The Minnesota Vikings came up short in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers.
After the first quarter of Sunday’s game, it felt like the Minnesota Vikings were on their way to kicking off their 2020 season with a win over the Green Bay Packers.
During the Vikings‘ first offensive possession of the matchup, they marched all the way down the field and ended the drive with a one-yard rushing touchdown by Dalvin Cook. Following that, however, Minnesota’s success on offense didn’t really continue.
The Vikings found themselves down 22-10 to the Packers at the end of the first half and it eventually resulted in a 43-34 victory by Green Bay.
Minnesota Vikings open the 2020 season with a disappointing loss
When the final whistle blew, Minnesota’s offense was still able to finish with some respectable numbers (382 total yards). But it was the Vikings defense that had themselves an incredibly disappointing performance on Sunday against the Packers.
Cook ended his day with 48 total yards and two touchdowns on 13 touches. Even though he was able to get in the end zone twice on Sunday, the running back only getting 13 touches during the entire game is something that has to change moving forward.
As for that miserable performance by Minnesota’s defense, the unit was completely shredded all afternoon long by Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the Green Bay offense.
Rodgers ended up throwing for 364 yards and four touchdowns and the entire Packers offense finished with 522 total yards. It was easily the most total yards a Minnesota defense has ever given up to an opposing offense inside U.S. Bank Stadium and it is the second-most total yards the Vikings have allowed to an opposing offense since Mike Zimmer arrived in 2014.
One thing is for sure, Zimmer probably isn’t going to get much sleep during the upcoming week because he is not going to let his defense go out there every week and perform like they did against Green Bay on Sunday.
Minnesota’s next opportunity to get their defense back on track will take place next Sunday on the road against the 0-1 Indianapolis Colts.