Jonathan Greenard: Vikings treating narrow win over Packers 'like a loss'

After going up 28-0, the Vikings allowed 22 unanswered points to the Packers.

Joanthan Greenard (58) rushes Packers QB Jordan Love / Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings held on to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-29 to improve to a 4-0 start to the season. That doesn't mean the team is happy about the performance on the field. In fact, according to pass rusher Jonathan Greenard, many on the defense are counting the game as a loss after nearly blowing a 28-point lead.

"No doubt about it, we definitely ... we're treating this like a loss," Greenard told KFAN's Power Trip Morning Show on Tuesday. "We literally were not happy about how we won this past game. We left so many plays out there. We messed up so many times on our end. Just a lot of self-inflicted stuff."

Minnesota jumped out to a 28-point first-half lead thanks to an explosive offense and a defense that harassed newly-returned Packers quarterback Jordan Love. Green Bay was limited to just 137 yards on six first-half drives before scoring with 20 seconds left in the half. The Vikings defense intercepted Love twice before the first Packers points of the day.

Green Bay then went on to score the next 15 points as it closed the gap to 28-22 with a little over 10 minutes left in the game. The Packers racked up 314 yards of offense in the second half as they attempted the comeback, including a six-play, 96-yard drive that ate just 1 minute, 22 seconds off the clock.

The Vikings were able to recover a late onside kick that allowed them to kneel down and see out that narrow two-point victory to preserve their undefeated start. While there is certainly a sour taste after a bad second half, Greenard says the defense knows they can play better.

"I think that's one of the good things I noticed about this team. ... We're just going back to the drawing board and looking at ourselves in the mirror and understand, 'Hey look, what type of team do you want to be? Do you want to be a team that's standing there at the final dance?' We gotta make sure that these things don't happen," Greenard said. "A lot of people trying to ask, 'How do we go about this being 4-0? Or how do you deal with adversity when you're always up against opponents?' I feel like we shouldn't have to be playing from behind or being in a situation where we have to be down 14 or multiple scores just to show us that we're a good team.

"That's the beauty of it, knowing we have a pretty good team, because no one's satisfied about how we won."