The Green Bay Packers took their top-rated show on the road Sunday and made the mistake of trying to crash the Minnesota Vikings’ own undefeated party. They crashed all right. The Vikings slam-danced them 30-21 in a brutal, surprisingly one-sided fight.
Robert Smith’s 37-yard touchdown run with 4 minutes 13 seconds to play overcame a deceiving Packers lead. Green Bay had taken control on an 80-yard touchdown pass from Brett Favre to Don Beebe and a 75-yard touchdown on an interception by linebacker George Koonce of a Warren Moon pass in the third quarter.
The Vikings have won all four of their games in the fourth quarter after trailing in three. They were tied in the other one. They correctly figured the Packers would get tired after waltzing their way to three blowouts by a combined score of 115-26.
“They weren’t prepared to play that kind of game,” Smith said. “They had easy going in the second half (of earlier games) and didn’t have to play a full 60 minutes.”
When Smith made his run, neither Packers ends Reggie White nor Sean Jones were in the game, both resting after the Vikings had dominated the clock and the lines of scrimmage.
A furious Vikings pass rush flattened the Packers’ offensive line and sacked Favre seven times. The Vikings ran 76 plays to the Packers’ 49.
Minnesota coach Dennis Green harped on his players all week that the Vikings were getting no respect. Packers fans in the stands gave the Vikings extra incentive.
“We talked about it in the tunnel,” Moon said. “We were not going to let all those people come in our house and yell at us. We had to get our respect back. It was all about respect this week.”
