Packers fail yet again to produce a premier performance against a top NFC team in loss to Vikings

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The top of the NFC standings are towering over the Green Bay Packers as they move toward the playoffs, casting a long shadow shaped like Vikings, Lions and Eagles over what has been an otherwise-promising season on both sides of the ball.

For as well as the Packers (11-5) had been playing down the stretch, they left Minnesota with a rather murky outlook for the playoffs after stumbling into a 17-point deficit that proved too large for their late surge in the 27-25 loss to the Vikings on Sunday.

“They continued to compete and battle, but you just can’t do that against good teams. The margins in this league, especially against a good football team, are razor thin," coach Matt LaFleur said. "I don’t think we were at our best, but that’s a credit to them in our slow start — and that’s me as much as anybody.”

The Packers gained 126 yards in the fourth quarter and still finished with a season-low 271 yards. The defense allowed 441 yards, which was also a season worst.

The most glaring set of numbers after this frustrating afternoon, though, was this: 0-5. That's Green Bay's record against the top three teams in the NFC: Minnesota, Detroit and Philadelphia.

There's no shame in losing to those opponents that carry a combined 40-7 record into Monday, particularly when four of those defeats — save for the 10-point loss to the Lions on Nov. 3 — came by a total of 12 points.

“It’s not about who we can and can’t beat. We can beat everybody. If we figure out how to finish, we’ll win games,” cornerback Keisean Nixon said.

But the Packers will more than likely be on the road the entire time they're alive in the playoffs, so any path to the Super Bowl would undoubtedly trigger rematches with one, two or even all three teams from that daunting trio.

The Packers clearly aren't overmatched by the Vikings, Lions or Eagles, but in games against those premier foes that significantly shrink the margins for error the Packers have shown a troubling pattern of not meeting the moment with too many ill-timed mistakes and not enough big-time plays.

“It's hard when you put yourself in a hole and are down early and just kind of shooting yourself in the foot,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “There’s so much stuff to clean up and get better at, but I think we’re still a really good team. We can put up points. But when you put yourself in a hole, it’s just hard to climb out of that hole. And when it’s a good team like the Vikings, you know, it just makes it even tougher.”

The red flag came right away.

Josh Jacobs, the NFL 's fourth-leading rusher, had just given the Packers a second first down on the opening drive of the game when defensive tackle Jerry Tillery pushed the ball out and safety Cam Bynum recovered at the Minnesota 38. Jacobs had gone 11 straight games without fumbling until losing one at Seattle on Dec. 15. Now he has coughed up the ball twice in three games.

“I feel like it drained the energy out of the team just starting early,” Jacobs said. “I take it personal on getting the team to start fast and things like that. Yeah, that’s on me.”

Though the Vikings punted on the subsequent possession, they moved the ball enough to flip the field position. Perhaps wary of the fumble getting in Jacobs' head, LaFleur then called three straight passes from their own 15-yard line, and Love was off the mark on all three to force a punt.

After a breakout performance here a year ago in a 33-10 victory over the Vikings that helped the Packers squeak into the playoffs after a rough start and ride the momentum through a first-round win at Dallas, Love looked awfully amid the cocktail of blitzes ordered by Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores that fueled a fierce pass rush. He finished 19 for 30 for 185 yards and one touchdown.

“They do a good job of keeping a lid on the coverage. That’s how they play," LaFleur said. "We knew that going in, so there was going to be minimal opportunities to push the ball down the field. You've got to be super efficient. You've got to stay on schedule because once they get you into third down, that’s where they’re really good.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur reacts during the second half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Vikings' Jonathan Bullard stops Green Bay Packers' Josh Jacobs during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Green Bay Packers' Josh Jacobs fumbles as he is hit by Minnesota Vikings' Jerry Tillery during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Green Bay Packers' Jordan Love scrambles during the second half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Green Bay Packers' Jordan Love walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

A judge barred the Trump administration on Thursday from immediately moving to shut down a small federal agency that supports investment in African countries on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington issued the order hours after the filing of a lawsuit by the president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation.

Ward Brehm said in a complaint that he directed his staff on Wednesday to deny building entry to staffers from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and Pete Marocco, the deputy administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

DOGE and Trump do not have the authority to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress, Brehm said in the complaint.

The order from Leon, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, bars Brehm from being removed or DOGE from adding members to the board over the next few days.

Brehm also said that days after President Donald Trump targeted the agency in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government, staffers from DOGE tried to access the organization's computer systems.

“When USADF learned that DOGE was there to kill the agency, USADF staff refused DOGE access to cancel all grants and contracts,” said the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement, “Entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the President of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration mandated DOGE and Musk, the world’s richest man whose businesses have federal contracts, to root out waste, fraud and abuse and to help reduce the nation’s debt load.

Brehm said in his complaint that DOGE and Marocco, a Trump political appointee helping shutter USAID, also recently targeted the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that invests in Latin American and the Caribbean.

On Tuesday, DOGE said on X that all but one employee at IAF had been let go and its grants cancelled, including funding for alpaca farming in Peru, for vegetable gardens in El Salvador and for beekeeping in Brazil.

Trump is also targeting the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank, and the Presidio Trust, which oversees a national park site next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Both entities, which were created by Congress, continue to operate and say they are compiling information requests from the White House.

The National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit that helps combat authoritarianism around the world, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying in a complaint that it had been denied access to its funding, “something that has never occurred before in the Endowment’s forty-two-year existence.”

In 2023, it reported issuing $238 million in grants, including through the International Republican Institute, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio formerly served as a board member.

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Elon Musk departs the Capitol following a meeting with Senate Republicans, in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)