The Packers elevated Juwann Winfree from the Practice Squad. The players listed as inactive were Allen Lazard, Rashan Gary, David Bakhtiari, Malik Taylor (all due to injury), plus two healthy scratches, Jack Heflin and Vernon Scott. Dennis Kelly and Jake Hanson were active but did not play.
| Player | Snaps | % | STs |
| Runyan | 59 | 100 | 6 – 21% |
| Patrick | 59 | 100 | 6 – 21% |
| Newman | 59 | 100 | 2 – 7% |
| Turner | 59 | 100 | |
| Jenkins | 49 | 83 | 4 – 14% |
| Nijman | 10 | 17 | 6 – 21% |
| Rodgers | 58 | 98 | |
| Love | 1 | 2 | |
| Dillon | 44 | 75 | |
| Taylor | 15 | 25 | |
| Deguara | 27 | 46 | 2 – 7% |
| Lewis | 17 | 29 | |
| Dafney | 16 | 27 | |
| Davis | 3 | 5 | 22 – 79% |
| Adams | 52 | 88 | |
| Valdes-Scantling | 48 | 81 | |
| Cobb | 45 | 76 | |
| St. Brown | 21 | 36 | 16 – 57% |
| Winfree | 6 | 10 | 1 – 4% |
| Am. Rodgers | 1 | 2 | 9 – 32% |
The story of the first half is the poor situations the offense put themselves into on their first downs. Some of the issues were penalties on the line, ineffectiveness at run blocking and a consequent disinclination to run the ball, and some difficulties passing the ball. The running backs gained 31 yards on 9 carries in the first half. Aaron Rodgers completed 13 of 22 passes in the first half for 188 yards, but had multiple throwaways. Whether receivers did not get open, Rodgers was inaccurate, or he decided to pass up chain-moving passes for deeper stuff would require watching All-22. I thought he generally had time to throw the ball. I looked at the first half drives individually in the table below (P = Pass; R = Run; NP = Penalty; FG = Field Goal):
| Poss # | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1/10P | 1/10P | 2/10P | 3/8P | 4/8FG | |||||
| 2 | 1/10R | 2/6P | 1/10P | 2/6P | 1/10R | 2/9P | 3/9NP | 3/14P | 3/9P | 4/17Punt |
| 3 | 1/10R | 2/5P | 3/2P | 1/10NP | 1/15P | 2/15P | 3/12P | 1/10R | 2/8P | 1/10R |
| 3 Cont. | 2/9P | 3/9P | 4/9FG | No good | ||||||
| 4 | 1/10P | 1/20R | 2/20P | 3/20R | 4/9Punt | |||||
| 5 | 1/10P | 1/10NP | 1/20P | 2/20P | 3/8P | 1/10R | 2/8P | 1/10R | 2/5P | 3/5P TD |
Possession one featured a 37-yard completion to Davante Adams followed by 3 passes, two of which were incomplete. Crosby made a 54-yard field goal. The second possession looked more normal. After gaining two first downs, a 1-yard run by Patrick Taylor left 2nd and 9. A false start was followed by defensive offsides, with an incompletion and a sack resulting in a punt.
Possession 3 featured another false start which was overcome by virtue of a 39-yard completion to Valdes-Scantling. A five yard run was followed by runs for 2 and 1 yards, resulting in difficult down and distance situations. Crosby missed an easy 32-yard field goal.
Possession 4 started with a pass but Turner was called for holding, moving the Packers back to their own 15 yard line. A run up the middle on 1st and 20 went no where (0 yards), which I found disheartening. After an incompletion, LaFleur elected to run Dillon up the middle against a prevent defense for 11 yards, presumably to gain field position. That worked, as Dillon reached the Green Bay 26 and Bojorquez blasted a 58-yard punt to the Vikings’ 16 yard line. Minnesota muffed the punt and the returner was tackled at the 12. I do not really even mentally count Dillon’s 11-yard run in his statistics.
Possession 5 started with a nice pass to St. Brown during which he showed some dynamism by turning a short pass into 17 yards. Turner was called for his second penalty, illegal hands to the face on the next play. After an incompletion, passes for 12 and 15 yards to Deguara and Cobb, respectively, the Packers converted the first down. A 2-yard run and an 8-yard pass to Dafney resulted in another first down. A 5-yard run, an incompletion and a very precise 25-yard pass to Deguara on a scramble drill resulted in a touchdown.
