2024 Week 4: Vikings 31, Packers 29

What. A. Game. This was the most entertaining watch of the season so far… between two of the top teams in the league.

The Vikings deserved the win, and many small events quickly made this 28-0 Minnesota. Then the Packers started to get those small events, which sparked a massive comeback, with Green Bay falling just short late. The Packers secondary made mistakes early and often, a dropped pick that later turned into a MIN touchdown, and a DPI call that led to another MIN touchdown. After each of those drives, the Pack missed a field goal. What could have been 14-6 was 14-0. The game turned right before half with a Minnesota-muffed punt giving the Packers a TD and ball at half time.

After watching this I think the Packers are the better team with the better team, but not by much. If they play this game play this game 100 times Green Bay wins 55-60 of those games. Offensively these teams seem evenly matched, Minnesota has a big edge at the offensive line. Defensively mostly even again but Green Bay has the edge in the secondary.

Minnesota (4-0) is not going away, they’re very good… Green Bay is (2-2) but I still think they’re a top 3 team when healthy. Getting Love back is huge for their offense, mainly in the passing game.

=====================================

QB Report:
- Jordan Love (32/54 for 389 yards, 4 TD/3 INT) wasn’t 100% for this and you could tell occasionally, but he was still an assassin. What I’m most impressed about is how the Vikings have had this reputation for their defense of being great, they shut down Purdy, embarrassed Jones and Levis, and there’s that viral clip of Purdy commending Brian Flores after the game for their defensive scheme…and despite all of that an injured Jordan Love comes in and throws for 400 yards and 4 TDs. This offense is going to be amazing when Love is fully healthy.

- Sam Darnold (20/28 for 275 yards, 3 TD/ 1 INT) leads the NFL in passing touchdowns, 3 ahead of Baker Mayfield [tied after TNF]. This feels like you’re watching a college offense with the amount of time Darnold has in the pocket… 3.07 time to throw this season, good for third behind Brock Purdy (3.14) and Jalen Hurts (3.10) according to Next Gen Stats. I see the cause for this as two-fold, on one hand, teams are expecting Darnold to suck, he’s sucked his entire career so why shouldn’t he now? The other reason is this Vikings O-line which is close to or at the top of just about any metric.

- How do you slow down this offense? The simple solution would be to blitz. Darnold spent his whole career prior to this starting for the worst team of the last decade in NYJ, and he never had protection… he was rushed and “seeing ghosts”. Defenses need to make him see ghosts again.

RB Report:

- Josh Jacobs (9-51-0, 4 catches for 27 yards) looks like himself, not much else to say about it. He’s a big bruising back who doesn’t get a lot of work in the passing game, though 4 catches is a lot in one game for Jacobs’ norm. Jacobs is giving up time to Emanuel Wilson (8-27-0) who is incredible to watch. Wilson is playing more snaps and he’s in on their on the ‘important’ downs more often than not. 20 carries in the last two games for Wilson, and 25 for Jacobs. That’s more carries than rookie sensation Braelon Allen by the way.

WR/TE Report:
- Christian Watson (0-0-0/1) was hurt on his first target and is expected to miss a few games. Watson’s injury brought Dontayvion Wicks (5-78-2/13) back to relevancy. Wicks and Love had a really nice connection last season and he was getting meaningful work as this game got closer in the second half. Wicks coming back hurt Romeo Doubs (4-39-0/8) because Doubs and Wicks are the technicians of this group, which means they’ll be working in tandem but also rotating in and out depending on what the play calls for. Teams also respect Doubs more in terms of coverage since he has been the one playing more games/snaps.

- Jayden Reed (7-139-1/8) and Jordan Love have a great connection, one of the best in the NFL. Reed is playing very well and teams have to pick their poison on who to cover with the depth of the Packers offense, which means one of their 5+ ace receivers will be open on any given play.

- The Packers tight ends as a group put up a really nice stat line, thanks in part to the blowout and the Vikings not covering them, but rather the deep ball. The Vikings defense may be susceptible to the tight end. Tucker Kraft (6-53-1/9) is the one to break out if any were, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

- Jordan Addison (3-72-1, 4, 1 rush for 7 yards, 1 TD) returned to a warm welcome, scoring 2 touchdowns. Addison is a very solid #2 receiver who is even better because Justin Jefferson (6-85-1/8) draws so much attention, 2+ defenders every play.

D/ST Report:
- The Packers defense played well against a very good Minnesota offense. They shot themselves in the foot a few times early but after that, they buckled up and held Minnesota to just 3 points in the second half. This is one of those instances where stats don’t tell the whole story. The Packers defense grades out horribly in this game but on film it was just a few plays here and there that put this game away. Most of the time mistakes like these aren’t punished with touchdown after touchdown.

image source: (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)