The More the Vikings Change, the More They Stay the Same

The Minnesota Vikings led 20-3 with 7:55 left in the third quarter after forcing Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers to go three-and-out.

With a road game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in a week and the playoffs on the horizon, the Vikings had an opportunity to be proactive. Minnesota held Aaron Jones out of the fourth quarter because he took a shot to the quad in the first. They could have rested the other starters if Sam Darnold engineered a methodical drive and scored to put the game away.

Instead, Darnold threw an interception on a deep ball to T.J. Hockenson, who the Packers had double-covered. Green Bay scored four plays later to make it 20-10. The Vikings scored a touchdown on their next drive and won 27-25, but what looked like a blowout suddenly became a contested game.

“That was a hard-fought NFC North game,”

According to ESPN, Green Bay never had better than a 27.7% chance to win. Still, if you felt a sense of déjà vu, it’s because the Vikings have played this game before.

In Week 4, Minnesota led 28-7 at halftime and forced the Packers into a three-and-out on their first drive of the second half. However, Darnold threw a pick on a deep ball to Jones, and Green Bay scored 22 unanswered points before Will Reichard converted his field goal. The Vikings won 31-29 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Still, the Packers turned a blowout into a two-point game.

A week later, the Vikings were leading Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets 20-10 when Darnold threw an interception on a deep pass to Jordan Addison with 9:54 left in the fourth. The Jets scored on the next drive. Rodgers was driving against Minnesota’s defense late in the fourth when Stephon Gilmore picked Rodgers off with 49 seconds left to win, 23-17.

And who could forget the Week 12 game at Soldier Field? The Vikings had a 24-10 when they turned it over on downs with 12:07 left to play. Chicago scored a touchdown on the next drive and 11 points after the two-minute warning to tie the game before Minnesota won 30-27 in overtime.

There are caveats. The Jets aren’t a divisional opponent, and Darnold didn’t throw a pick that changed the game’s momentum in Chicago. Still, Rodgers played 18 years in Green Bay, and a failed fourth-down conversion is still a turnover.

“We're not expecting Sam to be perfect,” said Justin Jefferson. “We know that there's going to be adversity throughout the game.

“There's going to be times where he might not make a great throw, or he might make a bad read. That's not something that he needs to hang his head on [for] the rest of the game. It's just all about the next play.”

Darnold’s teammates celebrated him after the game, as they should. He had a 105.4 passer rating entering the game and has thrown for over 4,000 yards. Minnesota isn’t on the verge of a 15-win season and home-field advantage for the first time since 1998 without him. Still, Vikings fans will feel that

Minnesota was 11-0 in one-score games two years ago, and Daniel Jones and the New York Giants beat them in the first round of the playoffs. Brett Favre’s gunslinging play was sustainable until he

The Vikings blew out the New York Giants, Houston Texans, and Atlanta Falcons. Still, most of their games have been close. Sunday’s game against the Packers looked like those in Lambeau and Soldier Field.

They’ll play the Lions for an opportunity to take the NFC. Detroit beat them 31-29 in Week 7, and the Los Angeles Rams beat them 30-20 at SoFi, Minnesota’s only two losses this season. After the game, the Vikings mentioned how difficult it was to play on a short week after facing the physical Lions. If they lose at Ford Field, they may play the Rams in LA a week later.

Time is a flat circle until the Vikings can break the cycle.