The Green Bay Packers suffered a Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, who came from behind and exploded for 22 points in the fourth quarter. Almost a week later, on Sept. 19, the NFL announced Week 1 fines, and two players faced hefty penalties for their actions.
One of them was Packers’ Lukas Van Ness, whose third-quarter hit on the quarterback at the 11:13 mark resulted in a $17,911 fine from the NFL. Van Ness was also involved in a play alongside safety Javon Bullard that caused Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray to suffer a concussion.
Nonetheless, that play was in the first quarter. The NFL fine is for a third-quarter play, which means it was a play on backup QB Carson Wentz. As a result, the Murray play wasn’t fined by the league because the other player fined in this game wasn’t Bullard.
The other Packers player fined by the league was Evan Williams for unnecessary roughness after he hit a defenseless player. Because of that, Williams was fined $7,087 by the NFL.
Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell Talks About the Hit on Kyler Murray
After the win over the Packers, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell didn’t call the hit that led to Murray suffering a concussion as a dirty play.
“It would be one thing if there was a headfirst slide and a clear declaration [of giving himself up],” O’Connell said on Sept. 14 (h/t Kevin Seifert of ESPN). “But I don’t put any fault on anybody there.”
Once Murray was out of the game, Wentz came off the bench and went 13-for-19 on his pass attempts for 133 passing yards and three touchdowns, posting a passer rating of 123.5 against the Packers to lead the Vikings to the win.
Carson Wentz on Mindset Ahead of Bears Game
Meanwhile, no Vikings player received any fines in Week 1 against Green Bay, so they can focus on Week 2 against the Chicago Bears. Nonetheless, the Vikings won’t have Murray, as the team ruled him out for this game, and will go with Wentz instead.
After the decision to rule out Murray, Wentz spoke to the media and shared his mindset over the last few days, when the Vikings needed him to come in cold off the bench against Green Bay and now needed him to start against Chicago.
“Got to be ready,” Wentz told reporters on Sept. 18. “Got to be locked in. And the way you can be adaptable and stay ready is by mentally locking in. I think for me, the years I’ve been a backup, that was the first time I’ve really been thrust into a game like that. So that was a whole new experience. I think I talked about that a little bit after the game. So that was new to me.
“But again, I fell back on my preparation. I wasn’t maybe taking the reps during the week, but I go through everything as if I’m the starter. Guys have the same kind of mentality, the same approach, and the same kind of regimen as far as preparation, watching film, studying our game plan, all those things, and that paid off last week.”
NFL Announces Punishment for Two Packers Players After Loss to Vikings