Just before the New Year was ushered in, they saw the Minnesota Vikings (7-9) lose 33-10 on Sunday Night Football to the Green Bay Packers (8-8) in an abject performance. The Seattle Seahawks’ loss helped the Packers secure a win and a profitable one as well, moving them up to the 7th seed in the AFC playoff picture.
The Vikings, who now own the 10th seed, are fighting for a postseason spot and will require a miracle to secure one of the Wild Card spots. They were in control of their own fate going into the game; they needed to defeat the Packers in Week 17 and then the Detroit Lions the following week.
The Vikings still need to defeat Detroit in Week 18 in order to get to the postseason, but things become tricky after that. The Carolina Panthers and/or Atlanta Falcons must both defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in order to stay in the early window. It will then come down to the Arizona Cardinals defeating the Seahawks and the Chicago Bears defeating the Packers.
Even if the Vikings managed to pull off a miracle and secure a Wild Card berth, their performance against the Packers demonstrated that they are far from being a playoff-caliber club. Minnesota had now lost three straight games and five of their previous six. And that’s mostly because of the quarterback position, which hasn’t been the same since Kirk Cousins’ Achilles injury in Week 8 occurred.
The Vikings still need to defeat Detroit in Week 18 in order to get to the postseason, but things become tricky after that. The Carolina Panthers and/or Atlanta Falcons must both defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in order to stay in the early window. Following
After just a month and a half, Jaren Hall was replaced by Nick Mullens, who had only played in the previous few weeks. Hall completed just five of ten passes for a pitiful 67 yards along with one interception. Before being replaced, Hall also fumbled on a strip-sack attempt by Preston Smith of
the Packers. The fumble occurred with just 26 seconds remaining before halftime, and three plays later, Jordan Love found Jayden Reed on a 25-yard reception, putting the Packers up 23-3. Both turnovers led to later touchdowns for Green Bay.
According to ESPN, since Cousins suffered his season-ending injury, the Vikings have changed quarterbacks five times this season when Mullens took over in the second half. Strangely enough, the Vikings defeated the Packers 24-10 in their most recent meeting before Cousins’ injury. That day, Hall, not Mullens, stood in for Cousins. But it made no difference.
