Green Bay Packers' Jordan Love dives into the end zone for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

MINNEAPOLIS — Quarterback issues continued to plague the Minnesota Vikings against Green Bay on Sunday night when, after naming Jaren Hall their third starting quarterback in the last four weeks, they switched back to Nick Mullens at halftime after heading into the locker room with just 3 points. Despite the adjustment, they couldn’t cut into the 20-point deficit and fell 33-10 to the Packers to be effectively eliminated from playoff contention.

Heading into Monday night’s game, the Vikings were the No. 9 seed in the NFC. A win would have given them a 53% chance of advancing to the playoffs while a loss would have given them just a 4% chance of advancing to the postseason, per NFL Next Gen Stats.

“[I’m] as frustrated as you could think. It sucks and that’s all I have to say,” Minnesota safety Josh Metellus said. “We’ve been playing losing football. We haven’t been playing football to win games and showing up at the biggest time of the year. In December, you don’t get leeway to make mistakes and every mistake matters. Our mistakes have been hurting us and right now we’re not playing winning football and we have to find a way to get back to that.”

Jaren Hall made his first start against the Falcons on Nov. 5 but left early in the game due to an injury. After a six-week absence in which the Vikings started trade acquisition Josh Dobbs and third-stringer Nick Mullens, Hall returned to the QB1 role in a do-or-die primetime game against the Packers.

“I felt confident being out there. I had a couple snaps last time I played and I had a good memory of what that felt like, so I’m not exactly sure what the case was for why it wasn’t clicking out there,” Hall said of his start on Sunday. “You have to learn from it, that’s the bottom line. You have a long road ahead and there’s a lot you learn when you actually play and there’s lots you can’t learn any other way. You love to learn the easy way and usually you want to learn with the wins, but sometimes you have to learn the hard way and that would be the case for me tonight.”

The rookie out of Brigham Young University wasn’t able to gain a first down on his first two drives, though neither instance was entirely on him. He picked up five yards with his legs on the Vikings’ first play from scrimmage and a run from Chandler set up third-and-1. He threw a low but catchable ball to Johnny Mundt on a drag route, but the ball was dropped and the Vikings were forced to punt.

After allowing a field goal to the Packers, Hall looked to hit Mundt again on the second play of the Vikings’ next possession but the ball bounced off Mundt’s hands and into Corey Ballentine’s for an interception. Ballentine also deflected another three passes on the night and finished with four solo tackles on the night, trailing only Keisean Nixon’s seven among Packers players.

Jordan Love took advantage of the error and, with Harrison Phillips storming up the middle, threw a deep ball under pressure to Jayden Reed. The rookie wideout caught the ball in the center of the endzone for a 10-0 Packer lead.

“I think a bit of it was about myself,” Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks said when asked about the team’s struggles with preventing the Packers receivers from getting open. “I feel like I could have been in a better position on that first touchdown, but there’s opportunities all over the field. We’ve been good before and we just have to tighten up.”

Jordan Love completed 24 of his 33 attempts in the game for 256 yards and three touchdowns. With Christian Watson still out with a hamstring injury, Reed has continued to shine. His 89 yards were a season-high and his six receptions were his second-highest mark of the season behind an 8-catch outing for 27 yards against the New York Giants on Dec. 11.

While the Packers’ first pair of scoring drives came from Jordan Love’s ability to throw the ball, the success of the third came largely from their ability to pound the rock. After a 15-yard pass along the sideline to Jayden Reed and a pair of passes for 17 yards to Tucker Kraft set the Packers up in the red zone, Aaron Jones ran the ball three straight plays for five or more yards. Two plays later, Love rolled out, dived over the leading shoulders of Camryn Bynum and reached the ball out across the plane before Pat Jones could make the stop to put Green Bay on top 17-3 with four minutes remaining in the first half.

Minnesota’s first possession of the second quarter was a possession of firsts. Hall got his first completion of the game on a 13-yard out route to Justin Jefferson and hit Jordan Addison with a 20-yard completion in between the hash marks to keep the chains moving to the Green Bay 39-yard line. From there, however, the Vikings’ offense stalled out; Hall took a 10-yard sack on second down to push Minnesota out of field goal range. Still, he found Mundt for a 9-yard gain on third to set up Greg Joseph’s 54-yard field goal to make it a one-possession game.

