It was looking pretty bleak for the Vikings.

The mood was already low after starting quarterback Kyler Murray got knocked out of the game, and while backup quarterback Carson Wentz had performed admirably in relief to keep the score close, it didn’t look like the Vikings were going to have enough left in the tank to overtake the Green Bay Packers.

The turning point came early in the final frame.

After the Packers kicked a field goal that would’ve made it 25-17, head coach Matt LaFleur decided to accept a penalty that took the points off the board. On the next play, the Vikings stuffed quarterback Jordan Love at the line of scrimmage and took over on downs feeling fortunate to only be trailing 22-17.

What followed was an avalanche as the Vikings completed the comeback and ran away with a 39-22 win over the Packers. It was complementary football at its finest for the final 15 minutes as the offense and the defense reached flow state while playing off of each other.

As he reflected on how quickly the game turned, head coach Kevin O’Connell noted how it’s a testament to the culture the Vikings have worked so hard to build. There were many opportunities to throw in the towel. They continued to stay in the fight.

“We’re a team that’s been built a certain kind of way from a standpoint of the people who are in that locker room,” O’Connell said. “We stayed together even when there were some hard circumstances.”

How crazy was this particular game for the Vikings? It’s actually the first time in NFL history that a team was trailing by at least 12 points with under 20 minutes left in regulation and end up winning by at least 17 points.

“It happened fast,” Wentz said. “I’m over there sitting trying to figure out the defense on the tablet. The next thing I know we’re back in and we score again. You look up and it’s like, ‘Oh man. We’re up a couple of scores.’”

After the Vikings came up with a big stop on defense, Wentz immediately marched the offense down the field to take lead for the first time in the game. It culminated with running back Aaron Jones following a convoy of blockers into the end zone as the Vikings went up 25-22.

That was just the beginning as edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel stripped the ball from Love on the next drive, recovering it himself and putting the Vikings in very good field position with a chance to take complete control. They did just that when running back Jordan Mason plunged into the end zone to make it 32-22.

The onslaught continued when cornerback James Pierre intercepted a pass fro Love on the next drive to give the ball back to the Vikings with another short field. After a couple of runs to milk the clock, Wentz found star receiver Justin Jefferson in open space and he did the rest to make it 39-22.

“Our defense was lights out on another level,” Jones said. “They kept putting us in great position to score. We love that. We know when they give us the ball in those situations we’ve got to put the ball in the end zone.”

That helped the Vikings flip the script after a rough start on offense, defense, and special teams allowed the Packers to jump out to an early lead.

It started with the Packers getting a 59-yard field goal from rookie kicker Trey Smack to make it 3-0 right out of the gates, then continued with Love finding receiver Christian Watson for an 81-yard touchdown to make it 9-0 after a missed extra point.

After both teams traded field goals to make it 12-3, the Vikings eventually landed a haymaker of their own when Wentz took advantage of a free play and chucked it deep down the field to Jefferson for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 12-10.

The only issue was the fact that the Vikings immediately allowed the Packers to go down the field with Love finding Watson again for a touchdown that made it 19-10 aft halftime.

It was a different story after that as the Vikings only allowed a field goal the rest of the way.

“There were a few plays that we gave up early,” Van Ginkel said. “It’s good to see the defense rally together. We knew that wasn’t up to our standard and we came out after halftime and let it loose.”

After finding themselves trailing 22-10 after halftime, the Vikings got a spark from receiver Myles Price, who returned a kickoff 68 yards to breathe some life into the home crowd. A few plays later, Wentz found tight end T.J. Hockenson for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 22-17.

The defense took over from there, getting a turnover on downs, a strip sack, an interception, and another turnover on down in success. The offense also did their part by scoring.

“It wouldn’t be a Vikings win if we didn’t have to comeback after having a little bit of adversity,” Jefferson said with a laugh. “We just went out there and executed our plays and continued to fight and continued to do what we do.”

