater threw for more yards than Aaron Rodgers did on Sunday afternoon, (210-209), but it was the incompletions that ended up making the difference in the Vikings' 24-21 loss to the Packers.
Bridgewater finished the afternoon 21-of-37 and threw for two touchdowns, but there were just too many missed opportunities early on that came back to cost Minnesota. Bridgewater missed on several throws in the first half with receivers wide open, and although he got better as the game wore on, the missed chances early on proved to be too much to overcome.
Bridgewater was sacked twice and hit six times, but he was under duress for most of the afternoon and on the plays when he was afforded a little bit of time, he wasn't able to find any receivers open.
A couple of drops didn't help out his final numbers, either.
Bridgewater had one interception, but it was a terrible one and turned out to be one of the crucial plays of the game.
Minnesota had tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter, and the defense had just had a good series to force a punt. With momentum on their side, the Vikings were on their own 22-yard line when Bridgewater tried to force a throw to Greg Jennings on first down.
He threw off his back leg into coverage, and Micah Hyde picked it off. The Packers scored a touchdown four plays later, and the Vikings would never get even the rest of the day.
In the end, you can hope that Sunday's game falls under the category of "growing pains," for Bridgewater. As he has for most of the year, Bridgewater seemed to get better as the game wore on. He still shows a nice presence in the pocket and made some nice plays with his legs on Sunday.
It certainly wasn't a game that Bridgewater lost for the Vikings. But he didn't win it for them either.
Grade: C
Running Back
2 of 10
Jerick McKinnon never really got going on Sunday, rushing for just 54 yards on 15 carries, with a long run of just 10 yards.
He certainly wasn't given a lot of room to run, but his inability to create yards on his own probably illustrates why his size might keep him from being an ideal featured back. He was also overwhelmed as a pass-blocker on a couple of occasions.
With Matt Asiata out with a concussion, backup Joe Banyard was given his first opportunity on Sunday, and he looked very good, picking up 26 yards on five carries and catching three passes for 19 more yards.
Banyard looked like the Vikings' best back in the preseason, and it's sort of surprising that he hasn't been given an opportunity before this. Granted, his success in the preseason was usually against backups, but he certainly showed some running ability.
Bridgewater's 32 yards of scrambling make the overall rushing numbers look a little better than they probably deserve to, but still, you aren't going to win many football games running for just 112 yards, especially with a passing game as stagnant as Minnesota's.
Nothing to love from the Minnesota backs, but not a poor game, either.
Grade: C
Wide Receiver and Tight End
3 of 10
Another brutal game numbers-wise from Minnesota's top three receivers.
Greg Jennings, Cordarrelle Patterson and Jarius Wright combined for four catches for 68 yards. Heading into this week's action, those three ranked 58th, 93rd and 98th in the league in receiving yards, and Sunday's game won't move them up any.
That's just brutal.
Charles Johnson, who was plucked off the Cleveland Browns practice squad in September, led the team in receiving yards once again, catching three balls for 52 yards, including his first career touchdown, a 22-yard score in the second quarter. He also caught a two-point conversion after Jennings' five-yard touchdown catch.
Tight end Kyle Rudolph got involved in his second game back, making three catches for 50 yards, but he certainly looked to be laboring when he ran with the ball after making his catches.
The Vikings surprised people by playing the Packers close, but they will kick themselves when they watch the tape and see how many opportunities they let slip though their fingers.
The Vikings have just one 100-yard receiving game this year, when Jarius Wright had 132 yards against the Atlanta Falcons.
There was a 3rd-and-9 play midway through the third quarter from the Packers' 33-yard line that summed up too much of the Vikings passing game this year. Johnson beat his man on an out pattern that would have picked up about 20 yards, but Bridgewater threw a bad pass that went incomplete.
Johnson could have made the catch, but he didn't. Bridgewater could have completed the throw, but he didn't. It's been that kind of year.
Grade: C-
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Offensive Line
4 of 10
It's kind of the same old story for the Vikings offense.
They don't have enough time to throw and they don't have enough room to run.
