The Minnesota Vikings are on top of the NFC North with a 2-0 record, but it all began with a comeback win in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers.
The Vikings overcame a 12-point deficit in the second half to earn the 39-22 victory, and while Packers fans will tell you that they did so with the aid of some controversial calls, their 35-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night is evidence that defeat did more damage than a mark in the loss column.
The Packers were overmatched on Thursday night, nearly allowing the Falcons to rack up more offense (498 yards) than they had in the previous two games combined (524). Bijan Robinson sliced through the Green Bay defense for 194 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, while Drake London was open all night with nine catches for 194 yards.
The frustration was palpable as boos rained down from the 76,955 fans at Lambeau Field, and it caused star tight end Tucker Kraft to air out his grievances after the game.
“That’s pretty tough. Like, everyone pictures Lambeau Field and not boos. I don’t picture boos. I picture my home stadium. That’s tough.
It’s pretty disappointing, especially for a home opener. It’s pretty disappointing. It’s not going to help us win. Like, I don’t know what people think that’s going to rally us or something like that.
But we’re grown men. We’re mentally strong enough, capable enough to get back on the field and play ball. But it’d probably be much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us.”
The play on the field (and the boos off of it) suggests there may be trouble in Green Bay going forward. And while there were several events that led up to it, the Vikings may have delivered the blow that broke the levy in Week 1.
Vikings’ Week 1 comeback exposed the cracks that are sinking the Packers
Like the Vikings, the Packers went into Week 1 trying to get a bad taste out of their mouth. The 2025 season began with a 9-3-1 start, but a torn ACL for Micah Parsons and a pair of blown second-half leads against the Chicago Bears sent the Packers to Cancun much earlier than they had anticipated.
An extension for head coach Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst added to the angst, and the Packers didn’t get much better in the offseason, leaning on their “draft and develop” philosophy.
For the first three quarters, it appeared to be the right decision. Jonathan Gannon’s defense forced Kyler Murray into an interception on his first dropback as a Viking and knocked him out of the game with a concussion 10 plays later.
The Packers gained more momentum on an 81-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Love to Christian Watson midway through the first quarter and took a 19-10 lead into halftime on a two-yard touchdown from Love to Watson just before the break.
The Packers held onto the lead early in the fourth quarter and appeared to take a 25-17 lead on a Trey Smack field goal with 13:21 to play. But Dallas Turner lined up offside and gave the Packers a 4th-and-1.
Perhaps it was the pressure of a fan base that had criticized LaFleur for not having “killer instinct” all season. Maybe it was a chance to establish confidence in an offensive line that had lost Rasheed Walker and Elgton Jenkins last offseason.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t work, as Domonique Orange stuffed Love on a QB sneak, and the floodgates proceeded to open.
The Vikings finished the game by outscoring Green Bay 22-0 in the fourth quarter. The following week, the Packers were down 17-7 in the fourth quarter before the New York Jets J-E-T-S, Jets’d, and gave them a 20-17 overtime victory. But the offensive line was leaky, and the Packers committed 14 penalties for 133 yards.
While they were able to overcome in New York, all the Packers' issues appeared at once on Thursday.
With Josh Jacobs on the commissioner’s exempt list, the combination of MarShawn Lloyd and Kaleb Johnson combined for 17 yards on eight carries. According to PFF, the offensive line allowed Love to get pressured on 25 of his 55 dropbacks (45.5 percent), including a whopping 10 pressures from rookie guard Jager Burton.
And LaFleur, who probably feels like he’s being lined up under the guillotine blade, passed on a field goal that would have made it a 17-10 game to fail a 4th-and-1 conversion attempt on the opening drive of the second half.
Packers are in trouble and the Vikings may have started it
As any football fan will tell you, there’s a lot of the season left to be played. But the Vikings have to feel safe, considering a lot of the Packers’ issues aren’t likely to be solved.
The offensive line is in worse shape after Zach Beko-Bewele was lost for the season with a torn patellar tendon, and 2025 free agent pickup Aaron Banks can’t stay healthy.
The Packers' defense will get a lift from Micah Parsons later in the season, but that won’t come until Week 6 at the earliest. And LaFleur is leading the charge, looking like a man who sees more ghosts than Sam Darnold saw once upon a time.
Even the silver lining for the Packers is gone, as they traded their 2027 first-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys to acquire Parsons before last season, and it led to an incomplete team that looked checked out as they were getting thrashed by the Falcons on Thursday night.
There were a lot of things that led to cracks in the foundation in Green Bay. But the Vikings' Week 1 comeback may have caused the dam to break and the Packers are now treading to stay above water.
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