Big Bear Nolan's Blog

This Sunday, the first part of the 2025 series between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers will take place at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Of course like usual between these two teams, this game will have major playoff implications as Minnesota is 4-6 and in the hunt and Green Bay is 6-3-1 and currently the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoff and in a tight battle between the Bears and Lions for the NFC North. However, this Sundays game is two teams, two front offices, and two fanbases that are battered and need a spark.

The Green Bay Packers are 6-3-1 and as stated in a tight battle for the NFC North. But since the 2-0 start when the Packers demolished both the Lions and Commanders, Green Bay has been 4-3-1 since the great start. Green Bay has three wins against the Bengals (currently 3-7), Cardinals ( currently 3-7), and last week against the Giants ( currently 2-9) where the team struggled to beat those games. In Green Bay’s three losses, they were games that you could argue that Green Bay beat themselves. The packers first loss came in ugly fashion via a 13-10 loss at the 2-8 Cleveland Browns in week 3 along with a 16-13 loss at home to the 6-5 Panthers where the Packers had a lot of chances to blow out Carolina all game but blew a lot of redzone chances. Green Bay most recent loss came in a 10-7 loss at home to the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, the Packers defense led by Micah Parsons held the Philly offense and RB Saquon Barkley down all game but the Packer offense couldn’t score on the Eagles as the team’s only score came late in the fourth. Green Bay’s tie came in a 40-40 game in Parson’s homecoming in Dallas on Sept. 28 when the Packers held a 13-0 lead but on their second touchdown a blocked extra point returned for a safety for Dallas ignited the Cowboys and from there neither team could stop each other.

Green Bay’s struggle has been mostly blamed on the offense and special teams. Especially Head Coach Matt Lafleur who is the offensive play caller and Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. In the Packers three losses, Green Bay lost by 3 points in each game. In the Browns game, Cleveland scored the game winning field goal after the Browns blocked Green Bay’s opportunity and the game winning field goal earlier. Then in the Panthers game, Carolina marched down the field on the final drive to end it with a walkoff field goal. Green Bay had chances to score against the Eagles, but in that game Philly never relinquished the lead. There has been added pressure on QB Jordan Love to also perform better because he is at the helm of this offense and is trying to continue Green Bay’s run of Hall Of Fame Quarterback play.

The Vikings however have dropped off after their 14-3 season last year. Minnesota saw its 2024 first round draft pick in QB J.J. McCarthy finally be ready to play after missing last season with an injury. Although there were expected growing pains, this season has not gone as smooth as the Vikings might have thought with McCarthy. Minnesota opened up the season with the 27-24 comeback win on week 1 over the Chicago Bears, but immediately followed it up with an ugly 22-6 loss at home the following week to the Atlanta Falcons. McCarthy got hurt again and for the immediate five weeks, the Vikings sent out Carson Wentz to be the QB. Minnesota had a great 48-10 win over Cincinnati in Wentz’s first game along with a 21-17 win in London over the Cleveland Browns. But the three losses were not good under Wentz. The Vikings fell 24-21 against Pittsburgh in the game at Ireland along with a 37-10 blowout loss at the Chargers, Wentz and the Vikings did play the Philadelphia Eagles tough as Philly escaped U.S. Bank Stadium with a 28-22 win but the Vikings and Wentz blew a lot of chances with missed wide open receivers and untimely drops and sacks.

When McCarthy returned for the game at Detroit on Nov. 2, he led the Vikings to a 27-24 upset win over the Lions at Ford Field for the Vikings first win in Detroit since 2020. But then the last two games against Baltimore and Chicago, McCarthy struggled in both of them as he threw a combined four interceptions in both en route to 27-19 and 19-17 respective losses. Head Coach, Kevin O’Connell who earned a lot of praise for his season last year with Sam Darnold has been taking a lot of heat for struggling with J.J. this season by fans and the media.

This Sunday’s game between the two teams is one that both need for morale or else it could get really ugly. Vikings desperately need this one to not fall to 4-7 and fall more behind the cutoff for the NFC playoff picture, and while the Packers aren’t necessarily in danger of being eliminated, Green Bay needs this win to keep up for the NFC North and also are trying to break a two game winless streak against the Vikings at Lambeau.

Minnesota Vikings (4-6) at Green Bay Packers (6-3-1): Nov. 23, 12 pm C.T. FOX

Game location: Lambeau Field, Green Bay Wisconsin