Green Bay Packers

Upon Further Review: Packers vs. Vikings

Published Sep. 16, 2019 12:42 p.m. ET

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Tom Dierberger

When the mailman rolls into 1265 Lombardi Avenue in Green Bay on Monday morning, he’ll hand deliver a package to the Packers that is nicely wrapped with a bow, labeled “W” and signed “from Kirk Cousins.”

The Vikings' quarterback gifted Green Bay a win Sunday afternoon.



Behind a hot start from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay jumped out to a three-touchdown lead in the first half and held on for a 21-16 victory over division rival Minnesota. But the offense staggered for the entire second half, and the Packers banked on Minnesota’s $84 million man to cough up the football.

And, boy, did he ever.

Cousins completed just 14 of 32 pass attempts for 230 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, one of which came in double coverage in the end zone. He also fumbled twice, losing one.

The Packers had no answer for Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, who rushed for a career-high 154 yards and a score. However, Mike Pettine’s defense took advantage of Cousins’ poor decision making and captured the Packers’ second win of the season.

Here’s a recap of Sunday’s game:

PLAYER OF THE GAME

The people behind the “feed Aaron Jones” movement (basically all Packers fans and fantasy football owners) must be happy with yesterday’s performance. Jones took a career-high 23 carries and turned them into 116 yards -- a 5.0 average -- and was the Packers’ second-leading receiver with four catches for 34 yards. It was the first time in his career that Jones was fed over 20 carries. In fact, Jones has only seen 17+ rushing attempts five times. In those games, he’s averaging 104.4 yards per contest and has scored a touchdown in all of them. Funny how that works.



DON’T FORGET ABOUT ME

Besides Jones, wide receiver Davante Adams was the Packers’ only other consistent source of offense. Adams hauled in seven of his nine targets for 106 yards, his 12th career game of 100+ receiving yards. Sure, Geronimo Allison caught a touchdown pass in the first quarter. But Allison later fumbled, and both he and Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped key third-down passes from Rodgers in the second half that could have put the Vikings away. Oh, and tight end Jimmy Graham didn’t even record a catch.

THAT MOMENT

Late in the first half, momentum started shifting towards Minnesota. Cousins had just competed a 61-yard catch-and-run with Chad Beebe, which brought the Vikings inside Green Bay’s 5-yard line. A touchdown would make it a one-possession game. And that’s exactly what happened -- for a moment, anyway. Cousins connected with Stefon Diggs for a three-yard score, but the play was nullified after a booth review determined Cook committed offensive pass interference on a pick that sprung Diggs open. Reviewing pass interference is new in the NFL this season, and it benefited the Packers here. Minnesota was backed up 10 yards after the penalty and never got any closer. The Vikings settled for a field goal (hey, they made this one!) and entered halftime trailing 21-10 instead of 21-14.

THIS NUMBER

4 -- There were four pass interference calls during Sunday’s game. Oddly enough, all four were called on the offense (three on Minnesota, one on Green Bay). It was a busy day for the officials, who flagged Green By six times for 35 yards and the Vikings eight times for 100 yards.

THEY SAID IT

“The biggest thing is that we’re 2-0. I know we owe a lot of that to our defense and (defensive coordinator) Mike Pettine and his staff and those guys for being opportunistic and making plays when they had to. But I think there’s still a lot of great potential in this offense.” – quarterback Aaron Rodgers

“We came out hot. We thought we could do no wrong. We’ve just got to continue to work at it because the fourth drive, fifth drive, sixth drive, we want points on those as well.” -- running back Aaron Jones

“I think it just helps with communication. He doesn’t have to say 12 syllables to me, and then I say 12 syllables in the huddle. It helps speed things up a little bit. But we didn’t use it a whole lot. We only used it about five or six times.” -- Rodgers on the play call wristband he wore Sunday

WHAT’S NEXT

Green Bay takes its 2-0 record into a Week 3 matchup with the Denver Broncos at Lambeau Field. Denver (0-2) isn’t great -- after all, Joe Flacco is its starting quarterback and it’s not the 2013 playoffs anymore -- but the Broncos did give Chicago fits Sunday afternoon in a 16-14 loss to the Bears. The last time these two teams met, it was 2015 and Peyton Manning outdueled Rodgers in the Broncos’ 29-10 win.

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