Old foes will renew their rivalry on Sunday when the 4-6 Minnesota Vikings come to town for a road game against the 6-3-1 Green Bay Packers. Minnesota is looking to get back into the win column after going 1-4 in its last five games. On the other side, the Packers want to build on their road win against the Giants and improve to 2-0 in divisional play.

The Vikes were almost able to pull off a come-from-behind win last Sunday by taking a one-point lead over the Chicago Bears with 50 seconds left in the game. However, a 56-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, followed by a four-play, nine-yard drive, allowed the Bears to make a field goal as time expired for a 19-17 win.

“We knew - coming into the game – that this team had won all their games by winning the turnover margin, and we lost that 2-0 and did a lot things as a football team to try to battle and continue to overcome the adversity that we kind of faced, in many cases, caused by ourselves,” said Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell after the loss. “[I’m] proud of the way they competed, but [it’s] not good enough to win overall. I love the fight to get the lead at the end, and they made a play to get the ball into field goal range on the kickoff return. They made that play, which ended up being a winning play in a game that, quite honestly, we did a lot of the things that we talked about not doing.”

It was another tough outing for Minnesota second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy. He only completed 16 of 32 pass attempts for 150 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions. McCarthy opened his Week 11 postgame press conference by saying he needs to improve.

“I need to do a better job with my decision-making. The accuracy. It needs to change. I need to be better. And the overall execution of the offense, I need to be better on just doing my job at a higher level,” McCarthy told reporters. “There's a lot of things that I have to improve on, and accuracy is one of them. I promise you, I'm going to wake up tomorrow and get ready to go to get working on that.”

This will be just the second time as a head coach that Kevin O'Connell will have to game-plan for defensive end Micah Parsons. Though his Vikings beat Parsons' Dallas Cowboys when they first faced off in 2022, Parsons recorded two sacks and five quarterback hits in that game. O'Connell knows that he'll have to be prepared for Parsons to attack from anywhere.

“He’s lining up everywhere. On first and second down, he'll be on both sides. He'll move around sometimes within a drive, so you can't have like an exact beat on where he's going to be,” he said on Wednesday. “Whatever side he lines up on, Rashan Gary lines up on the other side. And they've got (Lukas) Van Ness potentially coming back as well, who's a talented young player. So, it's obviously a focal point and something we've got to be aware of to have those kind of impact players on the edges. But then, on third down, he could be rushing inside, he could be lined up off the ball. You’ve got to be ready and prepare schematically… So, it's definitely something we're talking about and trying to prepare our guys for.”

Last weekend, the Packers returned to the win column after a two-game slide against the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles. On a day when not everything was going their way, Green Bay defeated the New York Giants, 27-20.

“Obviously, [we’re] just extremely happy with the win,” said head coach Matt LaFleur after the game. “We definitely didn't make it easy on ourselves, but [the] bottom line is we overcame a lot of adversity and found a way. And that's sometimes what it takes in this league.”

Unfortunately for the Packers, star running back Josh Jacobs went down with an apparent knee injury. Thankfully, he avoided a serious injury, and there's even a chance that he plays on Sunday. When asked if Jacobs would be available this weekend, Matt LaFleur told reporters on Tuesday, "potentially."

“We'll see where he's at,” LaFleur added. “It’s a contusion, so it's just - more or less - trying to get the swelling down, and unfortunately, that's a pretty hard surface over there, and sometimes [that’s] the byproduct of that.”

Quarterback Jordan Love also suffered a shoulder injury last week and actually had to leave the game for a short amount of time. However, he eventually returned to the field and threw two touchdowns in the win.

“It was tough,” Love said postgame. “[I] went in, got evaluated, and figured it was good enough to come back, so [I] came back in, but it was definitely not fun. It's just a small injury.”

“He's doing good,” Matt LaFleur told reporters on Monday. “Obviously, he's definitely sore. I mean, that was a pretty big hit. One of those that you just can't put yourself in those situations. But I thought he played his ass off yesterday. I really did. I thought he was throwing accurately. He showed a ton of toughness in the pocket. There were multiple times where he's getting hit pretty good within the pocket and making throws. So, I was really proud of his ability to come back into the game and show not only physical toughness, but the mental toughness to hang in there and continue to keep fighting.”

To defeat the Vikings, Green Bay is going to have to force J.J. McCarthy to beat them. Even though the Vikes' quarterback will be making his sixth career start, Matt LaFleur knows that Minnesota has the coaches and playmakers to set their guy up for success.

“He's got all the arm talent in the world. I just see a young quarterback. He's extremely athletic. They do a great job with him,” LaFleur said on Wednesday. “I think Kevin (O’Connell) is as good as anybody at putting his quarterbacks in position to be successful. He's obviously got some weapons around him when you're talking about guys like Jefferson, Addison, Hockenson. Nailor does a great job. Both their backs do a heck of a job… He's got plenty of talent around him. I just think he's a young, developing quarterback, and I think it's a matter of time for him. I just hope the time's not this week.”

Prediction for Minnesota Vikings @ Green Bay Packers (-6.5)

Despite Green Bay's recent struggles, the defense has still been playing at an elite level, especially against the pass. Over the Packers' last three games, opponents have completed just 60% of their passes, been held to zero passing touchdowns, thrown two interceptions, and only averaged 162 passing yards per game. They just need to get the offense going since they have managed to hold opposing teams to 15.3 points per game over the last three weeks. Jordan Love should be able to find some success against a Vikings defense that is tied for 24th in yards per passing attempt (7.3) and ranks 24th in passer rating allowed (98.9). This will be a tough game if Josh Jacobs can't go, but Green Bay should still be able to win.

Prediction: Packers 27 - 23 Vikings

How to watch Minnesota Vikings @ Green Bay Packers (-6.5)

Vikings @ Packers starts at 1:00 p.m. EDT at Lambeau Field. You can watch it on Fox or stream it via the Fox Sports app or YouTube TV.

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