The 2025 Minnesota Vikings reached a new low on Sunday. Not only did they lose 23-6 to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field to fall to 4-7 on the season, but Minnesota only gained 145 yards of offense on the day.
Worse yet, the Vikings managed only four yards in the second half. Down 10-6 at halftime, the Vikings were able to force the Packers to punt on their first drive of the third quarter. But Vikings’ punt returner Myles Price muffed the punt, giving the Packers the ball at the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Emanuel Wilson ran in a one-yard touchdown to give Green Bay a 17-6 lead that seemed insurmountable.
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Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Vikings’ embarrassing loss.
The Good: Will Reichard
We thought about just focusing on three bad and ugly aspects of Sunday’s game, but let’s try to highlight some level of positivity from the game. Will Reichard accounted for all six of the Vikings’ points, knocking in field goals of 52 and 59 yards. He became the first kicker in NFL history to convert four field goals of 59 yards or longer in a single season. It’s crazy that a Vikings kicker is one of the lone bright spots over the course of a season.
The Bad: J.J. McCarthy
This still feels tough to write because J.J. McCarthy was only making his sixth career start on Sunday. But his confidence level has plummeted over the past two weeks, and he followed up an uneven performance last week against the Bears with an even worse game in Green Bay. McCarthy completed 12 of 19 passes for only 87 yards, throwing two interceptions while taking five sacks.
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This doesn’t mean that he can’t ever become a competent NFL quarterback, but right now it appears that McCarthy is in his own head, almost overthinking every aspect of playing the position from the moment the ball is snapped. The Packers do boast a great defense, so that didn’t help matters, but it seems as though the clock might be ticking on McCarthy, potentially forcing the Vikings to make a move for a veteran this offseason to, at the very least, compete for the starting position in 2026.
The Ugly: The future
Unfortunately, the loss brings questions about the future for not only the quarterback position but also the Vikings’ front office. They are currently projected to be about $24 million over the cap in 2026, meaning that they will have to make decisions about several veterans across the roster. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the front office operated last offseason as if the Vikings were championship-ready, but that clearly isn’t the case.
Does that fall entirely on McCarthy? Injuries plagued the team earlier in the season. The Vikings also didn’t have a viable backup quarterback plan until Carson Wentz signed late in August. Sam Howell proved he couldn’t handle the job in training camp and the preseason. It makes you wonder how the Vikings missed McCarthy potentially being this bad. And even if he was good and had to miss time with an injury, there was still no real backup plan until the very end of the preseason.
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Will Adofo-Mensah be tasked with rebuilding this roster? Or will the Vikings miss the playoffs and expectations so badly that he is relieved of his duties, getting replaced by someone else? His drafts have been mediocre at best, and even though the first three free-agent classes were solid, this year’s group has been underwhelming.
There are lots of questions at this point. Even a strong finish to the season may not save the front office. It could help salvage hope in McCarthy, but right now, things couldn’t be much worse in Minnesota.
This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from the Vikings’ loss to the Packers
