Sunday’s affair in Minneapolis occasionally felt more painful to watch than a preseason game. Between the Green Bay Packers throwing it 11 times and rushing it 35 times, and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer‘s inexplicable fumble on a play he thought was blown dead, the game had all the makings of an exhibition contest.
Green Bay lost, and if not for head coach Matt LaFleur taking a timeout with one second left to put a field goal on the board, the Packers would’ve been skunked. Still, the loss to Minnesota does nothing for Green Bay’s momentum entering the postseason.
Had LaFleur opted to push the chips into the middle of the table and played Green Bay’s starters and still lost to the Vikings, there’d have been a harsh reality check awaiting the team on the flight back home. That wasn’t the case, though, as LaFleur sat almost every single one of the Packers’ starters on both sides of the ball.
The scheme on offense was as vanilla as it gets, with quarterback Clayton Tune mostly bemainlysked with turning and handing the ball off to either Emanuel Wilson or Chris Brooks. The real plan for Green Bay was evident from the start: get in, get out of U.S. Bank Stadium as quickly as possible, and injury-free. And yet, Bo Melton and Javon Bullard suffered knee injuries, though it sounds like Bullard is good to go for the playoff tilt Saturday in Chicago.
With Green Bay’s game plan fairly obvious from the jump, losing the game to Minnesota is an afterthought. Go watch the postgame interviews in the locker room. Nobody was sulking or hanging their head in defeat. Mostly, they were already fired up talking about the playoffs.
In his postgame presser, LaFleur didn’t hide what the strategy was for Green Bay against the Vikings.
I think we did the right thing today. And we’ll see. Time will tell. But I feel better about this certainly than I did a year ago after the game. It was a double whammy when we lose the game and you lose a key player for us to go into that run. I thought this was the best decision.
LaFleur is referencing the Week 18 loss last year to the Chicago Bears, coupled with the loss of Christian Watson in that game to a torn ACL. The Packers were locked into a Wild Card spot a year ago, but it could’ve been the No. 6 or No. 7 seed, which led LaFleur to play a lot of the starters against the Bears.
This game against the Vikings meant nothing. Win, lose, or draw, Green Bay would be the No. 7 seed, and Minnesota would already be eliminated from postseason play.
There isn’t a soul in the world who genuinely believes losing that game on Sunday ruins any chance of the Packers rolling into Chicago and rolling out with a win. If Green Bay loses Saturday night, it will have nothing to do with Week 18 in a game where Green Bay rolled out the JV squad, and the Vikings saw their own starting quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, leave early with a hand injury.
Typically, postgame pressers are reserved for reflecting on the game that just occurred. The Packers were more interested in postseason chatter, LaFleur included.
I think our guys are excited. They’re excited for the opportunity and that’s how we’re going to attack it and that’s our mindset. Because right now, when you get to the postseason, everybody’s 0-0. I mean, it’s a clean slate, so we have an opportunity and that’s all you can ask for.
That’s a head coach talking after a loss in Week 18. It hammers home the point that Green Bay is taking very little away from its loss to Minnesota, and, quite frankly, the Vikings probably feel the same.
Even players like safety Javon Bullard were pivoting attention towards what’s next instead of what just happened.
We’ve got confidence all over this place, man. We ain’t letting four games describe who we are as a team. We know what we’ve got in this locker game. … It’s win or go home now. … We’ve got whoever we got this weekend. To be honest with you, (expletive), it’s do-or-die time now. Either we’re going to come with this (expletive) next week, or we’re going to be sitting at home.
Bullard and Tune said after the game that Jordan Love gave a talk to the team about how it has a chance to do something special in the playoffs.
Sunday was a painful watch for both parties involved. You have to have an unhealthy obsession with football to have sat through those three hours. For Green Bay, the goal was to get out with minimal injuries. If they have any problems with momentum, it won’t be because of the Week 18 game.
