The Green Bay Packers got on the board first in their Week 17 matchup against the Minnesota Viking on the road, as kicker Brandon McManus drained a 22-yard field goal in the opening quarter to put his team on top, 3-0.
But the next three scores in the contest were all from the Minnesota Vikings, who scored 13 unanswered points in the second quarter. The Vikings also outscored Green Bay in the third period, 14-7, to carry a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Only in the final period that the Packers finally got it together on offense, with Emmanuel Ward scoring on a five-yard touchdown followed by a successful two-point conversion before Malik Heath caught a three-yard pass for a touchdown from quarterback Jordan Love. Still, that fiery fourth quarter was not enough for the Packers to overcome their slow start, which was mentioned by Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur in the postgame press conference.
Via Rob Demovsky of ESPN:
Matt LaFleur on the slow start: “You just can’t do that against good teams.”
He said there “absolutely is a belief we can win one of these games, but we’ve got to do it.”
The Green Bay Packers have things to clean up as the NFL playoffs loom
The 27-25 loss to the Vikings was an eye-opening loss for the Packers, who have already punched their ticket to the NFL playoffs but still have some issues to iron out, one of which was touched on by LaFleur. Despite their poor start against the Vikings, the Packers are still fourth in the NFL with 6.6 points average in the first quarter this season.
The 11-5 Packers will close out their 2024 NFL regular-season campaign in Week 18 at Lambeau Field versus the nosediving Chicago Bears before starting their preparation for the playoffs.
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