Matt LaFleur
Aaron Rodgers tossed a pair of early touchdowns as the Green Bay Packers jumped out to a 21-0 lead, then held off the Minnesota Vikings 21-16 to jump out to a 2-0 start to the season.
Rodgers completed nine of his first ten passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns and had a perfect 158.3 rating through the first quarter. He finished 22 of 34 for 209 yards for the game.
Aaron Jones scored the other early touchdown on the ground. Jones finished with 23 carries for 116 yards and also caught four passes for 34 yards. As a team, the Packers ran the ball 33 times for 144 yards, a 4.4 yard per carry average.
They also had the kind of balance that coach Matt LaFleur talked about when he was hired. The Packers finished with 34 passing attempts and 33 rushing attempts.
Davante Adams also bounced back from a four catch opening game performance against the Bears by catching seven passes for 106 yards with a long of 39 yards.
The Packers defense came through with another strong performance and won the take/away battle as well. Kevin King intercepted Kirk Cousins late in the end zone to preserve the win. Preston Smith also picked off a pass earlier in the game off of a deflection. And the Packers recovered a pair of fumbles.
The one sore spot was the Vikings ground attack. Dalvin Cook had a career-high 154 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Cook also went over 100 yards in last week’s win over Atlanta. As a whole, the Vikings finished with 198 yards on 27 carries (7.3 avg).
Cousins went just 14 of 32 for 230 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
The Packers are back home at Lambeau Field next Sunday. They’ll face the 0-2 Denver Broncos.