Last Thursday quarterback Gus Frerotte stood near his locker in Winter Park before practice and talked about the importance of him minimizing mistakes to give the Vikings opportunity to win. Yesterday on a day when he threw three interceptions leading to two Green Bay touchdowns and one field goal, the Vikings used a 192 yard rushing performance by Adrian Peterson and a dominant defense to win 28-27 and move into a first place tie with Chicago in the NFC North.
Frerotte, now 5-2 as a starter since replacing Tarvaris Jackson, was almost prophetic about the game when he said this on Thursday: “I think right now the key thing for me…is being smart with the football. We’ve had some mistakes in the past. Some of those have hurt us and put us in bad situations. If you look at the stats, when we do turn the ball over we haven’t won games.
The Vikings led 21-10 in the third quarter when Frerotte threw the third of his interceptions, a ball intercepted by Packer safety Nick Collins who ran 59 yards for a touchdown. Less than two minutes later Green Bay’s Will Blackmon ran a punt back 65 yards for a touchdown and the Packers had a 24-21 lead.
Peterson, though, ran 29 yards for a touchdown to give the Vikings a 28-27 lead with about two minutes to play in the game. The Vikings defense, that had been led all day by a relentless pass rush, wouldn’t let the Packers score and Green Bay failed on a desperation 52 yard field goal attempt by Mason Crosby.
Ellis Wyms, a Vikings’ reserve defensive tackle, tipped an Aaron Rogers pass on the Packers’ last drive that he thought was going to be intercepted by Minnesota safety Madieu Williams but luckily landed in the arms of Green Bay receiver Donald Driver. The play went for 19 yards, but on three other plays on their final drive the Packers gained a total of just eight yards.
What was said just before the defense went on the field for the last time? “We gotta win the game,” Wyms said. “Particularly we’ve gotta win it up front. We got a bunch of Pro Bowl players up front. …That’s why they brought all of us here. To win that game for us. …I talked to Donald Lee (Packers tight end) after the game and he said, ‘I just didn’t expect you all to bring that much heat today. I didn’t expect you all to bring that much pressure…’ The pressure probably won the game for us.”
The Vikings had four sacks and numerous hurries on Rogers. The defense held Green Bay to 110 net yards passing, 74 rushing and allowed just one touchdown.
Wyms called it a “big” game and one the Vikings had to win to take that “next step.” For now the 5-4 Vikings have stepped into a first place tie with 5-4 Chicago while the Packers have reverse numbers, 4-5. And Frerotte, who was 15 of 28 passing with two touchdown passes and able to keep his composure in managing the offense, is no doubt happy his prophecy wasn’t perfect.