The Vikings needed this win. The Packers needed it more, but not even Aaron Rodgers could overcome a slew of injuries, a conservative play-caller who has this offense stuck in the early 2000s, and a rejuvenated Minnesota outfit that looks primed to make a playoff push over the final month of the season. On Sunday Night, Kirk Cousins outplayed Rodgers as the Vikings controlled the second half and cruised to a 24-14 victory.

The win moves them to 6-4-1 on the season, and they sit as the fifth seed in the NFC. The Packers fall to 4-6-1 and are four spots out of the final wild-card seed. The loss also drops Green Bay to 0-6 on the road this season.

Kirk Cousins was worth the investment

The Vikings decided to move on from Case Keenum after a legit MVP 2017 season in which he threw for 3,547 yards, 22 touchdowns, seven interceptions and led Minnesota to the NFC Championship Game. The organization gave Cousins a three-year, $84 million all-guaranteed deal.

There were questions about whether he was worth that type of money, especially after the Redskins didn't try to keep him, but Cousins has been among the NFL's best passers this season, and when the Vikings' offensive line has been able to protect him, he's been damn-near unstoppable. Before Sunday night, he completed at least 70 percent of his passes in eight games (and twice bettered 80 percent), and had 19 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

Cousins saved one of his best performances for the Packers. He finished 28 of 37 for 332 yards three touchdowns, no turnovers, and he was as efficient as you'll ever see him.

Of course, it helps to have wide-open receivers. Also helping: Cousins' next-level ability to read the blitz, make adjustments, and repeatedly move the sticks against a Packers defense that was admittedly shorthanded due to injuries. (The rebuttal, as always: Every team is battling injuries this time of year.)

You know who else deserves credit? Dalvin Cook! Remember him?

Cook flashed glimpses of what makes him special, something we haven't seen much this season. In his defense, Cook is coming back from a torn ACL he suffered in Week 4 of his rookie campaign. But his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield is another weapon defenses will have to contend with down the stretch.

Added bonus for the airtight touchdown celebration.

One more name-check: First-year offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, who was the Eagles' quarterbacks coach the last two seasons, and is already mentioned as head-coaching material.

Aaron Rodgers can't do it alone

It's hard to imagine there won't be changes in Green Bay this offseason, starting with the offensive philosophy. How bad did the Packers need this win? A victory would've improved their postseason chances to 28 percent. The loss drops those same chances to 3 percent. So yeah. Rodgers finished 17 of 28 for 198 yards and a lone touchdown -- a nifty back-shoulder throw to Davante Adams:

He was also sacked four times and avoided countless other takedowns just by being Aaron Rodgers in the pocket. And while he got some help from Aaron Jones and the running game (17 carries, 72 yards), McCarthy's play-calling again did Rodgers no favors, especially in the fourth quarter when the Packers trailed.

Adding insult to injury: With just under six minutes left, the Packers down 10 points and having just forced the Vikings to punt, Tramon Williams did the unthinkable.

That came after an 11-play drive that consumed nearly seven minutes. By the time the Packers got the ball back, drove down the field and kicked a field goal, it was too late. And now it appears, for the second straight season, Green Bay will miss the playoffs. And unlike 2017, McCarthy can't blame it on Rodgers being injured.

In case you still don't know Adam Thielen

Adam Thielen may have gone undrafted out of Minnesota State, but he's one of the most dangerous receivers in the league. He had 91 receptions for 1,276 yards a season ago and he came into Sunday night's game with 85 receptions for 1,013 yards. For as dynamic as Stefon Diggs is, Thielen is arguably the most important cog in the Vikings' passing game. 

"If you're Kirk Cousins, you know a guy like Thielen, at his size -- standing 6-1 and some change, 6-2 and change in cleats -- that's a tough guard for anybody on defense," CBS' The NFL Today studio analyst Nate Burleson told CBSSports.com's Jared Dubin last week in a must-read piece on Thielen. "You can move him around in different formations or have him behind the line of scrimmage which allows the quarterback to identify what defense they're in and the wide receiver to catch a full head of steam before he burst off the line of scrimmage, like a CFL receiver. And that's very different for DBs to guard. If you have these aggressive DBs, you give your wide receiver a chance to be off the ball which grants them the luxury of having a few extra yards of cushion which gives you more space to work your release moves. Put that same receiver in motion, now if there's a guy going with him, he's almost as good as burnt toast."

Not surprisingly, Thielen came up big several times against the Packers. There was your garden-variety Thielen jaw-dropping catch:

Then this huge third-down conversion:

And here's touchdown No. 8 on the season:

By the time he was done, Thielen had eight catches for 125 yards and that touchdown.

McCarthy's rocky relationship with fourth down

One of the recurring storylines this season is that Packers coach Mike McCarthy is stuck in the past. Green Bay's offense is behind the times and as the rest of the league continues to innovate, McCarthy stubbornly sticks to what's made him successful. And that includes foregoing advantageous fourth-down opportunities to punt the ball back to the other team. We saw it late in the first half and with the score tied, 14-14. Green Bay faced fourth-and-4 from Minnesota's 41. McCarthy punted. 

This came 10 days after the Packers lost to the Seahawks, 27-24, in a game where McCarthy again decided to punt on fourth down. The details: There was just under four and a half minutes left to play and the Packers faced a fourth-and-2 from their own 33-yard line. McCarthy eschewed Rodgers for the punt team and just under four-and-a-half minutes later the Packers lost.

"We have the injuries to Kenny Clark and Mike Daniels, so yeah, it was definitely a consideration there," McCarthy said after the Seahawks game, trying to explain his thinking. "But with the one timeout and the ability to stop the clock at the two-minute [warning], we played the numbers."

McCarthy played some numbers, just not the right ones. As Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth pointed out during "Sunday Night Football," Pro Football Focus' algorithm gave the Packers a 60 percent chance to convert that fourth-and-2, and if the conversion was successful, the Packers would have a 38 percent chance to win the game. If the Seahawks stopped the Packers on fourth down, Green Bay's chance of winning would drop to 20 percent. But here's the kicker -- literally: Green Bay's chance of winning when punting in that situation? 21 percent.

To McCarthy's credit, he did finally go for it on fourth down on Sunday night. With 7:21 to go in the third quarter and with the score tied, 14-14, the Packers ran right up the gut on fourth-and-inches from their own 45 ... and the Vikings stopped them. Seven plays later, Minnesota kicked a field goal to go up, 17-14. And, well, you know how this ends. This also likely means that we've seen McCarthy go for it on fourth down for the last time.

Up next

The Vikings (6-4-1) still have a lot of work to do: They'll travel to New England (8-3) next Sunday and then travel back across the country to face the Seahawks (6-5) in Week 14. The Packers (4-6-1) have the Cardinals (2-9) next week and then host the Falcons (4-7) the week after that. You can stream both team's Week 13 games on fuboTV (Try for free).