MINNEAPOLIS -- Eight months have passed, yet almost everything about the Green Bay Packers has stayed the same. The team that blew lead after lead late last season, culminating in a playoff loss in a game Green Bay led by 18 points in the second half, did it again to start this season.
And the team still doesn't have any answers for it.
This one, a 39-22 loss to the Vikings in the season opener, was a meltdown, similar to the collapses in Chicago and the debacle in Denver. It was the Packers' sixth straight loss, including playoffs, dating to last season. In four of those games (twice against the Bears, including the playoffs, once against the Broncos and now this), they held leads of more than one score.
"I think it's going to be a topic of conversation for all you guys until we do it," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "That's the bottom line."
LaFleur's mantra all offseason was finish -- as in finish every drill in OTA strong and finish every play in training camp without letting up.
And yet the Packers still couldn't do it.
"We're the best team in the NFL," tight end Tucker Kraft said. "But if we don't go out there and play like it, no one's going to believe us."
The Packers seemingly had the game in hand. They led 22-10 early in the third quarter and were up 22-17 early in the fourth quarter when things went haywire. Rookie kicker Trey Smack had given the Packers an eight-point lead with a 40-yard field goal with 13:17 left in the game. But when the Vikings jumped offside, LaFleur took the points off the board because the penalty gave them a fourth-and-1.
"We're going to be aggressive," LaFleur said. "It was going to be an eight-point game. If it would have been a two-possession game, I probably would have thought otherwise. But I thought we had a chance."
But Jordan Love got stuffed on a quarterback sneak on fourth down, and instead of taking a 25-17 lead against a team with backup quarterback Carson Wentz in the game, the Packers gave the Vikings life.
"We need to figure this out ASAP," Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said. "We got to take what we did on the field, correct the things we need to correct and prepare for next week."
The Packers were outscored 22-0 in the fourth quarter and gave up 29 unanswered points after being outscored 25-6 in the fourth quarter of their playoff loss to the Bears.
"All these games find ways to be close at the end," Love said. "We've got to find ways to be at our best. We've talked about it time and time again, and I think we'll keep talking about it until we figure it out and do something about it."
The Packers still had a chance after their failed sneak gave the Vikings the ball back. Twice they got stops on third downs but those were wiped out by penalties -- an illegal contact on safety Javon Bullard and a roughing the passer by rookie defensive tackle Chris McClellan. Then, safety Evan Williams picked off Wentz's pass in the end zone, but that was taken away by defensive holding on safety Xavier McKinney.
"Can't leave it in the ref's hands, and that's just what we did," said cornerback Keisean Nixon, who had an interception in the first quarter.
Though Love threw for 389 yards and two touchdowns -- both to Christian Watson -- he was sacked four times, lost a fumble and was hit 15 times by the Vikings' blitzing defense.
The Vikings had a pass rush win rate of 90.6%, the highest by any team in a game since 2022, according to ESPN Analytics/NFL Next Gen Stats.
"Not in any way, shape or form am I condemning anyone," Kraft said. "This happens to every team, every game. It's either you call the wrong play and people are just out of position or you call the right play and someone doesn't do their job. It's just a culmination of errors, and each player has to take it upon themselves to correct this, to be coachable.
"It pisses me off just as much as it does the coaches when we're out there and we're just error after error, like we're just beating ourselves. I emphasize that all the time. The only people who can beat us are us. That's it."
