Brian Flores: Vikings had 'sense of comfort you can't have' against Packers

Minnesota's 28-0 lead vanished as turnovers and touchdowns brought the Packers back to life.

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. / Minnesota Vikings

Winning at Green Bay is priceless no matter how it happens, but the Minnesota Vikings definitely left Lambeau Field with some lessons learned.

"We certainly found out that it's hard to win in this league. Things can change on a dime and that happened," Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian said Tuesday. "I also think adversity's good. it's hard to win in this league. To go through that and come out of it with a win is good for us as a group but it also shows us how quickly things can turn."

Minnesota led 28-0 and was on top 28-7 before Green Bay rallied to cut the deficit to 28-22 with just over 10 minutes left in the game. It was a frantic stretch from the final 33 seconds of the third quarter to the Jordan Love touchdown pass to Tucker Kraft to cut the score to six points in which the Vikings had no answer for the Packers offense. It was nearly disastrous, but in the end the Vikings won 31-29 and Flores using it as a stepping stone in the growth of the defense.

"To get in those situations and almost train your mind to withstand whatever negativity is going on or whatever thoughts are going on in your mind, to withstand it and push through it, it's hard to get reps on those things, they kind of happen by chance oftentimes, so I thought that was good for our group," Flores said.

Admittedly, leading 28-0 led to what Flores believes was a "human nature" reaction to "take your foot off the gas a little bit." The lesson learned? " We can't do that, especially against an opponent like that," Flores said.

"You talk about it. I'll tell them, you feel good (with a huge lead) but what that leads to is a sense of comfort you can't have playing this game. It's a violent game, there's competitors on the other side. I thought we did a good job of coming out in the third quarter and getting off to a good start, and I'm not going to sit here and say that we got complacent and all that and just kind of shut it down. That's not what happened. Our guys played hard the whole way," Flores continued.

Some of the circumstances were out of Flores' control. For example, Green Bay's only touchdown in the first half came two plays after Jalen Nailor muffed a punt and the Packers got the ball at the Minnesota 3-yard line. Then in the fourth quarter, Green Bay scored two plays after recovering a Sam Darnold fumble at the 20-yard line.

Take away two turnovers in the red zone and the end result might've been a much more lopsided victory and nobody would be talking about defensive struggles. Add in Xavier McKinney's interception at the 2-yard line — the call on the field was upheld even though he was clearly out of bounds before gaining control of the ball — and the outcome might've been one of the largest blowouts in Lambeau Field history.

"We've just gotta be able to adjust a little bit quicker. Myself for sure and getting that information to our guys. Again, all learning opportunities for us to learn and grow and get better," Flores concluded.