The Green Bay Packers kept their playoff hopes alive with a 33-10 dismantling of the Minnesota Vikings Sunday night. Now the Packers are just a win over the Chicago Bears away from making the playoffs in a rebuilding year. That would be a huge accomplishment with a first year starting quarterback and a porous defense.
The Packers dominated the Vikings pretty much from the start of the game to the final gun. It certainly helped that the Packers were facing a team without a quarterback. The Vikings started Jaren Hall, a rookie out of BYU. It wasn’t his first start, but it was his first extended action of the year. You know you aren’t ready for prime time when you make the Packers’ defense look good.
Packers’ quarterback Jordan Love had another magnificent performance on a national stage. The Packers would have been eliminated had they lost so they obviously needed Love at his best. They got it. There were a couple of misfires early but when he got going he was red hot again. How he keeps doing this while losing receiver after receiver to injury is beyond me. Is there enough left in the tank to do it one more time?
`The Packers’ defense did play well, but had Nick Mullens started the game things might have been different. Yeah, I know Mullens didn’t do much in the second half but they were 20 points behind so the Packers knew they were going to pass every play. It’s going to be a whole different ball game against the Bears and Justin Fields.
The Packers have never lost to the Bears under head coach Matt LaFleur. But until this year the Packers had never lost in December under LaFleur. All good things must come to an end. Let’s just hope it’s not this weekend.