Green Bay has a lot to clean up on offense, defense and special teams if they intend to make a deep playoff push this season.
All three facets of the game have had their positive moments this season, but all three have also floundered as well.
How will they perform against NFC North foe Minnesota on Sunday?
Packers’ offense vs. Vikings’ defense
Green Bay’s offense has one big question mark coming into Sunday’s game.
Is Josh Jacobs going to play?
Jacobs left Sunday’s game with a knee injury and did not return.
Emanuel Wilson stepped up in his absence and scored a touchdown in the second half.
Sunday’s game, however, was largely on the shoulders of Jordan Love and the passing game.
Green Bay’s receivers struggled. They had seven dropped passes Sunday, but they made just enough plays to beat the New York Giants, who are 2-9.
The biggest plays of the game were made by Christian Watson and rookie third-round pick Savion Williams.
Williams’ 33-yard reception was a big third-down conversion on what became the game-winning touchdown drive.
The game-winner came courtesy of Watson, who had two touchdowns in Sunday’s win over the Giants.
The biggest concern in the Vikings game for Green Bay is going to be whether they’re able to protect Love.
Love was sacked twice against the Giants’ vicious pass rush Sunday. Minnesota’s Brian Flores employs as complex a blitz package as any defensive coordinator in football.
The offensive line has struggled but now has a game under its belt with new center Sean Rhyan playing in the middle of the offensive line.
The tight end position is a bit of a dead zone without Tucker Kraft. Luke Musgrave was essentially benched after playing poorly in the first half. Both of his touches turned into either a fumble or an incompletion.
Defensively, Minnesota frustrated Chicago’s Caleb Williams and held the Bears’ offense to 19 points.
Williams completed 50% of his passes and was sacked twice in Chicago’s 19-17 win over the Vikings.
This group is led by its pass rush, which has 26 sacks on the season.
Old friend Eric Wilson has 3.5 sacks on the year.
The Vikings have seven guys on their team with more than one sack, and 13 guys with at least half of a sack.
In the secondary, they have some cornerbacks who are gettable.
Byron Murphy is not having as strong of a year in his second season with the Vikings after a career year a season ago. Jeff Okudah is a former draft bust from Detroit who has been playing significant snaps for them as well.
Their leading playmaker is safety Josh Metellus.
One of the best plays of his career came against Green Bay during the 2023 season; he stole the ball from Jayden Reed resulting in an interception.
Metellus leads the team this year in interceptions with two.
The Vikings only have three interceptions on the year, with Isaiah Rodgers having the other.
For a defense as aggressive as Flores’ unit typically is, they do not have a lot of takeaways, with three interceptions and six fumble recoveries.
Green Bay’s offense needs to take care of the football and protect its starting quarterback.
Packers’ defense vs. Vikings’ offense
Evan Williams made the play of the game in Sunday’s 27-20 win over the New York Giants.
After a multitude of missed opportunities, Jameis Winston gave the Packers one final shot at taking the ball away.
Williams finally obliged Winston, intercepting a pass with less than 40 seconds left to seal a victory.
Williams caught one while his teammates dropped others.
Javon Bullard and Keisean Nixon each dropped one. Carrington Valentine missed two opportunities.
As it stands, the Packers have just four interceptions on the season — two from Williams and two from Xavier McKinney.
That’s it.
Green Bay’s defensive backs need to make more plays on the ball if they’re going to realize their potential.
Last week was a tough week in the secondary, specifically for Nixon who was victimized in coverage by Isaiah Hodgins.
This week, they face a much stiffer test. Minnesota’s skill players are Jordan Addison and arguably the best receiver in football, Justin Jefferson.
Jefferson is having a slower season by his standards but is capable of taking off at a moment’s notice.
Minnesota’s run game takes a committee approach. Aaron Jones, who continues to age gracefully, has bounced back from an injury to show he can still play well.
He’s flanked by Jordan Mason, who is a hard-running sledgehammer as Jones’ backup.
They both average more than 4 yards per carry on the year.
Green Bay’s pass rush was supposed to be its super power but has recently turned into Micah Parsons and the funky bunch.
Perhaps they could get a boost this week with the return of third-year defensive end Lukas Van Ness, but someone other than Parsons needs to start making plays on the quarterback.
J.J. McCarthy is Minnesota’s quarterback, and he’s been sacked 15 times in his four starts.
He’s indecisive at times and has a propensity to hold onto the football.
That could give Green Bay’s pass rush some opportunities to get home.
Special Teams
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Green Bay’s kicking situation is in flux.
Brandon McManus was sidelined last week with a leg injury that popped up Saturday before the game in New York.
Lucas Havrisik came off the bench and joined the starting lineup after being sidelined for the last month.
His perfect run ended on his first kick of the day, where he badly missed an extra point.
He would miss another, although the second miss was due at least in part to a shoddy field goal operation.
The special teams were saved largely on the back of Daniel Whelan, who has been an excellent punter this season for the Packers. That included a 61-yard bomb that flipped the field against the Giants.
Minnesota’s special teams is coming off a bad finish. Not only were they beaten on a game-winning field goal, Chicago’s game-winning drive was largely completed by a long kickoff return given up to Devin Duvernay.
Will Reichard has only missed two field goals this season, and he has yet to miss an extra point.
After a rough showing against Chicago, this group will be motivated against Green Bay, who struggled in the third phase of the game a week ago.
