Rob Kleifield

MINNEAPOLISIn the roar of the crowd, the rookie heard the veteran loud and clear.

"Jalen Redmond told me, 'Hey, get the [heck] up off that rock.' I'm like, 'All right,' " Domonique Orange said gleefully after his NFL debut. "I stopped that run and got the hell up off that thing. I feel like that was a momentum-changer. I'm proud of myself, for real."

He reflected, "It was crazy because that really flipped the game."

It really did on the way to a 39-22 Vikings victory.

Green Bay had just booted a 40-yard field goal for a 25-17 lead with about 13 minutes left Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium but sent its offense back onto the field to try converting fourth-and-1 after an offside infraction. The Packers failed, then melted down.

Blake Cashman called Orange's effort "outstanding" and added, "That's why he's here."

"Those two [rooks], him and Caleb Banks, have done a great job," Cash' elaborated. "I just feel like they continue to get better, and we're going to need those guys to show up all year."

Orange felt Green Bay's decision to trade 3 points for a chance at more was "disrespectful" and said the defense's mindset in the moment was simple: "We finna go get this ball back."

He figured the play was going to be a QB sneak, and he heeded Redmond's advice in a moment that shook the stadium and rattled the Packers heartbeat.

"They don't know about Big Citrus," he quipped. "They don't know about [me], yet."

Feeding off Orange's big stop, Minnesota's offense marched 83 yards, chewing 6:34 off the clock, for the go-ahead score on an Aaron Jones, Sr., run and subsequent "Bank Vault" celebration.

Cashman and Purple defenders literally felt the vibe switch at U.S. Bank Stadium, but he noted there was never any panic when situations initially swung the other way when Jordan Love was fending off pressures and finding his targets for chunk gains.

"He was trying to play around with our rules a little bit, so that game of cat and mouse always shows up," Cashman said of Love and Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur. "But that's the great thing about [Brian Flores'] defense is when we can get a lead, it doesn't matter. Offenses have no choice but to absorb risk, get into the dropback, throw the ball.

"And that's when we're licking our chops," he asserted.

Minnesota wound up blitzing Love on 78.3% of his dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats research. It counted as the fourth-highest rate by a defense in a game since at least 2018 and Cashman was at the forefront of it, notching an NGS era single-game best seven quick pressures (under 2.5 seconds). His finest one, for sure, nearly resulted in six Vikings points.

One play after Dallas Turner zoomed off the edge with 5:52 to go in the contest and knocked the ball out, Cashman bolted through the B gap and got home for a sack and as he bagged Love, a long-haired teammate flew into the frame and ripped the rock to the turf.

Andrew Van Ginkel recovered his own forced fumble and returned it 7 yards to the 1.

"It just happened so fast. I don't even know what happened. It's one of those things that you practice well and have all the confidence, so when the game time comes, you can trust your technique and just get off the ball, and that's all I was thinking about," Van Ginkel said.

"I didn't realize that the [play] was still going," he admitted his immediate instinct was to celebrate what proved to be the dagger takeaway. "I wish I would have just ran for the end zone because then I got like 300-some pounds landed on me, so that didn't feel great."

Overall, Love was affected by pressure on half his dropbacks, which marked his highest rate in a game in his career, topping the 47.8% pressure rate Minnesota achieved in Week 12 last season. In the second half Sunday, he took four sacks and threw a pick vs. the blitz.

The interception was recorded by new veteran cornerback James Pierre, but first Cash' got his hand on it, and then it bounced off the chest of Harrison Smith before Pierre nabbed it.

It was poetic Smith had a role in a wild Week 1 victory to begin his 15th season with the franchise after a "whirlwind" first week back and a "bizarre" first day in the building for him.

"Being there was almost shocking in a way, and then once you get into the routine, you meet some new guys. Then just walking into the stadium, I'm like, this feels like home. So, you get the SKOL Chant on," Smith said in his 2-2 uniform. "It's almost like just an extension of, like, I feel like I wasn't gone for very long. I feel like we just played a couple weeks ago."

Nobody could speak to the momentum shifting better than "The Hitman."

"That's such a weapon, defensively. Even after the play, just like, you can feel the momentum. It's real. But to experience it is so fun, it's just, it's why game day is so special, especially at home, because of the energy," said Smith, noting he really noticed the seismic shift in momentum that important plays create in 2020 when stadiums were mostly or completely empty.

"When the crowd was gone and big plays happened," he said. "They matter the same in the game, but the momentum and the energy was not the same. And there is something real to that. I don't know how you quantify it, but it's real. And that goes the same at away games, like deafening, complete silence. All you hear is your side. That's why this game is so great."

"When you get up, you get a lead and you hear that crowd, that energy there's nothing like it when you can just pin your ears back and just get after the quarterback," Gink' exclaimed with a smile sweet as a 17-point win. "When you start feeling that momentum, you want nothing but to give everything you've got to go get the quarterback, and anytime you can get a hit on [him] it puts pressure on him and makes him think about it a little bit more."

The mind behind the mayhem, Flores, helped keep the unit composed. Although Love passed for 387 yards, he only clipped 50% of his throws, and Green Bay really struggled to execute on weighty downs, going 3-for-14 (3-for-12 on third downs; 0-for-2 on fourth downs) when it mattered most.

"[Flo'] always emphasized the mental fortitude, and mental toughness that we have to have as a team," said Turner, who finished with the speedy strip sack and a career-high seven hits on the quarterback in addition to tying Cashman with seven pressures in less than 2.5 seconds. "I felt like on both sides of the ball, we displayed that all four quarters."

Cashman captained the 60 minutes of fury with a "C" embroidered on his chest.

"It just seemed like the momentum kept stacking our way, and we were feeding off that energy. Our fans were bringing it, and obviously that puts a lot of stress on the offense," he said. "You see all these guys [showing] pressure Green Bay, Love, their offensive line, they know exactly what's about to happen. We know what's exactly going to happen. The crowd's being noisy. It creates a stressful environment, and when guys are stressed, it can, you know, make guys hesitate. And if we can create a hitch on defense, that's a win for us."

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