Minnesota Vikings v. Packers: 5 best games of past 20 years

Oct 25, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders offensive line coach Mike Tice looks on before the game against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

1. January 9, 2005

Very little was expected of the Mike Tice-led 2005 Minnesota Vikings, but amazingly the team found itself squeaking into the playoffs at 8-8.

And who were the Vikings’ first playoff opponents that year? Their old enemies the Green Bay Packers.

Green Bay was supposed to slaughter the Vikings in Lambeau Field but as we know that was not how it came out.

The game got off to a shocking beginning when RB Moe Williams took a dump-off pass from Daunte Culpepper 68 yards for a touchdown. On their next possession the Vikings went up 14-0 when Culpepper hit a hobbled Randy Moss for a 20-yard TD against Packers CB Al Harris.

Brett Favre was picked off by Antoine Winfield on the next Green Bay possession and the Vikings parlayed that turnover into a field goal and a thoroughly stunning 17-0 lead.

Though the Packers would eventually get it back to 17-10, the game was for all intents-and-purposes over after the first Favre pick.

Minnesota made it 23-10 late in the second quarter when Culpepper hit Nate Burleson for a 19-yard TD and then it really was over.

Green Bay never fought back in the second half and Minnesota put a capper on it in the fourth with a 34-yard TD from Culpepper to Moss.

It hardly mattered that the Vikings would go on to lose to Philadelphia in the next round. Their playoff win against the Packers in Lambeau would go down as one of the greatest victories in Vikings history and the all-time high-point, from a Vikings point-of-view, of the whole long Packers-Vikings rivalry.