By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Jan 02, 2024 at 9:31 AM Photography: Evan Siegle / Packers.com

Of course. The one evening that everybody planned to stay up late, the Packers made it an early night, dropping the hammer on the Vikings well before the ball dropped on New Year's Eve with a 33-10 victory on Sunday night.

The Packers picked a great time for their most complete performance, the offense firing on all cylinders with Joe Barry's much-maligned defense finally playing up to their potential. (OK, it helped to play against the combo of Jaren Hall and Nick Mullens.) And with Sunday's comfortable smackdown – despite having a first-year starting quarterback, despite their defensive struggles and despite being the youngest team in the league – Green Bay's amazingly in the driver's seat going into the final week of the season, in a win-and-in scenario heading into their bi-annual owners' meeting in Chicago. 

Before that Windy City battle, since you might not remember much from Sunday night after all the celebratory Champagne, let's take one final look back at this fabulous way to say goodbye to 2023. 

1. Prepare for a Skol-ding

Turns out even when he's not in uniform, Kirk Cousins can make a doofy fool out of himself in a prime-time game. 

2. Love connection

One of the benefits of having such a young team this season? The thrill of watching these fresh-faced players learn the game and start really popping together on the field. That's exactly what's happened with Jayden Reed, whose connection with Jordan Love has really turned into something special as the year's gone along.

Make no mistake: All of the Packers' young receiving corps has shown genuine flashes this season. But Reed and Love clearly click – especially Sunday night with Reed snagging two touchdowns amongst six catches and 89 yards. He now leads the team in receiving yards and co-leads in touchdowns with eight (plus two rushing scores), making the excitement for the Packers' future not solely about Jordan Love. 

3. Hall of blame

Jaron HallX

Rejoice: We finally found a starting quarterback meh enough that Joe Barry's defense couldn't turn him into a star! Despite all of our pre-game fears, the Packers defense instead turned Jaren Hall's primetime debut one to forget as the young back-up spent most of the night running for his life and not getting drives going for the Vikings. Hall ended the evening completing a mere five of ten passes, getting sacked almost as many times (three), fumbling once, throwing an interception and even getting Cris Collinsworth to beg for his benching. With the season on the line, credit where credit's due, Joe Barry and his squad showed up. 

4. Higher Love

Even when you think you've seen all you need to see from Jordan Love, he goes and shows even more that he's yet another Green Bay quarterbacking star.

Love once again dunked on his doubters and demonstrated that he's a winning NFL quarterback, hitting the easy passes, making the challenging throws, finding open receivers on the regular and overall managing the offense like a long-time pro. He ended the night with 256 yards in the air and three touchdowns plus this tough run for another score, giving him 30 touchdowns on the year – the third most in the entire league behind just Dak Prescott and Brock Purdy. Not too shabby for essentially his first year. Not too shabby at all. 

5. New quarterback, same struggle

Preston Smith sackX

After halftime, the Vikings made the switch to Nick Mullens at quarterback – not that it made much of a difference as the Green Bay defense continued to smother Minnesota on defense, nabbing yet another sack and helping take the lead to a cozy and comfortable 30-3 heading into the final frame. I saw this critical game going a lot of ways: Being able to switch early to Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper in Times Square for New Year's was not one of them. 

6. Go figure: Aaron Jones is good

Aaron JonesX

For the second straight week, when made the focus of the offense and given the opportunity to feast, Aaron Jones was dynamite. Jones helped kickstart the Packers' butt-kicking of Minnesota on Sunday night, always gaining yards and always churning forward – to the tune of 120 yards on the ground, averaging an impressive six yards a carry. Hear me out here: What if ... we ALWAYS let Aaron Jones cook? A crazy concept, I know.

7. Hurts so good

Jayden ReedX

Between the ball drop and the Packers not dropping the ball, Sunday night was mostly about celebration. But there were some concerns – particularly Green Bay's health in the new year.

Obviously they missed Christian Watson and Dontayvion Wicks on Sunday as well as Eric Stokes and Jaire Alexander on defense – but then during the NYE game, defensive star Preston Smith left briefly with an injury, running back AJ Dillon spent a lot of time on the sideline with hand/wrist issues, Jayden Reed went in the locker room early for X-rays, linebacker Isaiah McDuffie's night ended early with an injury and key offensive blocker Elgton Jenkins appeared to get rolled up on, putting him at risk for the season finale too. The Packers have dealt with injury issues all season long – but they might be coming to a head at just the wrong time.

8. Mo' Bo 

Even with all the exciting, young, highly-touted receiving talent on the team, it's somehow Bo Melton – a seventh-round draft pick bouncing back and forth from the practice squad – that's turned into a Green Bay pass-catching beast late in the year. Melton ended the Vikings game on Sunday night with six catches – including this game-sealing score – and 105 yards, the first time all season long somebody on the Packers crossed the century mark. If even the sixth guy deep on the receiving roster, not even on the regular team for most of the season, can perform like this, the Green Bay receivers room is looking even better than we thought for next year. 

9. Nobody's perfect

Even in a performance as impressive as Sunday night, there are places to improve ... and on that note, the special teams unit, which missed yet another extra point and handed the Vikings a little dignity with a botched punt return that led to Minnesota's lone touchdown.

In fairness, though, Anders Carlson made five of his six kicks on the night, and the punt return was an on-the-fly adjustment with Samori Toure subbing in for the injured Jayden Reed on that play. (Though kick return regular Keisean Nixon was sitting right there.) Thankfully, the game was a blow-out so none of these mistakes were major – but it might not be that way next week or if there are more weeks to come.

10. Happy endings and even happier beginnings

Jordan Love and Aaron JonesX

Make no mistake: If the Packers lose to the rival Bears next week at home and miss out yet again in the final week on the postseason, it'll be a significant bummer. But if – heavens forbid – Chicago pulls it off and gets their revenge, let's not let that one potential disappointment overshadow what has been otherwise an utter triumph of a season.

This was supposed to be a BAD season, a year of rebuilding and reassessing talent ... and instead it's turned into competitive season where we have our quarterback of the future, a once-barren receiving corps now suddenly stocked with exciting talent and a clear direction for the future.

If you'd told me four months ago that the Packers would have a chance at the postseason, controlling their own destiny in the final week of the season, I'd have laughed you out of the bar. And yet here we are, an "off" year that would be a dream season for most franchises.

Best of all? With Jordan Love showing professional form already, it's clearly just the beginning. Happy new year, indeed. 

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.