In Week 4, the Minnesota Vikings went into Lambeau Field and obliterated the Green Bay Packers for the second year in a row, winning 31-29. The score isn't indicative of the complete domination by the Minnesota Vikings. The fact is, the 2024 Vikings are the best team in the NFL after the 1st month, and they are doing it without one of the best TEs in football and with the 2nd highest dead cap in the 2024 season (Broncos are the highest). This is also not a fluke. The Vikings are now 4-0 including dominating wins over the 49ers, Texans, and Packers... all preseason powerhouses according to the National Media.
Let's look back at Birdman's Blog's prediction for the Packers game before providing some overall thoughts:
"Week 4 - Vikings @ Packers:
RIVALRY WEEK! The Vikings will travel to Lambeau Field to battle it out with the Green Bay Packers. The Vikings have been much more impressive this season, but the Packers come in with a 2-1 record after losing to a bad Eagles team and beating 2 bad teams in the Colts and Titans. I honestly don't think it will matter who is playing QB for the Packers. Malik Willis has started the last 2 games while Jordan Love heals from a sprained MCL in Week 1... Neither of them are better than Brock Purdy or CJ Stroud. The Vikings will have to focus their effort against the strong running game of Josh Jacobs. If we can contain Jacobs, the Vikings will win fairly easily. I predict the Vikings to win 34-17... getting at least 3 sacks and winning the turnover battle."
Let's talk about the Vikings vs Packers game...
Vikings Offense:
Sam Darnold (20/28 275 yards & 3 TDs) has been absolutley stellar and the best QB the Vikings have had since Case Keenum. He currently leads the league with 11 passing TDs, along with 932 yards and only 3 interceptions (well, actually 2 but the refs had other ideas). He also has 5 rushes for 1st downs so far this year. He is keeping drives alive with his legs more than 1 time per game, which is something we haven't had in a long time and makes a huge difference. Keep it up, Sam!
The Wide Receivers for the Vikings have been on fire and continue to dominate defenses. Justin Jefferson always comes up clutch when called upon. Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor have an ability to get wide open so often, with so many eyes on Jefferson. Jefferson and Addison combined for 164 total yards and 3 TDs.
Aaron Jones (139 total yds) is one of the best offensive free agent pickup this season. In fact, the Vikings have outrushed their opponents in all 4 games this year. This was a major point of emphasis in my preseason post. The Vikings had been the worst rushing team under KOC's 1st 2 seasons. Much of that had to do with turnover issues, playing from behind, and not having good RBs.
Overall, this Vikings offense continues to set the tone early and make opposing teams play from behind.
Vikings Defense:
Brian Flores and this Vikings defense is by far the best in the league. Whether you filter out opponents performances in garbage time or not, there isn't a better defensive unit in the NFL and they've been doing against some of the best offenses this season.
Vikings won the turnover battle 4-3, forcing 3 crucial interceptions and 1 game changing forced fumble and recovery. Hell of a game by CB Byron Murphy in clutch moments.
The depth is also insane. They can just plug rotational players in and the unit hasn't taken a step back. On top of all of this, I don't think a casual fan could even name 3 players on this Vikings defense, which makes this even more impressive.
Vikings defense leads the league in the following categories: Sacks (17), QB Hits (17), Pressures (50), Interceptions (8), Tackles for loss (26), and Pass Deflections (32).
Vikings Mistakes:
If your team is up 28-0 and it's about to be halftime and you get called in as the backup punt returner and you can't see the ball because of the blinding ball of fire directly in your eyes, maybe just let the punt drop so your offense can take over before halftime. I don't know what Jalen Nailor was doing, but he has been awesome for us and will learn from that mistake.
I do like Kevin O'Connell's aggressive attitude and wanting to pass, but there does need to be better clock management in the 2nd half with a huge lead. Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler are both very good RBs. Lean on them to bleed the clock. They will wear out the defense, get first downs, and run the clock down.
End of the game, it looked like the Vikings were too focused on trying to get Aaron Jones a TD in his first game against the Packers. This isn't a videogame, let it happen organically. When it got to 4th&1 with just over 2 minutes remaining and we were up 9 with no timeouts left for Green Bay... KICK THE DAMN FG. You have the future best FG kicker on your team. Going up 12 points would have made it so GB would need 2 TDs in order to win. Instead, they ended up only needing 1 TD and FG to win. That is dumb football.
This is all stuff the Vikings will learn from and become better for in the long run.
Win Probability:
This was a blowout and all of the Packers stats and points in the 4th quarter were garbage time nonsense, the Packers were never going to win after being down 28-0. From the end of the 1st Quarter through the end of the game, there was never a point when the Vikings win probability dropped below 81.7%. In fact, the Packers never had the ball with the game being separated by 1 score. Again, all of the garbage time stats and points in the 4th quarter was when the Vikings defense went to a prevent style as opposed to the Brian Flores mastery.