The end result was the Vikings putting it all together to turn a frustrating performance into a blowout win over their biggest rival. As much as the Vikings will enjoy the win over the Packers, however, they this isn’t a blueprint of how to beat the Chicago Bears.

“There was a lot of juice on the sideline,” Jones said. “The guys were excited for each other and we were all were echoing, ‘Hey. We’ve got to start like this next week.’”

The process of going about doing that starts immediately for the Vikings.

“We will have to fix a lot of things and improve on a lot of things,” O’Connell said. “It’s easier to do that when we’re coming off of a home divisional win.

Vikings 39, Packers 22

Green Bay 9 10 3 0 — 22 Minnesota 3 7 7 22 — 39

First quarter

GB — FG Smack 59, 12:11. Drive: 6 plays, 12 yards, 2:03. Key Plays: Nixon 11 interception return to Green Bay 47, C.Brooks 14 run. Green Bay 3, Minnesota 0.

GB — Watson 81 pass from Love (kick failed), 7:43. Drive: 2 plays, 81 yards, 00:13. Green Bay 9, Minnesota 0.

MIN — FG Reichard 38, 1:38. Drive: 13 plays, 50 yards, 6:05. Key Plays: Price kick return to Minnesota 30, Murray 2 run on 3rd-and-7, Wentz 9 pass to Jefferson on 3rd-and-6. Green Bay 9, Minnesota 3.

Second quarter

GB — FG Smack 43, 13:52. Drive: 8 plays, 15 yards, 2:46. Key Plays: Melton kick return to Minnesota 40, Love 10 pass to Watson on 3rd-and-7, Love 6 pass to Watson on 3rd-and-9. Green Bay 12, Minnesota 3.

MIN — Jefferson 39 pass from Wentz (Reichard kick), 1:55. Drive: 7 plays, 85 yards, 3:23. Key Plays: Wentz 17 pass to Jefferson on 3rd-and-8, Wentz 8 pass to Hockenson on 3rd-and-6. Green Bay 12, Minnesota 10.

GB — Watson 2 pass from Love (Smack kick), :14. Drive: 8 plays, 74 yards, 1:41. Key Plays: Melton kick return to Green Bay 26. Love 23 pass to Kraft, Love 10 pass to Melton, Love 32 pass to Watson. Green Bay 19, Minnesota 10.

Third quarter

GB — FG Smack 26, 5:09. Drive: 12 plays, 79 yards, 5:46. Key Plays: Love 13 pass to Golden, Love 6 pass to Reed on 3rd-and-4, Love 43 pass to J.Smith. Green Bay 22, Minnesota 10.

MIN — Hockenson 16 pass from Wentz (Reichard kick), 2:08. Drive: 7 plays, 28 yards, 3:01. Key Plays: Price kick return to Green Bay 28, A.Jones 1 run on 3rd-and-1. Green Bay 22, Minnesota 17.

Fourth quarter

MIN — A.Jones 3 run (Jefferson pass from Wentz), 6:37. Drive: 9 plays, 78 yards, 6:34. Key Plays: Wentz 13 pass to J.Oliver, Mason 28 run, Ev.Williams 0 interception return to Green Bay 3. Minnesota 25, Green Bay 22.

MIN — Mason 1 run (Reichard kick), 4:48. Drive: 1 play, 1 yard, 00:04. Minnesota 32, Green Bay 22.

MIN — Jefferson 9 pass from Wentz (Reichard kick), 3:55. Drive: 3 plays, 14 yards, 00:18. Key Play: Pierre 28 interception return to Green Bay 14. Minnesota 39, Green Bay 22.

