Green Bay Packers get much-needed win to take back first place

Bridgewater was briefly knocked out of the game with a left shoulder injury in the second quarter when Packers outside linebacker Julius Peppers sacked him and Packers defensive end Mike Neal landed on his non-throwing shoulder. Early in the season it looked as if the Packers were going to leave everyone else in the division in the dust with a 6-0 start. They couldn’t rely on just their ability alone to win games.

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers reminded the Minnesota Vikings whose division this has been this decade.

Winning fixes everything, and Sunday’s 30-13 win over the Vikings gave the Packers the look of a team fixed. The Colts beat Denver in likely Peyton Manning’s last regular-season visit, went on a bye, then rallied in a big way to take down the Falcons in Atlanta. They were better in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s fun”.

Boy, did it ever.

The Packers took the second half kickoff and, with a mix of runs and passes, moved into the red zone. The Packers looked more like themselves, individually and collectively, than they had in weeks. The receivers (cough, Randall Cobb, cough) keep dropping passes that are right in their hands.

“I thank my teammates for believing in me even when I had those bad games and wasn’t playing up to my standards”, Lacy said. “We were out of sync, out of whack”, said Peterson, who was held to 45 yards on 13 carries with one touchdown.

McCarthy bristled when it was suggested that this was a gut-check game for the Packers. The Vikings are entering a stretch of three straight games against teams they’re battling for playoff positioning. The Packers have beaten the Vikings in 10 of their last 12 meetings, and Peterson has been around for most of those. “I think we got away from ourselves a little bit yesterday”. “You’ve got to be able to win when the whole world is watching”. This was an important week for us. We really stuck together. If they can’t get it done through the air, they can at least take comfort in Chicago allowing an average of 123 yards rushing per game. I thought Bridgewater played well, got us out of a lot of trouble. Meanwhile, embattled running back Eddie Lacy bounced back from his apparent benching last week, rushing for 100 yards on 22 carries. He also hit Jones on a two-point conversion pass for a two-score lead. The Vikings opened the season on Monday night in San Francisco and delivered an embarrassing performance in a 20-3 loss and cornerback Captain Munnerlyn also referenced a 42-10 wipeout in Lambeau Field on a Thursday night past year. But it needs Bridgewater to continue to play like he did against the Packers and not be the game manager he was regressing into, as well as better discipline and far better showings from its offensive line, which was horrific against a Green Bay defense far from dominating. But kicker Blair Walsh missed the extra-point try, and Crosby kicked another field goal to tie it 6-6 late in the first quarter. Rodgers can’t realistically expect Jones to have the six receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown every weekend like he did in this game, but this was the type of performance that was very much needed from the veteran of the receiver group. Lacy’s hard, effective running bought Rodgers more time in the pocket.

“We want to be a team that’s resilient and that’s what we’re trying to do right now”, Adams said. The way we practiced, I’m happy they had success today, because they’ve been putting out the whole time. “This is a group that’s close and accountable”, McCarthy said.