The Vikings received a punt with 39 seconds left before halftime to get one last shot at making it a one-possession game heading into the locker room. Hall found Mattison open behind the line of scrimmage on the first play for an 8-yard gain but was sacked for the third time on the day by Preston Smith as he pulled back to throw. The ball came loose and Karl Brooks recovered the ball at the 37-yard line to set the Packers up in the half’s waning minutes. Romeo Doubs caught a 12-yard pass on the next play to set Green Bay up at the 25-yard line and Reed took a slant to the house for a 23-3 Green Bay lead at the break.

Najee Thompson made a pair of quick hits on Vikings punts. In the first half, the officials gathered to discuss before ruling that the Green Bay returner had not signaled for the fair catch in time. There was no doubt of a fair catch on the second, which occurred on the first play of the fourth quarter, he sprinted down the field to punch out the ball as it was caught. He then scrambled down the field to recover the fumble at the 7-yard line to set up the Vikings’ offense in scoring position. Mullens rolled out to his left two plays later and found Mundt open on the flat, who walked into the end zone for an easy touchdown to cut the deficit back to 20 points with 14 minutes remaining.

Green Bay carved up the Vikings’ defense one last time for good measure to close out the third quarter. The 13-play Packer drive took up 13 minutes and started with a 26-yard Aaron Jones run to get out from their own 10-yard line. After Love completed a pair of passes to Malik Heath and Kraft for 23 yards, Jones got another 10-yard gain off a short reception. The Packers then ran the ball on four of the next five plays until Love connected with a wide-open Melton in the back of the endzone for a 9-yard touchdown and a 27-point lead, the Packers’ largest of the game.

The Vikings’ front seven had no answer for Aaron Jones all night. While he didn’t find the end zone, he carried the ball 20 times for 121 rushing yards to nearly double the Vikings’ team total of 67 yards on 16 carries.

Minnesota received the second-half kickoff and Mullens marched the team down the field with a series of short passes. A 14-yard catch from Mundt and a 21-yard gain to Jefferson put Minnesota in the red zone but, after being stuffed on third-and-3 from the 8-yard line, the Vikings went for it on fourth down and the pass to Jefferson fell incomplete for a turnover on downs.

Mullens struggled at points but was overall an improvement for the Vikings under center. He threw 22 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown while Hall threw the ball 10 times for 67 yards and turned it over twice. Mullens finished the game with an 87.9 passer rating while Hall clocked in at 32.1.

O’Connell said after the game that the coaching staff will have a discussion as to who will start next week’s game against the Lions but that Hall, Mullens and Dobbs are all possibilities.

Sean Clifford sealed the game for the Packers with a 37-yard completion to Melton on third-and-6 from the Packers’ 33-yard line. It was his first career completion.

Sound the horn

A shirtless Kirk Cousins and his son sounded the Gjallarhorn during the pregame Skol chant to a raucous ovation from the crowd. This was Cousins’ sixth season with the Vikings after they signed him to a three-year, $84 million contract following his time with Washington in 2018. He’s since signed a pair of extensions for a total of three years and ascended to second on the Vikings’ all-time passing touchdowns list at 171, trailing only Fran Tarkenton’s 239. Still, this could be his last time in U.S. Bank Stadium as a Viking as the team will need to make a decision on whether to resign him to a new contract in the offseason after he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in Green Bay earlier this year.

Melt down

Green Bay wide receiver Bo Melton had five catches for 51 yards in two games this year before Sunday night. Yet, against the Vikings, he caught six passes for 105 yards and his first career touchdown. He’s the first Packer with a 100-yard game this season. Following his big game on Sunday night, the Packers signed Melton to the active roster after he had spent much of the season on the practice squad.

Up next

The Vikings fall to 7-9 with the loss while the Packers improve to 8-8. Minnesota will wrap up its regular season on the road against Detroit on Sunday. The time of kickoff is yet to be announced.