Longtime Vikings radio play-by-play broadcaster Paul Allen delivered another classic call during one of the pivotal moments of Minnesota's ugly 23-6 loss to the Packers on Sunday afternoon.
While trailing 10-6 at halftime, the Vikings talked about coming out of the locker room and beginning the third quarter with a stop, which they hoped would allow their offense to then generate some momentum. They delivered on the first part of that idea by forcing a couple negative Packers plays, which meant Green Bay had to send punter Daniel Whelan on the field.
But then disaster struck. Vikings rookie return specialist Myles Price stepped up and tried to let the punt go into the end zone. Unfortunately for him, the punt took a Packers bounce at around the 7, and Price — who was trying to block a Packers player — found himself too close to the bouncing football. He wound up making contact with the ball, and Green Bay emerged from the pile with a huge takeaway.
"Price ran in there and touched it!" Allen exclaimed on KFAN Radio. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"It all depends on who it touched first," said analyst Pete Bercich.
"Right, but why's Myles even by the ball?" Allen responded.
"I have no idea," Bercich said. "I mean the ball did take a weird bounce that way, but when you are going to let it hit the ground, you have to yell 'scatter, scatter, scatter' to those guys that are defending. 'Poison,' whatever you wanna call it, to get them out of the way."
"Green Bay ball," Allen said when the officials made the ruling. "That's ridiculous. I mean this is so ridiculous. Seriously? After the special teams L on Devin Duvernay last game. Price lets it fly over his head, and then for whatever reason decides to run back by the ball."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"@PAOnTheMic was all of us after that Vikings muffed punt.#iHeartRadio pic.twitter.com/GKTD2Czo3j
— KFAN1003 (@KFAN1003) November 23, 2025
"Oh, mistake you cannot make!" Joe Davis said on the FOX TV broadcast. "What in the world was he doing?"
DANNY BIG BOOM
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/4eruaeXRBF
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 23, 2025
Two plays later, the Packers got their second short touchdown run by Emanuel Wilson to take a 17-6 lead. That forced the Vikings to try to play from behind, which...well, if you watched the game, you know how that went. J.J. McCarthy took four sacks and threw two interceptions in a second half where the Vikings recorded a total net yardage of negative 1. Davis called it "one of the worst halves of football I've ever watched."
Special teams mistakes have been a major problem for the Vikings this season, and especially during their current three-game losing streak. Last week, it was Duvernay's long kick return that set up the Bears' game-winning field goal. The week before that, it was Price losing a fumble early in the third quarter that led to a Ravens touchdown. All three of those were massive plays that contributed to a loss.
"We've got some rookies part of that phase where, to a certain extent, you kinda know there's gonna be some variance to that," head coach Kevin O'Connell said. "But at the same time, it's just what are we doing as coaches to emphasize how to play smart football as the starting point.
"On that play, I know what Myles is trying to do, he's trying to fair catch and then see if he can get a piece of the gunner to try to help the ball have time to get in the end zone. But first and foremost, we've gotta be able to make the initial play, which was the decision not to catch that ball, and then we've gotta get all Minnesota Vikings away from it. If they end up downing it down in there tight, then it's on the offense to try to sustain a drive and at least flip the field, field position-wise."
Price, an undrafted rookie out of Indiana, has done some impressive things in the return phase this season. However, that's now two critical mistakes by him that have made things a lot harder for the Vikings in their losses to the Ravens and Packers. Price has four total fumbles this season, losing three of them.
The only silver lining of Sunday's calamitous play is that is led to the latest great call from Allen.