NFL / Teams & Games

Cousins Starts for Minnesota at Lambeau, Where His Achilles Gave Out

LIVE — Vikings 17, Packers 0 at halftime: Cousins is dealing at Lambeau, and Green Bay hasn't scored.

Miles Rook2 min read Updated Nov 15, 2:28 PM ET

Kirk Cousins (archive). Cousins makes his first Vikings start since 2023 at Green Bay, in the stadium where his Achilles tore. Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Summary

Cousins' second Minnesota act opens at Lambeau, in a three-team NFC North race with no room for a third straight loss.

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LIVE — Vikings 17, Packers 0 at halftime at Lambeau. Kirk Cousins' first Vikings start since 2023 — in the stadium where his Achilles tore — is a rout at the break: 10 of 16 for 126 yards and a 38-yard touchdown to Myles Price, plus Aaron Jones' 1-yard touchdown run. Green Bay has nothing: Jordan Love is 4 of 8 for 40 yards with an interception.

Sunday's strangest sight is at Lambeau Field, where Kirk Cousins starts at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings (6-2) against the Green Bay Packers (6-3). Kickoff is 1 p.m. ET on FOX. It is Cousins' first start for Minnesota since 2023, and it comes in the stadium where his Achilles tore that October, in a Vikings uniform, against these same Packers.

The road back was not short. Cousins finished his first Minnesota run injured, moved on, and landed in Las Vegas — where the Raiders turned to Fernando Mendoza and traded Cousins back to Minnesota at the deadline. The Vikings didn't bring him back for nostalgia. They brought him back because their season needed a quarterback who has won in this building, even if his last memory of it is the worst one of his career.

Minnesota needs the steadiness. The Vikings started fast and have lost two straight, and a third loss drops them behind in a three-team NFC North race that includes 6-2 Detroit. Their defense travels — Minnesota's pass defense ranks second in the league — but the offense has to hold up its end at some point.

Green Bay's counter is Jordan Love and the league's most productive young receiving corps, led by Christian Watson, who ranks third in the NFL in receiving yards. The Packers are 6-3 and playing at home, where November games tend to bend toward the home team's run game and the crowd's patience for visiting quarterbacks on third down.

Green Bay arrives with its own momentum: the Packers hung 45 points on New England last Sunday in Foxborough, the same Patriots team Detroit is playing in Munich this morning. The North's three contenders have spent the season taking turns looking like the division's best team. Sunday at Lambeau sorts the order again.

A win pulls the winner even with Detroit in the loss column at the top of the North. A loss makes the next six weeks a chase. This story updates live once the game kicks off and closes as the game's full summary at the final whistle.