The Vikings and Packers played a wild final few minutes on Sunday and the Vikings were on top when the dust settled.
Greg Joseph’s 27-yard field goal as time expired made them 34-31 winners over their NFC North rivals. The winning kick was set up by a couple of big completions to Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen before a 12-yard run by Cook left the Packers with no option other than to hope that Joseph missed the short field goal.
All of that happened after Kirk Cousins started the drive by throwing what looked like an interception to Darnell Savage. Replays showed Savage lost the ball when he hit the ground, however, and Packers corner Rasul Douglas just missed a pick on the throw to Thielen later in the winning drive.
Cousins had another interception wiped out by a roughing the passer penalty in the first half and a fumble on a sack that the Vikings recovered, but no actual turnovers while going 24-of-35 for 341 yards and three touchdowns. Two of the scores went to Justin Jefferson, who was all but impossible for the Packers to stop as he put up eight catches for 169 yards.
The second Jefferson score put the Vikings up 31-24 with 2:17 left to play and Aaron Rodgers needed just one play to tie the game. He hit Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 75-yard score, which was his third touchdown of the second half and fourth of a game that came after he missed two practices with a toe injury. Rodgers was 23-of-33 for 385 yards and had an 18-yard run to set up one score, so it didn’t appear the toe was giving him too much trouble.
The loss puts the Packers at risk of dropping out of the top seed in the NFC playoff hunt. They’ll face the Rams next week in their final game before their bye.
Minnesota is now 5-5 and will try for a third straight win in San Francisco next weekend.