Winners and Losers from Vikings’ Week 17 blowout loss to the Packers
The feelings from the Minnesota Vikings’ 37-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers were as cold and hollow as the Frozen Tundra at Lambeau Field. Backup quarterback Sean Mannion wasn’t the disaster most expected him to be when starting in place of Kirk Cousins, but that still didn’t stop a disaster from happening.
Minnesota’s defense got pounded into the ground for 174 rushing yards and two touchdowns. And Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was taking whatever he wanted through the air against a defensive backfield that was kept on its heels all night long.
The offense for the Vikings could only do so much with Mannion under center and their rushing attack being relatively non-existent. Minnesota finished with only 27 rushing yards on 11 total attempts. The offense was doomed to failure without a legitimate run game.
Loser: Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Sean Mannion isn’t Kirk Cousins, but at some point, Klint Kubiak has to let him take some shots downfield. The play-calling was predictable enough to have every armchair expert feeling like a psychic when watching the game. If Mannion wasn’t handing it off to Dalvin Cook, he was dumping it off to him well short of the first down in third-and-long situations.
At some point, you have to make the defense respect the fact that you could throw on them. And yet, that respect was never earned for the Vikings in this game. They just did what they always do in a must-win situation against one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever do it.
Granted, they started opening things up a bit more in the second-half, but it was too little, too late by that point.
Loser: CB Kris Boyd
There actually came a point in Sunday’s game when it was hard not to feel sorry for Kris Boyd. He was getting victimized by Aaron Rodgers all night long on throws to Davante Adams and Allen Lazard. Imagine coming into such a big divisional game and being matched up with Adams, who is arguably the best receiver in football.
It was like something out of a nightmare.
Boyd got the nod to start with Cameron Dantzler out with a calf injury, and Rodgers rightfully honed in and took advantage like any great quarterback would in that situation.
Winner: Kicker Greg Joseph
It wasn’t all bad for the Vikings on Sunday night.
Kicker Greg Joseph made history by booting a 51-yard kick through the uprights and setting a new record at Lambeau Field in the month of January. The previous record was a 47-yarder set by former New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes.
Any kick with that sort of distance at the Frozen Tundra is impressive considering the conditions there around this time of the year. The game-time temperature was 11 degrees with the wind chill at one degree.
It was a nice feather in the cap for Joseph, who bounced around on five different teams before ending up in Minnesota this season.
Winner: Sean Mannion
You’re probably scratching your head right now wondering why in the world Sean Mannion is on this list. But if we’re being fair, Mannion actually performed well at the game he was asked to play. He didn’t turn the ball over, and he hit some nice early bootleg throws to Tyler Conklin in the first quarter.
It wasn’t until the third quarter when he finally found the end zone with a 14-yard dart pass to K.J. Osborn.
Overall, however, it wasn’t a bad start for a guy that hadn’t taken a meaningful snap of football since 2019. It would have been nice to see the team open things up with him a bit more earlier in the game instead of waiting until the score was out of reach.
Loser: Dalvin Cook
I’m not going to lay all of the blame at Dalvin Cook’s feet here because there wasn’t much room to run. There were green jerseys draped all over him every time he got his hands on the ball. But it’s hard not to be disappointed with the final stat line—nine carries for 13 rushing yards and three receptions for no receiving yards.
The latter is the most concerning statistic in a game where nothing seemed to be going right for the Vikings. Cook wasn’t able to make plays when he had opportunities, but he obviously didn’t have enough of them.
This once again falls on the coaching staff for failing to come up with ways to put the ball into the hands of one of their best playmakers. There’s no excuse for Cook not being used more in the passing game.
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