2024 NFL season, Week 17: What We Learned from Sunday’s games

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Kevin Patra’s takeaways:

1. Darnold dices up Packers defense as Vikings hold on vs. division rival. Needing a first down to ice the contest, Sam Darnold connected with a falling Cam Akers wide open in the flat as the Vikings survived for another one-score win. Minnesota got up big as Darnold calmly picked apart the Green Bay secondary, getting to his second and third options with aplomb. Provided excellent protection by his offensive line most of the game, Darnold had a tea party, picking apart the Packers for a career-high 377 yards on 33-of-43 passing with three touchdowns and an interception. Darnold got everyone involved. When Justin Jefferson (eight receptions for 92 yards) was blanketed, Darnold peppered Jalen Nailor (5/81/1), Jordan Addison (6/69/1) or T.J. Hockenson (5/68). After a first-drive punt and a missed long field goal, the Vikings scorched Green Bay, scoring 20 unanswered to open a big lead. Darnold’s biggest miscue was a second-half forced pass that led to an interception. After the mishap, however, Darnold settled back in, found his outlets when under pressure, and kept the chains moving. After the Packers cut the once big lead to two points, a steely Darnold made plays to clinch the game, hitting three passes to salt away time. Instead of attempting to run out the clock on the ground where they’d struggled, Kevin O’Connell trusted his QB to make plays. Darnold came through. Once again, the Vikings proved they have ice in their veins.
2. Vikings D throttles Love, Packers early to set up a Week 18 showdown in Detroit. Brian Flores’ crew had Jordan Love‘s head spinning early, with the quarterback misfiring regularly. Minnesota’s defense slowed the Green Bay passing attack, holding Love to a meager 45 passing yards at halftime. For most of the contest, Flores’ crew squeezed that life out of Green Bay, not allowing the explosive plays that the Packers have thrived on. Things got dicey late, as Love solved some of Flores’ blitzes, and the Vikes allowed back-to-back TD drives to make things interesting. However, the early play of Minnesota’s defense provided the cushion needed to secure the win. The victory sets up a showdown for the NFC North title and the No. 1 seed in Week 18 against the Lions.
3. Miscues doom Matt LaFleur’s squad.  Too little, too late for the Packers. Green Bay doomed itself with early errors that left the offense sputtering. On eight first-half drives, the Packers lost a fumble, went three-and-out, stalled inside the 5-yard line, missed a fourth-down throw, and went three-and-out again after an alignment penalty cost them a first down. The offense was just a tick off for much of the game and cost them dearly. The defense played decent early but blew a coverage for a 31-yard TD, and the special teams jumped offsides on a missed field goal, giving up a free three points to close the second quarter — three points that would prove massive. After some success early in holding an explosive Vikings offense to field goals, the Green Bay defense couldn’t slow Darnold. Then, the Packers couldn’t get off the field on the final drive. A plethora of pre-snap penalties, missed tackles, missed blocks and missed throws plagued the Packers all game. LaFleur’s club looked outclassed in every aspect for the first 50 minutes Sunday. Ten minutes of good play couldn’t make up for the bad. Green Bay fell to 3-5 on the season against teams currently sporting winning records. Sunday’s loss ensures Green Bay won’t leap into the No. 5 seed and is in danger of falling into the No. 7 seed if Washington wins out.

NFL Research: The Vikings have won nine straight games following back-to-back losses in Weeks 7-8, the longest active winning streak and the longest win streak in season for Minnesota since 1975 (won 10 straight games). The Vikings’ 14 wins are the second most in team history (15-1 in 1998 — finished 15-1, won NFC Central, lost in NFC Championship game versus Falcons).

Next Gen Stats Insight for Packers-Vikings (via NFL Pro): The Vikings played man coverage on 47.1% of dropbacks, their 2nd-highest rate in a game this season, including 11 of 13 third and fourth down dropbacks. This was a notable change in strategy for Brian Flores’s defense, which played man coverage on a season-low 10.7% of dropbacks in Week 4 against the Packers. The Vikings allowed half the yards per attempt when playing man coverage (4.1) compared to zone coverage (8.2). Byron Murphy was especially effective in man coverage, allowing just 1 reception for 13 yards on 5 targets (1.2 yards of average target separation).