Report: Vikings to face Packers on New Year’s Day, Bears in Week 18

We’ve gotten what appears to be another pair of leaks for the Minnesota Vikings’ 2022 schedule, and fans of the purple apparently need to prepare for another late-season trip to Lambeau Field as well as something we’ve seen a lot in recent Vikings’ history.

Numerous sources have reported that the Vikings will travel four hours (or so) to the east to face the Green Bay Packers on New Year’s Day, which is Week 17 on the NFL calendar.

If this is the case, it will be the second season in a row that the Vikings will play their second-to-last game in Green Bay. This past season, the Vikings saw their slim playoff hopes disappear at Lambeau as the Sean Mannion-led offense couldn’t muster a touchdown until the final play of the third quarter in a 37-10 loss.

In addition, according to one source, the Week 18 all-divisional matchups will feature the Packers taking on the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field. If that holds true, it means the Vikings will. . .once again. . .be facing the Chicago Bears in the final regular-season game. If the game is at U.S. Bank Stadium, it will continue the incredibly weird pattern that has seen the final regular-season game at U.S. Bank Stadium in each season of its existence feature the Bears.

• 2016, Week 17: Vikings 38, Bears 10
• 2017, Week 17: Vikings 23, Bears 10 (Vikings clinch #2 seed in NFC)
• 2018, Week 17: Bears 24, Vikings 10 (Vikings infamously lose “win and in” game against Bears team with nothing to play for)
• 2019, Week 17: Bears 21, Vikings 19 (Vikings benched starters as they were locked into the #6 seed in the NFC playoffs)
• 2020, Week 15: Bears 33, Vikings 27 (This was a Week 15 game, but the Vikings’ final home game that year as their last two games were on the road)
• 2021, Week 18: Vikings 31, Bears 17

The Vikings closed the 2014 season out against the Bears at TCF Bank Stadium as well, so this could potentially be seven years in a row and eight out of the last nine years where the Bears are the Vikings’ final home game of the season. The lone break in the pattern was in 2015, when the Vikings played the last game of the season at Lambeau Field, beating the Packers to clinch the NFC North.

We’ll have the entire schedule for you tomorrow no later than 7:00 PM Central time, ladies and gentlemen. By that point, all of the blanks will be filled in.