5 biggest reasons for Packers' disappointing loss to Vikings in Week 10

The Green Bay Packers entered Week 10 looking to make a statement in the NFC North and get some revenge on the Minnesota Vikings after a Week 1 meltdown. Instead, the team was the one being made a statement against.

Much like Week 1, the Vikings' ferocious pass rush dominated the Packers, who had no answer for it. The Vikings' old-but-new quarterback Kirk Cousins was much better than Carson Wentz, and they rolled to a 30-10 win over the Packers that, honestly, didn't even feel as close as that large score suggested.

The Packers now enter their bye week at 6-4, and thanks to the competition in the NFC North, they are essentially eliminated from any hope of winning the division. While their record is commendable given some of their biggest woes this season, the 6-4 record now puts the playoffs firmly in question-mark territory.

As the Packers try to regroup over the next week, let's take a look at some of the biggest reasons for the team's disappointing loss.

1. Offensive line

For the past few weeks, the Packers' offensive line had finally looked to put together some stability. The group had its ups and downs, but still looked like it had found some solid footing after its disastrous start to the season. Then, Brian Flores came into town.

The Packers had no real answer for Flores and the Vikings' defense. According to ESPN Insights, Minnesota pressured Jordan Love on 60 percent of his dropbacks and sacked him eight times. Green Bay's dominant passing game couldn't get anything going, as Love was pressured almost immediately on every snap.

It was the same problem in Week 1, and a new-look offensive line had no answers nine weeks later, either. Love has been pressured on at least half of his dropbacks just three times in his career, and two of them came this year against Minnesota, a sign of just how dominant Flores' defense was.

2. Matt LaFleur

One of Matt LaFleur's biggest criticisms is his inability to have a "feel" for the game. It's been held against him for years and has reared its head in a number of big games. On Sunday, that issue popped up yet again.

At several points during Sunday's game, LaFleur displayed a number of head-scratching moves. First up, with Minnesota up 3-0 and just outside the red zone, Green Bay forced a huge sack that came with a facemask penalty. Instead of declining the penalty, LaFleur accepted it, setting up a 3rd-and-28.

On the very next play, the Vikings scored a touchdown to extend their lead to 10-0. While declining the penalty might've made some sense, the likeliest outcome was always Minnesota kicking a field goal, and keeping it a one-possession game was more important.

Elsewhere in the game, LaFleur's confusing insistence on trying to establish the run continued. At several points in the first half, Green Bay tried to run for it and got next to nothing, including back-to-back runs on the team's second drive that got a total of two yards, which led to Trey Smack's missed field goal.

In the play-calling department, LaFleur also seemed to prefer looking for long-developing big pass plays over anything else, even with the Vikings' pass rush making that impossible.

It wasn't until the second half, when the team was already down 20-0, that they elected to operate with quicker passes and more tempo. After the game, LaFleur said it was a "bad decision" not to do so earlier.

All in all, LaFleur remains one of the most polarizing figures on the Packers. There are games, like last week or against the Bears, where he is clearly on his 'A' game. Weeks like this, though, where he seems woefully unable to adjust, highlight just how frustrating he can be.

3. Packers' defense

The Packers' defense entered this week as one of the team's brightest spots. This week, the defense fell back to earth a bit at the worst possible time.

While Kirk Cousins didn't finish the game with outstanding stats, he did more than enough when it mattered to win, and the Packers' defense couldn't get stops when they needed to. The Vikings converted 50 percent of their third-down tries, as well as their one fourth-down attempt, and routinely had answers to anything the Packers' defense threw at them.

Much like LaFleur, Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon also had a head-scratchingly bad game. After spending the entire season being hyper-aggressive on blitzes, the Packers' defense elected to play much softer in that regard, which helped Cousins and the Vikings convert a number of plays.

4. Drops

Ultimately, nothing else in the game mattered as much as the Packers' offensive line, but that doesn't mean the team played its cleanest game across the board. After a few weeks of no issues, the Packers' wide receivers once again displayed a bad case of dropping the ball.

Matthew Golden, Tucker Kraft, and others all had bad miscues, and while it didn't end up affecting the game in the broad sense, it's still disappointing to see after the team looked to have put those issues behind them.

5. Trey Smack

There's no other way to put this: Trey Smack may be on his final chance as a member of the Green Bay Packers. After two weeks of solid play following an awful showing in Detroit, Smack once again missed a kick: a 53-yard field goal he pushed wide right.

Now sitting at 6-4 and with every game being important, the Packers simply can't afford to let Smack continue to miss kicks in games. Unfortunately, it seems they're content with doing so for the time being, as LaFleur told reporters after the game that he still has confidence in Smack.

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