The Vikings rolled to a 23-7 win over the Packers to kick off the 2022 season on Sunday and wide receiver Justin Jefferson played the starring role on offense for Minnesota.
Jefferson had nine catches for 184 yards and two first half touchdowns in the win and he did a lot of his damage against Packers defenders other than cornerback Jaire Alexander. That was a surprise given Alexander’s standing as the top corner in Green Bay and Alexander said after the game that he wouldn’t have lined the defense up the same way that the Packers did.
“The game plan was to not allow 18 to beat us,” Alexander said, via Ryan Wood of PackersNews.com. “Why I wasn’t on him, that’s not my call. Anybody watch me play, you know that’s what I want.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said that the Vikings did “a nice job of putting him in different positions” over the course of the game when asked about not having Alexander shadow Jefferson for the entire afternoon. Jefferson lined up in the slot and was put in motion often as the Vikings found ways to get him loose and make the Packers pay once he did find some daylight.
Green Bay will get another chance to square off with Jefferson later this year and other teams on the Vikings schedule will be looking at how Sunday played out as they try to devise better approaches to handling one of the league’s top players.