Bridgewater was only sacked twice, but he was under heavy pressure for most of the afternoon. Too many times Bridgewater is forced to abandon the pocket just moments after getting the ball in his hands.
Left tackle Matt Kalil continued to struggle, taking three costly penalties and blocking ineffectively for most of day.
"Kalil's three penalties cost the #Vikings 58 net yards
— Brian Murphy (@murphPPress) November 23, 2014"
That tweet from the Pioneer Press beat writer illustrates just how costly. In a game where you have very little margin for error, one lineman taking three penalties is just too many errors to overcome.
Phil Loadholt was injured and will have an MRI on his left shoulder, according to VikingUpdate.com:
"Phil Loadholt declined to get into detail with left shoulder, will have MRI. Harrison Smith tweaked his shoulder on INT attempt. #Vikings
— VikingUpdate.com (@VikingUpdate) November 23, 2014"
It wasn't a terrible performance by the Vikings offensive line. Anytime you play the Packers and keep Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers pretty much silent, you've done a decent job.
But you'd certainly like to see better pass protection and bigger holes to run through.
Grade: C-
Defensive Line
5 of 10
As well as the Vikings defense has been playing, the truth is, especially with Sharrif Floyd out, as he was on Sunday, Minnesota is pretty small up front.
As big as Linval Joseph is, both Brian Robison and Everson Griffen are on the small side for defensive linemen, and the Packers took advantage of that on Sunday, continually gashing the Vikings with Eddie Lacy running it up the gut.
Lacy was the player of the game, and his 125 hard-earned yards proved to be the difference in the ballgame.
Aaron Rodgers is an expert at feeling the pocket shrink and knowing exactly when to take off or when to step up. Even without having a spectacular throwing day, Rodgers avoided sacks and kept the Packers from falling into too many bad down-and-distance situations.
One of the obvious differences between the Vikings and Packers is in the offensive line. The Packers are much more physical than Minnesota up front, and they did an excellent job of giving Lacy room to get his big body rolling.
Joseph and Everson Griffen both made four tackles, and Brian Robison picked up Minnesota's only sack, but the Vikings didn't lose this game to Aaron Rodgers, they lost it to Eddie Lacy.
Once again, the Vikings defense probably did enough to win but was let down by an offense that couldn't score enough points.
Grade: B-
Linebacker
6 of 10
When the player of the game is the opposing offense's running back, your defensive line and linebackers probably aren't going to grade out very well.
Eddie Lacy is a load, and he's even harder to bring down once he gets past the line of scrimmage and picks up some steam.
Chad Greenway and Anthony Barr didn't play bad games, but they certainly didn't make enough of an impact to turn the tide in their team's favor, either.
Greenway ended up with nine tackles and Barr had four, but they were mostly too far down the field too slow down the Packers offense.
Barr may be hitting the proverbial rookie wall, as he's had perhaps his two quietest weeks in the last two games against the Bears and the Packers.
Jasper Brinkley had just one tackle and continues to be nearly invisible in Mike Zimmer's defense.
We hate to repeat ourselves, but once again, the Vikings defense probably did enough to win the game, especially considering the high-powered offense they were up against.
The Vikings linebackers might have deserved a "B" grade, but Eddie Lacy dragged them to a full grade below that.
Grade: C
Secondary
7 of 10
If there was any positional unit on the Vikings that deserved a win on Sunday, it was the secondary.
Squaring off against a passing offense that had been completely destroying people, the Vikings defensive backs went toe-to-toe with the Packers receivers all afternoon and held their own.
Aaron Rodgers broke free from the pocket at least a half a dozen times, giving his receivers a full two or three seconds to shake free, and he was still unable to find anybody open downfield.
Jordy Nelson caught eight passes for 68 yards. Randall Cobb caught four passes for 58 yards. Good luck finding a secondary that can do any better than that.
If you hold Aaron Rodgers to 209 yards passing in a game that came down to the very end, you can hold your head high, because you've done your job.
The Packers' big plays were very limited, and two of their longest pass plays were to tight end Andrew Quarless, whom Rodgers found late in the play both times.
