Ringing in the New Year with a blowout loss

The Vikings' last-ditch effort to start rookie Jaren Hall backfired in a loss to the Packers

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By Matthew Coller

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Vikings’ season actually ended in Week 8 against Green Bay when Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles but we just didn’t know it then. We knew it in Week 17 when the Packers blew out the Vikings at US Bank Stadium and — for all intents and purposes — ended their chances at reaching the playoffs.

There are certainly plenty of ways you can interpret the Vikings’ collapse from the cusp of the postseason to needed a win in Detroit and a miracle to get in but the most obvious answer is the right one: It’s really, really hard to win without your starting quarterback. That was never clearer than watching Jaren Hall and Nick Mullens stumble through the Vikings’ loss, which dropped them to 7-9. Now the focus shifts to an offseason that will dictate the entire future direction of the franchise.

Here’s how Sunday night’s game went down…

A game like Sunday night’s makes you feel for the in-game entertainment people at US Bank Stadium. They put so much work into all the pomp and circumstance, from fake snow, to the video board presentation to the guitar shreddy guy to Kirk Cousins leading the SKOL chant shirtless, only to watch the team get blasted 23-3 in the first half.

Actually the Vikings were lucky that it was only 23-3 because a major storyline of the opening 30 minutes was how many opportunities Green Bay missed. They could have easily been up by 35 points. Instead it was just a relatively large lead rather than a gap so big that Vikings fans could leave the stadium and start their New Year’s Eve parties early.

On the opening drive, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur showed his hand: He wanted to go deep. Quarterback Jordan Love overthrew a wide open receiver and the Packers were forced to punt.

After a three-and-out by the Vikings, who were led by rookie QB Jaren Hall, Green Bay had another shot at a big play and missed. A long drive that started on the Green Bay 20-yard line ended with a field goal when Love overthrew wide open receiver Malik Health on third-and-8 in the red zone. He would have walked in for a touchdown but instead the Pack ended up with just a 3-0 lead.

Hall trotted back out with the feeling that the Vikings had gotten away with one and needed to respond quickly. Instead it was a typical story from the last few weeks with the Vikings’ backup QB carousel. Hall, trying to play safer than his predecessor Nick Mullens, checked down to an open Johnny Mundt over the middle but the pass was too far behind him and got tipped and picked off.

This time Love did not miss. He delivered a 33-yard touchdown immediately and gave Green Bay a 10-point lead. Not exactly what the Vikings were looking for with QB4 starting.

Kevin O’Connell, never one to stick with the run, handed off two times in a row to start the next drive and then got the help of a Packers penalty to set up first-and-5. Naturally after one unsuccessful run, the Vikings went right back to throwing out of an empty set and Hall tossed two incompletions and Ryan Wright shanked a punt.

If you think your coach gets too cute, the Packers set the bar with their next drive. Love hit a 28-yard fadeaway pass to a player named Bo Melton, who is definitely on the Packers roster, and Green Bay was instantly staring down the possibility of a blowout. However, on third-and-1 they ran a failed tush push because nobody is good at the tush push except the Eagles and then the Pack dialed up a play-action shot to the end zone on fourth-and-1. A more accurate pass would have put the game on ice instantly but it was off the mark and Melton dropped it.

That seemed to inspire the offense. Hall finally looked comfortable, ripping off a 13-yard pass to Justin Jefferson and then finding Jordan Addison for 20 yards. But one of Addison’s biggest issues in preseason was that he took a lot of sacks. On second-and-6, the run-allergic Vikings decided to drop back again and Hall took a 10-yard sack, killing the drive. He was able to get enough back on third down for Greg Joseph to kick a bomb 54-yard field goal.

At 10-3, the game still felt very much up in the air. Until the next Packers drive, that is.

See, Green Bay figured some things out that other teams have missed about the Vikings’ defense. Throwing underneath has worked for everyone who has tried but most teams could not remain patient enough to check down underneath. Love did just that with three straight completions and then Viking killer Aaron Jones did the rest, blasting the Packers into Vikings territory with runs of 5, 8 and 10 yards. Love put a bow on the drive with a dive into the end zone.

While it was still a few hours until the New Year, the clock struck midnight on the Vikings season at that moment.

Hall took another sack on the next possession and the Vikings punted. Following another bad third-and-1 call — a strange deep shot that fell incomplete — Hall was strip-sacked with under 40 seconds left in the half. Green Bay instantly took advantage, scoring a 25-yard touchdown to receiver Jayden Reed.

At halftime, the in-game entertainment people again were on their game with a hair metal cover band blaring a version of AC/DC that would have had people hyped had the score not been 23-3.

To start the second half, O’Connell made his third QB change of the year, bringing in Nick Mullens with hopes that Brett Favre Mullens would hit some deep passes and get the Vikings back in the game. After all, this is Joe Berry’s defense, right?

There was a moment — however fleeting — that that it felt like Mullens might get them going. He completed a fluttering pass over the middle that took an absurd Jefferson reception to get 21 yards and put the Vikings at the Green Bay 15-yard line. Another successful run by Ty Chandler set up third-and-3 inside the 10. But Mullens threw incomplete on fourth down and the spark ended.

The Vikings defense continued it’s rough night, giving up a 91-yard touchdown drive to the Packers after that. At that point they appeared to have nothing left in the tank. With DJ Wonnum and Byron Murphy Jr. out, they were down to parts of the roster that you never want to see playing significant snaps and the D was on the field for 77 plays last week. It wasn’t likely that they were going to be able to stand strong against a team that was moving the ball so methodically.

It doesn’t take away from the way Brian Flores’ defense kept the season alive but the last few weeks have shined a light on how much improvement is needed still on the defensive side in order to be a legit top-10 defense for the full season.

Give special teamer NaJee Thompson credit, there was no give-up in his game. On a punt that followed a three-and-out, Thompson raced downfield and stripped the ball from the Packers’ returner to give the Vikings the ball at the goal line. Mullens finally put the Vikings in the end zone with a short toss to Mundt to bring the Vikings within 20.

The Packers went into clock-draining mode after that, running on nearly every play. Jordan Love already made his point: The Packers have their quarterback and aren’t going anywhere in terms of being a difficult task for the Vikings twice per year going forward.

The only good news is that the Vikings moved up the draft board. Maybe some will celebrate that the same way they might watching the ball drop but it rings a little more hallow when the team chose to stay the course at the trade deadline and won just enough to not be in the conversation for top picks.

Now all the big questions are upon us. What’s next at QB? Is Danielle Hunter staying? How are they going to avoid repeating the long-standing history of fiddling around in the “in the hunt” graphic late in December?

You can start talking about those things again because this bumpy season is over. Goodnight, 2023.

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