The Packers had three possessions in the second half, all of which ended in touchdowns. The Packers ran the ball very well in the second half: I counted 8 runs with the shortest being 4 yards. The running backs gained 33 yards on 6 carries with St. Brown carrying once for 11 yards and Rodgers scrambling for 18 yards. They had an almost 5 minute, 8 play, touchdown drive. The Packers overcame a first and twenty after a holding call on Elgton Jenkins. The Packers followed up with a 7 minute, 12 play, touchdown drive during which they erased a 2nd and 15 with passes to Dillon and Adams. Their final possession was a 1 play, 75 yard touchdown pass to Valdes Scantling.
The Packers seemed to want to get the ball to Davante Adams as their do-it-all receivers and to Valdes-Scantling as the deep threat. Adams caught 2 of 3 passes for 44 yards and Valdes-Scantling caught 2 of 8 targets for 45 yards. Randall Cobb has contributed this year but recently he has received a lot of snaps without providing a lot of production. Amari Rodgers only managed to get on the field as a receiver for one play. Aaron Rodgers finished with a passer rating of 148.4 and the team scored 31 points (not including the chip shot field goal Crosby missed). The Packers continue to play a lot of eleven personnel, this time by playing 2.97 wide receivers per play, on average. Lewis left the field for a time but he returned.
| Player | Snaps | % | STs |
| Amos | 70 | 100 | |
| Savage | 70 | 100 | |
| Stokes | 63 | 90 | |
| Douglas | 54 | 77 | 14 – 50% |
| Sullivan | 41 | 59 | |
| King | 26 | 37 | 1 – 4% |
| Black | 10 | 14 | 21 – 75% |
| Yiadom | 22-79% | ||
| Jean-Charles | 20 – 71% | ||
| Campbell | 70 | 100 | |
| P. Smith | 53 | 76 | |
| Barnes | 37 | 53 | 13 – 46% |
| Galeia | 36 | 51 | 1 – 4% |
| Garvin | 34 | 49 | 5 – 18% |
| Burks | 18 | 26 | 22 – 79% |
| Summers | 22 – 79% | ||
| McDuffie | 14 – 50% | ||
| Hamilton | 1 – 4 | ||
| Clark | 61 | 87 | |
| Lowry | 50 | 71 | 11 – 39% |
| Keke | 35 | 50 | 5 – 18% |
| Lancaster | 25 | 36 | 12 – 43% |
| Slaton | 17 | 24 | 12 – 43% |
The defensive line was stout, particularly in the first half when the Packers limited the Vikings to 21 yards on 12 carries (1.8 yards/carry). The Vikings finished with 90 yards on 29 carries, a 3.1 yard average. Tyler Lancaster had two tackles for loss and Kenny Clark blew up a few more runs. The line exerted decent pressure overall.
Preston Smith had a fine day with 6 tackles (4 solo), 2 tackles for loss, 3 quarterback hits, 2 sacks and a forced fumble. He was a force. I did not know what to expect from Tipa Gileai but I was pleased with his performance (grading on a curve). The NFL did not seem too big for him and one can see why the Packers like him. Gileai finished with 3 tackles (2 solo). That said, he and Garvin (1 assisted tackle) did not provide enough pressure. Given the performance of the defensive line and Preston Smith, it would not have taken much to tip the scales. The Packers were so close to forcing Cousins into making the kinds of mistakes for which he is known. DeVondre Campbell led the Packers with 7 tackles (6 solo) and also had two quarterback hits, at least one of which was on a nice “A” gap blitz.
The secondary had more problems with assignments than they did against Seahawks. [For a nice breakdown of the defense in the Seahawks game, watch this fascinating film breakdown by Coach Vasseur and Justis Mosqueda.] Too often a back failed to carry a vertical route or failed to make the appropriate switch. At least a couple of Justin Jefferson’s big plays were off of assignment errors or just good scheming by their offensive coordinator.
Darnell Savage tied with Campbell for the lead in tackles with 7 (6 solo) and added 2 passes defensed. He had a third PD/interception erased by a roughing the passer penalty on Kingsley Keke. All three could have led to interceptions, though on one opportunity the receiver did a nice job of playing defense by knocking the ball away from Savage. It is interesting that Douglas continues to get twice as many snaps as Kevin King. Douglas gambled on making what would probably have been a game winning interception but instead Adam Thielen caught the pass for 26 yards on first and 10 from the Green Bay 45 with 1:33 seconds left in the game.
The Packers played a lot of true defensive linemen in this game. It appears as though the plan was to stymie Dalvin Cook and make Cousins (and by extension, Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen) beat them if they could.
WR: 2.93
TE: 1.07
RB: 1.00
DL: 2.69
ILB: 1.79
OLB: 1.76
DB: 4.77