Written Oct. 17, 2026, when the site launched.
The Vikings scored the last 29 points against the Packers on Sunday, and the story wrote itself: the backup comes off the bench and leads the comeback. Kevin O'Connell called Carson Wentz a "calming presence." The AP wrote that Wentz "led a spirited comeback." All the postgame quotes here come from the AP's game story.
We'd tell it another way. Green Bay lost this game more than Minnesota won it, and the best thing Wentz did was not give it back.
The Packers outgained the Vikings 419 yards to 239 and averaged 6.3 yards a play to Minnesota's 3.9. Jordan Love threw for 387 yards. Christian Watson caught six passes for 147 yards and two touchdowns, one of them an 81-yarder in the first quarter. The Vikings won by 17 anyway. A team that gets outgained by 180 yards and wins by 17 is living on short fields and the other side's mistakes, and that's where the last 29 points came from.
Three short fields and a drive full of flags
Green Bay led 22-10 after Trey Smack's third field goal, a 26-yarder with 5:09 left in the third quarter. Myles Price returned the next kickoff 68 yards to the Green Bay 28, and six plays later Wentz found T.J. Hockenson for a 16-yard touchdown.
Late in the fourth, Dallas Turner sacked Love and knocked the ball loose, and Green Bay fell on it. On the next snap, Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman got there together. Van Ginkel stripped Love, recovered the ball and returned it to the 1. Jordan Mason scored on the next play. Two plays into Green Bay's following drive, James Pierre intercepted Love and returned it 28 yards to the 14. Three plays after that, Wentz hit Justin Jefferson from 9 yards out.
So three of the four closing touchdown drives covered 28 yards, 1 yard and 14 yards.
The fourth is the one that gets cited for Wentz, and it was a real drive: 9 plays, 83 yards, 6:34, finished by Aaron Jones Sr.'s 3-yard run and a two-point pass to Jefferson for a 25-22 lead with 6:37 left. Green Bay also committed four defensive penalties on it, for 28 yards. Three of them wiped out plays that would have stalled or ended it. Javon Bullard's illegal contact erased a third-down sack. Chris McClellan's roughing the passer erased a third-down incompletion. Xavier McKinney's defensive holding erased an Evan Williams interception in the end zone, and Jones scored on the next play.
The AP noted the Packers disputed the McClellan and McKinney calls. A box score can't tell you whether those flags were right. It can give you the totals: Green Bay 12 penalties for 98 yards, Minnesota 3 for 15, and five Vikings first downs by penalty.
That drive only happened because Matt LaFleur gave back three points after a Vikings penalty. Green Bay led 22-17 early in the fourth when Smack made a 40-yarder, but Turner was called for offside. LaFleur took the points off the board to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Minnesota 17, and Love was stopped for no gain. The AP wrote that LaFleur "might have mistakenly triggered this meltdown," and the scoreboard agrees. Take the three points and it's 25-17, and the Jones touchdown and two-point try only tie the game.
What Wentz did
Wentz still earned his share. Kyler Murray's day didn't last a quarter. His first drive ended in a Keisean Nixon interception, and he left in the first quarter with a concussion after a third-down scramble; Bullard was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the play. Wentz came in and went 12 of 19 for 133 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, a 123.5 rating. He led an 85-yard touchdown drive at the end of the first half, capped by a 39-yard throw to Jefferson. The Vikings converted 8 of 15 third downs and went 4-for-4 in the red zone.
"That's why he's here," O'Connell said, according to the AP. "For him to come in and do what he did and just be part of that calming presence that allowed our team to continue playing, I can't say enough about him."
That's fair, and it's the right job description for a backup: take the short fields and don't waste them. Where we'd push back is the AP's "turnover-free afternoon." It was turnover-free on the stat sheet. On the go-ahead drive Wentz threw one to Williams in the end zone, and McKinney's hold is the only reason it doesn't count. Call it a calming presence with a little luck attached.
His own line fit the day. "Football is a funny game," Wentz said, "but it's fun to be on this side of it."
Green Bay came apart
"Momentum is a strong thing," Watson said, "and we didn’t respond." That's a generous word for two turnovers in 40 seconds of game clock, 98 penalty yards, a 3-for-12 day on third down and a field goal handed back. We know what a fourth-quarter collapse looks like in a box score. Usually it's ours.
The Vikings' defense deserves its part of this. It had four sacks and both takeaways, Green Bay went 1-for-4 in the red zone, and the Packers didn't score after Smack's 26-yarder in the third. The first half was rougher: Watson's 81-yard touchdown came on a two-play drive, and Green Bay moved the ball for most of the day.
What it means
"This one will stick with me for a long time," O'Connell said. A division win counts the same however it arrives, so the Vikings are 1-0 overall and 1-0 in the NFC North. O'Connell said after the game that Murray seemed to be doing well; the AP reported no timetable for his return. Until there is one, Wentz is the quarterback, and next on the schedule is a trip to Chicago on Sept. 20.
The worry is the part that won't travel. An offense that gains 239 yards can't count on 98 penalty yards from the other side every week. The defense took the ball away twice when it had to. The offense has to find more yards of its own.
Where they stand now: as of Oct. 17 the Vikings are 5-0 heading out of the bye.
Sources: ESPN box score and game page; AP game story via ESPN.