GB MIN

First downs 19 19

Rushing 3 6

Passing 16 8

Penalty 0 5

Third down eff 3-12 8-15

Fourth down eff 0-2 0-0

Total net yards 419 239

Total plays 67 61

Avg gain 6.3 3.9

Net yards rushing 66 107

Rushes 21 34

Avg per rush 3.143 3.147

Net yards passing 353 132

Sacked yds lost 4-34 3-19

Gross yds passing 387 151

Completed att 21-42 15-24

Had intercepted 1 1

Yds pass play 7.674 4.889

Kickoffs e z TB 6-1-1 7-1-1

Punts avg 3-38.667 4-40.25

Punts blocked 0 0

FGs-PATs blocked 0-0 0-0

Total ret yardage 204 220

Punt returns 2-17 1-13

Kickoff returns 6-176 5-179

Interceptions 1-11 1-28

penalties yds 12-98 3-15

Fumbles lost 2-1 0-0

Time of poss 27:02 32:58

INDIVIDUAL Stats

Rushing — Green Bay, Lloyd 13-37, C.Brooks 7-29, Love 1-0. Minnesota, Mason 15-59, A.Jones 12-40, Murray 2-9, Wentz 5-(minus 1).

Passing — Green Bay, Love 21-42-1-387. Minnesota, Wentz 12-19-0-133, Murray 3-5-1-18.

Receiving — Green Bay, Watson 6-147, Golden 6-95, Kraft 3-65, Reed 3-20, Smith 2-50, Melton 1-10. Minnesota, Jefferson 8-92, Hockenson 4-36, Oliver 2-22, Dallas 1-1.

Punt returns — Green Bay, Moore 2-17. Minnesota, Price 1-13.

Kickoff returns — Green Bay, Melton 4-124, Johnson 2-52. Minnesota, Price 5-179.

Tackles-assists-sacks — Green Bay, E.Cooper 6-1-1, E.Williams 6-1-0, Van Ness 4-0-1, Cox 4-0-0, Nixon 3-2-.5, Ford 3-1-.5, McKinney 3-0-0, Wyatt 3-0-0, Franklin 2-2-0, Sorrell 2-0-0, Bullard 1-0-0, Cisse 1-0-0, Hargrave 1-0-0, K.Brooks 0-2-0, Dennis-Sutton 0-1-0, McClellan 0-1-0. Minnesota, Murphy 7-1-0, Cashman 5-2-.5, Metellus 3-1-0, Redmond 3-1-0, Pierre 3-0-0, Rodgers 3-0-0, Van Ginkel 2-1-1.5, Rodriguez 2-1-1, Wilson 2-1-0, Turner 2-0-1, T.Jackson 2-0-0, Orange 2-0-0, Ingram-Dawkins 1-1-0, Pace 1-0-0, Smith 1-0-0, Van Noy 1-0-0.

Interceptions — Green Bay, Nixon 1-11. Minnesota, Pierre 1-28.

Missed field goals — None.

Officials — Referee Shawn Hochuli, Ump Larry Smith, HL Patrick Holt, LJ Carl Johnson, FJ Jason Ledet, SJ Justin Larrew, BJ Jimmy Russell, Replay Tyler Cerimeli.

NFC north games

Chicago 59, Carolina 37: Caleb Williams threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 65 yards and two more scores as the Chicago Bears defeated the visiting Carolina Panthers in the highest-scoring season opener in NFL history.

Chicago and Carolina scored eight more points than the previous record of 88 set in Tampa Bay’s 48-40 win over New Orleans in 2018.

Coach Ben Johnson’s prolific Bears also broke a franchise record for points in an opener, a mark that had stood since 1948, when Chicago hung 45 points on Green Bay at Wrigley Field.

The 59 points were the most allowed by the Panthers in team history.

Detroit 31, New Orleans 30: Tyler Shough threw an incomplete pass in the end zone on a 2-point conversion attempt, allowing the Detroit Lions to escape with a one-point overtime win over the visiting New Orleans Saints.

Saints coach Kellen Moore chose to go for the win instead of tying the game with 1:34 left in overtime after his team came back from a three-touchdown deficit in the third quarter and allowed a touchdown on the opening possession of the extra period.

Saints kicker Ryan Wright missed a 62-yard field goal attempt as time expired at the end of regulation.