Defense delivers again as Packers cling to victory over Vikings

The Green Bay Packers beat the team that led the NFL in scoring defense in 2018 to start the season and the team that led the NFL in scoring defense in 2017 on Sunday.

Maybe it's the Packers that have the juggernaut defense this year.

On the strength of its defense, Green Bay started fast, faded badly but survived to beat the Minnesota Vikings 21-16 at Lambeau Field on Sunday.

The victory made Matt LaFleur 2-0 as Packers coach - the first Green Bay coach to accomplish that since the immortal Vince Lombardi - and gave Green Bay an early bit of control in the NFC North after beating Chicago last week.

For the second consecutive week, it was the defense that led the way. The Packers have allowed only 19 points in their first two games, that unit's best start since 2001.

“They did a great job, man,” LaFleur said. “We stalled a little bit offensively in that second half, couldn't really get much going, and they were on the grass quite a bit. But to the credit of our guys, we all stuck together. And we talk about it. Sometimes we’re going to have to face some adversity and how do we respond to those tough situations? And our guys, they stuck together, they didn’t blink and it was a great team win.”

The Packers appeared poised to blow out the Vikings in the latest battle of this Border War, surging to a lightning-fast 21-0 lead, but led only 21-16 when Minnesota took the ball at its 40 with 10:08 remaining. Green Bay’s defense, which was red hot to start the game, had lost its ferocity. Dalvin Cook broke a tackle and turned a loss of 5 into a gain of 5. Alexander Mattison ran for 10. Kirk Cousins evaded a sack and scrambled for 6. Mattison broke two tackles on a rumble for 12 yards to the 8.

On first-and-goal from the 8, Cousins booted to his right and flipped a ball to Stefon Diggs, but cornerback Kevin King used every bit of his 6-foot-3 frame for an end-zone interception with 5:10 to go.

Video: Tramon Williams on 2-0 start.

“We thought we had them [the defense] tired," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. "They were having trouble getting lined up and we thought we’d catch them.”

Added Cousins: “You just can’t do that. It happened last week in our game, against us, and we talked about it all week how you can’t do that. It’s uncharacteristic of me. I can’t do it. What I was thinking was, give Diggs a chance, kind-of an ‘ours or nobody’s’ thing. It wasn’t nobody’s, he went and made a play. You just can’t do that.”

The Packers couldn’t do anything with the ball, though, and Minnesota’s offense was back on the field at its 24 with 4:06 remaining. Cornerback Jaire Alexander, who would have been the hero of last year’s game against the Vikings at Lambeau if not for Clay Matthews’ dubious roughing-the-passer penalty, dropped an interception on second down but had excellent coverage on a third-down pass to Adam Thielen to force a punt.

Green Bay’s offense had spent the better part of 2 hours in a funk until running back Aaron Jones’ cutback run gained 13 yards for a first down. The Packers got another first down on the first play after the two-minute warning, when Aaron Rodgers hit Davante Adams on a bootleg for a gain of 8. That allowed the Packers to run out all but the final 6 seconds.

The game ended when Minnesota fumbled a desperate series of laterals. It was the fourth takeaway of the day for Green Bay.

Rodgers threw for 209 yards, with 151 of those and both touchdowns coming in the first half. Jones ran for 116 yards.

“We’ve just got to be a little more consistent in the pass game, I think,” Rodgers said. “We ran the ball, I felt like, pretty well all day, and Jonesey was running. We started off really well throwing the ball and then we kind of went a little stagnant there. So we’ve got to find some better consistency in the passing game.”

After losing 12 yards on offense in the first quarter of last week’s season-opening victory at Chicago, Green Bay blazed out of the gates to take a 21-0 lead 15 minutes, 44 seconds into the game. Its first three possessions ended with a 15-yard touchdown pass on a screen to running back Jamaal Williams, a leaping 12-yard touchdown catch by receiver Geronimo Allison and a 2-yard touchdown run by Aaron Jones.

It was an offensive clinic, with the Packers stretching the vaunted Vikings defense from sideline to sideline. On the first touchdown drive, the second play was a swing pass – actually a lateral – to Jones. On the scoring play, the Packers used the same action. Rodgers looked in the flat to Jones but then threw a screen to the right to Williams, who got blocks from guards Lane Taylor and Billy Turner.

With a bipartisan crowd of 78,416 in attendance, Minnesota swung the momentum moments after the touchdown by Jones when Dalvin Cook burst up the middle, stepped through a tackle at the line of scrimmage and evaded safety Darnell Savage near midfield for a 75-yard touchdown.

Minnesota briefly pulled within a touchdown just before halftime on a 3-yard touchdown catch by Diggs. However, on a booth review, Cook was flagged for offensive pass interference in creating the opening for Diggs. Dan Bailey’s 31-yard field goal pulled the Vikings within 21-10 at halftime.

The Packers had chances to blow the game open. After scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions, they were on the move again until Allison fumbled on a hit by cornerback Xavier Rhodes. Leading 21-7, Savage broke up a pass that was intercepted by outside linebacker Preston Smith, who returned the ball to the Vikings’ 47. A third-and-1 pass to Allison was stopped short and a fourth-down run by Williams was swarmed; Rodgers thought the play by Allison had gained the first down.

“Much to my surprise, I came out of the fake there and realized it was fourth down,” Rodgers said. “That’ll earn me an extra finger of Scotch tonight probably.”

The Vikings continued their comeback to start the second half. A botched shotgun snap from center Corey Linsley to Rodgers gave the Vikings the ball at Green Bay’s 42. On third-and-13, Cousins hit Diggs for a 45-yard touchdown. Diggs got behind cornerback Kevin King. Fellow cornerback Jaire Alexander raced across the field but the ball got to Diggs a split-second before Alexander’s arrival. Diggs took off his helmet to celebrate and was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct; Tony Brown blocked the 48-yard extra point to keep the score 21-16.

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