If These Are Playoff Packers, They’ll Win Super Bowl
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.
Take, for instance, the Green Bay Packers, who escaped with victories after failing to put away the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns.
The Packers on Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings were lucky and good. The result was a 37-10 massacre that wrapped up their record-setting third consecutive season of 13 consecutive wins and locked up homefield advantage in the NFC playoffs.
The luck, obviously, was Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins testing positive or COVID-19 on Friday. Cousins is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL, conservative to a fault at times but almost unstoppable if he gets rolling like he did vs. the Packers in November. Sean Mannion, who had zero touchdowns passes in his first seven seasons in the NFL, didn’t stand a prayer of pulling the upset.
Especially with the way the Packers played.
After getting crushed on the ground the past three weeks, Green Bay’s defense dominated. To be sure, it helped that Cousins wasn’t around and the Packers could key on Dalvin Cook, but the Packers still had to beat blocks and make tackles. And that’s what they did.
Cook, who entered the game ranked fourth in rushing yards and five in missed tackles forced, was limited to 13 yards on nine carries, a 1.4-yard average. In 55 career games, the three-time Pro Bowler had only one worse day statistically – nine carries for 12 yards (1.3 average) vs. Chicago in 2018. He forced only one missed tackle, which turned a loss into merely a gain of 3.
“We know what type of player Dalvin Cook is, and we know how he can hurt teams,” outside linebacker Preston Smith said. “We look at last year, if he could kick field goals, he could’ve beat us himself. So, we know what type of player he can be for their team and how he can hurt opposing teams. We know his ability to carry the ball and make big plays at any given moment in the game. We know we had to stop him. We know we had to make them one-dimensional and get them out of the run game and get them to passing and make them uncomfortable.”
Offensively, the Packers were mostly fantastic. They misfired on three red-zone possessions to open the game and finished 3-of-7 on the night. That’s not good enough. Otherwise, if this is the offense that shows up in the playoffs, good luck to their next three opponents.
Aaron Rodgers: 29-of-38 passing for 288 yards, with two touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 114.8 passer rating. On passes thrown 10-plus yards downfield, he was 9-of-12 (with the only drop of the night, a touchdown for Josiah Deguara) for two touchdowns.
Davante Adams: 11 receptions in 14 targets for 136 yards and one touchdown. Allen Lazard: Caught all six targets for 72 yards, including a big-time catch for a 20-yard touchdown that made it 13-0. Combined: 208 yards and two touchdowns.
Aaron Jones: 76 rushing yards, 9.5 average and 106 yards from scrimmage. AJ Dillon: 63 rushing yards, 4.5 average, two touchdowns and 83 yards from scrimmage. Combined: 189 yards and two touchdowns.
Offensive line: Zero sacks and powered a running game that averaged 5.4 yards per rush.
“I thought it was our most complete game in all three phases, and that’s what we need moving forward,” coach Matt LaFleur said.
The final carnage: 481-206 in total yards, 7-of-13 compared to 2-of-12 on third down, and zero giveaways.
The team that crushed the Vikings is unbeatable. Period. The Vikings are a good team. While they’re 7-9, this was their only loss this season by more than one score. If not for a fumble by Cook in overtime, they might have beaten Cincinnati in Week 1. If not for a missed field goal, they would have beaten Arizona in Week 2. So, while it’s obvious Cousins’ absence had a dramatic impact on the game, this was a thorough, all-around smackdown of a division rival.
If the past two games lacked the requisite style points, this game was the equivalent of a New York fashion show.
“We’re battle-tested. We’ve kind of experienced everything that you can experience,” Adams said. “We got blown out, literally to the point where we were one of the lowest on the power rankings after Week 1. Battling through what we battled through or the ups and downs within a game, we’ve kind of seen it all at this point. We’re definitely ready for this stretch. Just got to stay as healthy as possible. This bye will definitely help that, and come back in Lambeau ready to do this thing.”
When their playoffs start in two weeks, if their stars shine like they did on Sunday night, if they continue to take care of the football (four consecutive games without a turnover), if the defense can stop the run and tackle (one miss) like it did vs. the Vikings and if they can show this same killer instinct, the Packers will be basking in confetti in Los Angeles on the night of Feb. 13.
