Mexico City /
Aaron Rodgers threw two touchdown passes, AJ Dillon ran for two touchdowns, and the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings 37-10 Sunday to advance to the playoffs as the best team in the National Conference.
The Green Bay win, along with Philadelphia’s 20-16 win over Washington hours earlier, knocked the Vikings (7-9) out of the post-season and led to the Eagles’ qualification.
The Vikings played without their quarterback, Kirk Cousins, who was put on the COVID-19 reserve on Friday.
Al Hazm (13-3) are the only NFL players with an undefeated home record and will have a chance of reaching the Super Bowl without leaving Lambeau Field. Sunday’s match exemplified the potential advantage of playing at home in January in the cold temperatures. Before the match, the temperature was minus 11.6 °C (11 °F) and the wind was cold under 17 °C (1 °F).
Green Bay won 13 consecutive regular season games at home, but lost 31-26 at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season in a National Conference championship game.
The Packers haven’t made a Super Bowl since winning the title in 2010 and lost the conference championship in four of the past seven seasons.
Rodgers finished 29 completions of 38 for 288 yards with a 20-yard drop to Allen Lazard and an 11-yard drop to Davante Adams, who had 11 receptions for 136 yards. Adams hit 117 receptions to break the record he set for himself last year.