GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Vikings arrived at Lambeau Field for the 51st time on a brilliant Sunday morning, taking the field at the historic venue 67 years to the day since Richard Nixon, then the vice president, dedicated the stadium in a halftime ceremony of the Packers’ first game. For the first 25 minutes of their 31-29 win Sunday , the Vikings exhibited such dominance, you had to go back to the penultimate year of Nixon’s presidency to find a time they’d led by so much at Lambeau.
They needed just five possessions to build a 28-0 lead over the Packers, their largest in Green Bay since Dec. 8, 1973, when Bud Grant’s second Super Bowl team went up by 31 in a 31-7 whipping of Dan Devine’s Packers. There was a larger difference between the two teams then than there was Sunday, when the undefeated Vikings were playing to keep their NFC North lead over a Packers team that reached the divisional playoffs last year.
But for most of the first half, the Packers simply appeared outclassed. A team that had eight sacks a week ago didn’t touch Sam Darnold once, as the Vikings quarterback completed 11 of his 15 passes for 136 yards in pristine pockets and even slipped past center Garrett Bradbury’s collision with a Packers defender to gain 9 yards on a third-and-1. The Vikings dissected Green Bay’s man coverages with deep crossing routes and a stutter-go route by Jordan Addison for a 29-yard touchdown to open the scoring.
The defense intercepted Jordan Love twice, setting.
