Matt LaFleur talked during the offseason about his team needing to be better in closing down games. Whatever he did to try to make that happen didn’t seem to work, at least not for the first week of the 2026 season.
The Green Bay Packers led the Minnesota Vikings 22-10 early in the third quarter. When the final buzzer sounded, Minnesota had scored 29 unanswered points, dominating the second half in a 39-22 come-from-behind victory. The Packers’ offense, which had scored on each of the team’s first
three drives of the game, fell apart, led by its offensive line; the defense committed penalties on three straight would-be third down stops on the Vikings’ go-ahead drive. The special teams gaveth — Trey Smack hit a 59-yard field goal early and Bo Melton had a 59-yard kickoff return — and tooketh away (Smack missed a PAT and the team allowed a 69-yard kickoff return).
Ultimately, the team that couldn’t close out a game without Micah Parsons late last season couldn’t do it without him to start 2026. To make matters worse, it happened against a backup quarterback, Carson Wentz, who came in for a concussed Kyler Murray in the first quarter.
Jordan Love’s good start was marred by back-to-back late fumbles, brought about by poor protection by his offensive line against Brian Flores’ sellout blitzes, as well as by a late interception partly caused by the same. The running game was practically nonexistent, with the team gaining just 66 yards on the ground. And the performance on 3rd downs was abysmal — Green Bay’s offense went just 3-of-12, compared to Minnesota going 8-for-15, plus getting multiple conversions via penalty as well.
Love ended the day with his second-highest passing yardage total ever, going 21/42 for 387 yards and two scores to Christian Watson. But too much of that had to come late with the team bleeding out and trying to gather itself after Minnesota scored two touchdowns in less than two minutes.
The Packers will now have to lick their wounds for a few days before they head to New Jersey next week to play the 1-0 New York Jets.
Jonathan Gannon’s defense got off to an incredible start with a pair of big plays from Keisean Nixon. He made a tackle for loss on an Aaron Jones run on the first play from scrimmage, then hauled in a prayer from Kyler Murray on the second. Gannon brought a six-man pressure, with linebackers Zaire Franklin and Edgerrin Cooper joining the rush, and Franklin came unblocked right into Kyler Murray’s face to force the interception.
Trey Smack delivered the next Packers highlight, continuing his strong performance from the preseason. Green Bay’s offense picked up one first down on a run by Chris Brooks, then was held to a stop at the very edge of field goal range. Smack stepped up for his first official NFL field goal attempt just ahead of midfield, and he drilled a perfect ball through the uprights from 59 yards out for the Packers’ first points of the season.
Their next points came courtesy of Christian Watson. After a Vikings punt, Jordan Love hit Watson perfectly on a crossing route over the middle of the field and Watson turned on the jets, cruising up the left sideline. He picked up a big block from Matthew Golden — which was initially flagged, but eventually ruled legal — and cruised into the end zone for an 81-yard score. Smack pushed the PAT wide right, keeping the Packers’ lead at 9-0.
The next Vikings drive saw Kyler Murray leave with an apparent concussion. He took a big hit from Javon Bullard and Lukas Van Ness while going to the ground on a scramble and remained down on the field for several minutes. Bullard was flagged on the play — arguably he made helmet-to-helmet contact, though it did not appear to be a late hit — and Carson Wentz came into the game in relief.
Wentz helped the Vikings work into field goal range, largely via the handoff, but missed a third-down throw to Jordan Addison to bring on Will Reichard to make the score 9-3.
After a 59-yard kickoff return by Bo Melton that set the Packers up at the Vikings’ 40, the offense had to settle for another Smack field goal, this one from 43 yards out. The two teams traded punts for a while, with the Packers getting a sack from Lukas Van Ness to force the Vikings to kick out of their own end one. Skyy Moore’s return then set the Packers up at the Minnesota 36-yard line, but the offense went in reverse with the line getting beaten like a drum up front, leading to another Whelan punt.
This time, Minnesota drove the length of the field, even after a sack by Keisean Nixon and Jonathan Ford on the first play of the drive. An unnecessary roughness call on safety Evan Williams and a couple of third down conversions by Wentz set up the Vikings in Packers territory. From the 39, he got a free play with Van Ness jumping offsides, heaving a deep ball to Justin Jefferson, who shook rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse and hauled in a touchdown.
That left the Packers with 1:55 on the clock and three timeouts to try to expand upon their 12-10 lead before halftime. Jordan Love drove them down the field in chunks. First it was a 23-yarder to Tucker Kraft, then 10 yards to Bo Melton, then 32 to Watson to get to the 7-yard line with 30 seconds left. A 5-yard run by Chris Brooks set up Watson’s second touchdown, which came off a brilliant play design where he motioned inside and faked an insert block, only to release to the corner of the end zone.
That sent the Packers into the half up 19-10 and set to receive the second-half kickoff, but they were unable to move the ball and had to settle for a punt. Minnesota did the same, setting up the Packers back inside their own 20.
Love went to work. He connected with Matthew Golden for a gain of 13 while under extreme duress, then converted a 3rd down to Jayden Reed before finding Jonnu Smith wide open for a big gain of 43 yards to get inside the 10-yard line. Another drive bogged down close to the goal line, though, and Smack hit a short field goal to make the score 22-10.
Minnesota responded quickly, however, with a 69-yard kickoff return from Myles Price. After getting one first down on the ground, Wentz found T.J. Hockenson open over the middle for a 16-yard touchdown, pulling the Vikings back to within five points.
Love converted a 2nd and 20 on the next series after a sack, hanging in the pocket and finding Matthew Golden again for a huge 43-yard gain to set the team up in field goal range. Another failed 3rd down led to a Smack field goal attempt, but the Vikings were flagged for a penalty and the Packers preferred to keep the offense on the field on 4th and 1 instead.
Jordan Love tried a QB sneak, but a questionable spot ruled him just short of the line to gain, leaving the Packers without a score after having had the opportunity to take an 8-point lead. Wentz came out firing for Minnesota, finding Josh Oliver for 13 yards, but then Edgerrin Cooper came up with back-to-back sacks. Unfortunately, the second one, on third down, was wiped out by an illegal contact penalty on Javon Bullard, handing the Vikings a free first down. Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew made their presence known once again on an apparent third-down stop, flagging Chris McClellan for roughing the passer despite him bracing his body weight to ensure that it did not actually fall on Wentz.
Hochuli bailed out the Vikings a third time on third down inside the red zone. Evan Williams picked off Wentz in the end zone, but Xavier McKinney drew a holding penalty, and one play later Aaron Jones punched it over the goal line on a toss to the left, giving Minnesota the lead. The Vikings went for two and Jefferson caught the conversion, making the Vikings’ lead 25-22 with 6:37 left to go.
The big story coming into the game was the Packers’ offensive line. It became the big story at the end. With Brian Flores sending the house, MarShawn Lloyd took a loss of three then Love was sacked and fumbled on back-to-back plays. The second of those was recovered by Andrew Van Ginkel at the 1-yard line, and Jordan Mason ran in another touchdown one play later to suddenly turn a 5-point Packers lead into a 10-point deficit.
Two plays later, Love threw a tipped pass while under pressure and got picked off, effectively putting an end to the contest. It was all but official when Jefferson leapt to the pylon for his second touchdown of the day, putting Minnesota up 39-22. The rest was academic; Green Bay managed to drive into the red zone again but failed to find the end zone and ending the day with a shockingly disappointing result.
