Packers left without answers after blowing another lead late — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Green Bay Packers fell 39-22 to the Minnesota Vikings in the season opener, extending their losing streak to six straight games dating to last season and losing in a playoff game they led by 18 in the second half.
- Matt LaFleur canceled a 40-yard Trey Smack field goal that would have made it a two-possession game, then called a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak that Jordan Love got stuffed on, giving Minnesota life.
- Vikings outscored Green Bay 22-0 in the fourth quarter and posted a 90.6% pass rush win rate — the highest by any team in a game since 2022, per ESPN Analytics/NFL Next Gen Stats — sacking Love four times and hitting him 15.
- Packers defense had two fourth-down stops and an end-zone interception overturned by penalties: illegal contact on Javon Bullard, roughing the passer on Chris McClellan, and defensive holding on Xavier McKinney.
- Jordan Love threw for 389 yards and two touchdowns to Christian Watson but lost a fumble, with coach LaFleur admitting the late-game finishing problem remains unsolved: 'I think it's going to be a topic of conversation until we do it.'
- Tucker Kraft owned the team's self-inflicted nature of the loss: 'The only people who can beat us are us. That's it,' framing the defeat as execution errors rather than opponent-driven.
Why it matters: Green Bay has now blown multi-score leads in four straight games — twice against Chicago including the playoffs, once against Denver, now versus Minnesota — a documented pattern that has carried into a new season with no apparent fix. Love was hit 15 times and the offensive line gave up a pass-rush win rate not seen league-wide since 2022, exposing a structural vulnerability beyond the late-game psychology problem LaFleur acknowledged.
Ask SkimNews
