Vikings vs. Packers 2017 live results: Score updates and highlights from Saturday night football

The Minnesota Vikings shut out the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night, winning a defensive struggle by a couple scores, 16-0. Brett Hundley threw a pair of interceptions and no touchdowns for the Packers, while rushing for 48 yards. Case Keenum had a touchdown pass and just 139 yards passing for Minnesota, but it was enough.

The Vikings move to 12-3 on the season, and now will wait to see if they clinch a first-round bye when the Carolina Panthers play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. If the Panthers lose that game, the Vikings clinch a first-round bye. A win in Week 17 will also clinch a playoff bye for Minnesota.

Below you can find our in-game commentary, though it was a fairly slow game overall.

A very rough game for Hundley and the Packers contnued in the fourth. They went three-and-out to start, but to be fair, the defense also forced a punt on the next two Minnesota drives. Unfortunately, the Green Bay offense had two more drives end with failed fourth down attempts, including one that went 10 plays and just 9 yards in total after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Green Bay.

After that particular turnover on downs, Minnesota went just 5 yards in four plays, ending with a 27-yard Forbath field goal. Hundley tossed his second interception of the game four plays into the ensuing Green Bay drive, allowing the Vikings to kneel it out.

Minnesota punted to start the third quarter, and then the Packers began another long march downfield. They went 49 yards in 11 plays, but turned the ball over on downs inside Minnesota territory. It was an incomplete pass from Hundley at the Minnesota 36, and from there, the Vikings went 62 yards in 12 plays, eating six minutes off the clock in the process. Forbath kicked a 20-yard field goal to make it a 13-point game from there. The quarter came to an end shortly after.

The Minnesota defense continued to play well, but the offense couldn’t manage to add anything in the second quarter. The second saw the Packers punt after six plays, the Vikings go three-and-out, the Packers go three-and-out, the Vikings punt after seven plays and 37 yards, and then the most successful Green Bay drive of the day ... until it wasn’t.

Brett Hundley drove the Packers 62 yards in eight plays, but he threw an interception to Harrison Smith, giving Minnesota the ball. They promptly punted on a three-and-out, and the first half came to an end after a couple plays from Green Bay that went nowhere.

Minnesota quickly forced a punt after five plays on the Green Bay opening drive, and Case Keenum took the Vikings 39 yards in nine plays before Kai Forbath connected on a 49-yard field goal. That gave them the first points of the game and the lead.

The two teams then exchanged punts, with there consecutive three-and-outs before Minnesota added to their lead with a five-play, 68-yard drive that concluded with a Keenum touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs. The drive was assisted by a 39-yard pass interference penalty on Green Bay.

Before the game

The Minnesota Vikings have already clinched the NFC North, while the Green Bay Packers are out of the playoff picture. What was originally expected to be a bitter divisional showdown will have a lot less on the line when the Packers host the Vikings at Lambeau Field on Saturday. The two teams will meet on NBC at 8:30 p.m. ET (live streaming via NBC and FuboTV).

Green Bay is out of playoff contention for the first time since 2008. It’s been a rough season, as Green Bay lost four of Brett Hundley’s five starts with Aaron Rodgers sidelined due to injury. That injury — a broken collarbone — occurred on Oct. 15 after a hit from Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr.

Rodgers returned from the injury last week, in a 31-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers. After the game, the Packers shut Rodgers down again, and Hundley will start for the remainder of the season. Rodgers will, of course, be the starter going into 2018, but with the playoffs no longer a possibility, it makes sense to give him more time to recover.

Hundley, in his third year in the NFL, has been so-so this season. He’s completed 161 of 252 passes for 1,534 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. He’s definitely struggled with his accuracy. Against the Vikings, he completed 18 of 33 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown with three interceptions.

That game saw Case Keenum throw for 239 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Keenum has completed 67.9 percent of his passes for 3,219 yards, 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season. He’s played in eight games without an interception this season, and his solid play has been a big part of why the Vikings have been so good this year.

Minnesota is battling for a first-round bye in the playoffs, so there is still a whole lot to fight for.

Pregame reading

Playing against good quarterbacks is a problem for most teams. That’s why they’re good quarterbacks. But a good defense has to be able to make a mediocre or bad quarterback look like one. Green Bay’s can’t and in fact goes the other way, allowing just OK players to be good, and decent players to be great.

He’s started in all but two games this season, where he has a 9-3 record with over 3,100 yards, 19 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Many expected (and if you’re a Vikings fan, wished) that he would be a formidable game manager. With a defense that’s one of the best in the NFL, the Vikings have just needed Keenum to not turn the ball over, and find the end zone a couple of times a game. He’s proven on multiple occasions that he can do more than that.

Without two quarterbacks and their top running back, the Vikings had to turn to an unexpected player to galvanize the franchise and lead it to the postseason: Case Keenum. Keenum’s stellar play turned some of his doubters into believers. But his performance, along with Minnesota’s physical defense, did something even better: help lead the Vikings to the NFC North title, and the playoffs.