I want to be very clear, the NFL is an entertainment buisness just like WWE wrestling. The NFL and referees prefer to have close games rather than blowouts to make their product look better. It is hard to blow teams out consistently because you have so much "nonsense" working against you, no matter how good your team is.
Notes for Packers fans:
The Packers are not as good as the media keeps trying to say they are. Jordan Love is an average QB. You can try to say whatever you want in response, but they are an okay team at best. I will keep preaching this, I haven't been wrong in my blogs too often this year.
The 4th quarter was funny because it is now going to give Packer fans a false sense of hope with their Cousins-esque garbage time stats and points...example: YouTube the Vikings vs Eagles game in Week 2 of 2023. At one point the Eagles had a 27-7 lead and after the 1st half, the Eagles win probability never dipped below 81.2%, even though the final score was 34-28.
Your kicker is awful. You cut 2 kickers in the preseason that were both better than this guy. Nice.
Finally, Jordan Love was 100%. Don't let Packer fans convince you otherwise. There is no way he would have started, let alone stayed in the game down 28-0, if he wasn't 100%.
Packers have the same colors as Waste Management.
Wisconsin cheese is nauseously disgusting.
NFL & Referees:
I am here to call out the total bullshit we see from the NFL & Referees.
With about 10 minutes left in the 3rd Quarter, score 28-7, the Vikings were driving and were about to take the lead 31-7 or 35-7 until Sam Darnold threw what appeared to be an interpection at the 3 yard line. Upon watching the replay, McKinney CLEARLY never controlled the ball before landing out of bounds but the replay booth claimed he did and ruled it an INT. This is the kind of BS we are talking about. The NFL, not wanting this game to get even more out of hand, decide to rule this incorrectly and it completely changed how the rest of the game played out.
On a crucial 3&12 play for the Vikings, up 31-22, with 4 minutes remaining, Sam Darnold threw an absolute dime to the near sideline to Justin Jefferson. Jefferson was able to make the catch and get 3 steps in bounds before stepping out... FIRST DOWN, right?! WRONG. Here comes the referee to say no catch and that he was out of bounds. (HE HAD THREE FEET INBOUNDS...) This forced the Vikings to use their 3rd and final challenge in order to reverse the ridiculous call. This will come into play later.
Later in this drive, and approaching the 2 minute warning (Green Bay out of timeouts), Aaron Jones had a run on 2nd down and Jalen Nailor had a run on 4th down that the refs marked short that were both clearly 1st downs. If you are questioning this, go back and look at the replays. Problem is we didn't have any challenges left. Weird!
These are the types of plays and referee decisions that can change the course of a game very easily...and when the biggest money making teams for the NFL like the Packers, Steelers, Patriots, and Chiefs seem to get little calls that might get "overlooked" (like holding or pass interference or where the spot of the ball is placed) or "strange calls" (like if it was a catch or interception), it all starts to make more sense.
Bonus Thought:
A big different this season is that QB Sam Darnold seems to stay calm through adversity and doesn't let mistakes or scoring draughts compound. He isn't the biggest vocal leader, but the players and coaches seem to really trust Sam and are soaking up the confidence emanating from him. He is just incredibly genuine by the way he talks, acts and performs, and everyone around him feels that. Our previous QB, Cousins, was clearly an insincere and fake competitor and would let bad moments compound. If he threw a pick to start the game, the game was likely over. He also emits a fake, loud leadership whenever he says words. Teammates and coaches can pick up on that eventually. Cousins was an absolute headcase and has always put making money and personal statistics his primary focus. Looking into the future, JJ McCarthy will grow into a better version of Sam Darnold in terms of leadership and confidence and spilling that onto his teammates and coaches. His absolute winner personality and killer mindset will also rub off onto the entire Vikings organization. He is a damn good prospect, just like Sam was, coming out of college, but I think the JJ and KOC combo will take it to the next level once called upon. For now we RIDE with Slingin' Sammy Darnold!
Week 5 Vikings vs Jets in London:
The 4-0 Minnesota Vikings will travel to London to face the 2-2 New York Jets. We know how the season has gone for the Vikings and I think Darnold, Jefferson, Jones, and the Defense will continue to play really solid football. The Jets lost to the 49ers, then beat 2 bad teams (Titans and Patriots), and are now coming off a terrible loss to the Denver Broncos. With that being said, the Jets do have a solid defense and have Aaron Rodgers, Breece Hall, and Garrett Wilson on offense. This game will be closer than we think, especially since it will be played in London where games can get sort of weird. I predict a 24-17 victory for the Vikings. Let's improve to 5-0 and go into the Bye Week feeling great! SKOL!
Skol baby!!
Let’s go, Vikings! SKOLLLLL