The Vikings didn't get any interceptions, but they had two pass breakups from Xavier Rhodes and one each from Harrison Smith and Josh Robinson.
A near interception by Smith midway through the third quarter probably best sums up the entire game for the Vikings. It was close to being a great play, but he just couldn't pull it off.
Smith and Robert Blanton were tough against the run all day long, tying for the team lead in tackles with 10.
Considering the opponent, the Vikings secondary played about as well as you can in a loss.
Grade: A-
Special Teams
8 of 10
For once, we'll lead with punter Jeff Locke, who had one of his better games of the season. Locke averaged 44.8 yards per kick, but more importantly, he put three of his four kicks inside the 20-yard line.
The Vikings did well in the field position game all afternoon long, and Locke was a crucial part of that.
Minnesota had a crucial punt to start the fourth quarter from midfield, and Locke kicked a beauty that was fielded at the Green Bay 10-yard line and returned just three yards. It gave the Packers a long field when the game was still just a four-point affair.
Kicker Blair Walsh was perfect once again, hitting both his field goals, from 39 and 51 yards away. The onside kick that he didn't get to try late in the game was a bit puzzling, but that's obviously on the coaches.
Kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson had his best game in some time, gaining 75 yards on two returns, including a 42-yard scamper that he was close to breaking.
The coverage units had no work on kickoffs and did their job on punts. It was nice to see no penalties on the special teams for a change.
Grade: B+
Coaching
9 of 10
Schematically, you have to throw bouquets toward the Vikings defensive coaches, who did enough to get a win. They covered the Packers receivers as well as anybody has all season long.
"Rodgers on Vikings' game plan: "It was different playing against a Mike Zimmer team. Mike is a great football mind and he had a great plan."
— Ben Goessling (@GoesslingESPN) November 23, 2014"
Minnesota obviously wanted to force the Packers to prove that they could win with Eddie Lacy leading the way, and, well, he did.
Offensively, things are still pretty messy for the Vikings. Poor blocking, poor passing and not enough people getting open results in a pretty stagnant offense.
It was more than a little curious that the Vikings didn't try an onside kick after scoring their last touchdown, especially when they were kicking from the 50-yard line after the Packers had committed a personal foul on the Vikings' two-point conversion.
Zimmer admitted after the that he'd like to have that decision over, according to Derek Wetmore of 1500ESPN.com.
In the end, we'll never know if it would have made a difference or not, but you might as well give it a shot at that point in the game.
In the end, the Vikings went toe-to-toe with a team that everyone assumed would rout them.
Grade: B
Overall Grade
10 of 10
| Positional Unit | Grade |
| Quarterback | C |
| Running Back | C |
| Wide Receiver and Tight End | C- |
| Offensive Line | C- |
| Defensive Line | B- |
| Linebacker | C |
| Secondary | A- |
| Special Teams | B+ |
| Coaching | B |
Overall Grade: C+
In the end, Sunday's game against the Packers was another loss, and there are no such things as moral victories in the NFL.
Having said that, there are not a lot of people who follow the NFL that didn't think that the Packers were going to kill the Vikings on Sunday afternoon.
That Minnesota hung in there all afternoon and only lost 24-21 is a testament to a team that still has a long way to go to compete regularly with the likes of the Packers.
Coming off back-to-back 50-point offensive outbursts, there wasn't a lot of reason to think that the Vikings could slow down Green Bay's spectacular air attack. But they did. They held Aaron Rodgers to just 209 yards passing, but they just weren't able to contain running back Eddie Lacy, who gashed them all afternoon and finished with 125 yards rushing.
Vikings rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is a work in progress and still has a long way to go to be an effective NFL starter. He missed far too many easy passes on Sunday, and he appears to be wildly inaccurate on deep throws.
The Vikings fall to 4-7 on the season, but now they have home games against two struggling teams in the Carolina Panthers and the New York Jets. We'll know a lot more about Bridgewater and the future of this team after those two games.
A moral victory? No, again, there's no such thing. A loss that you can live with? Perhaps.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
