OK, there’s some poetic license in the headline, since by now the Vikings have returned to the Twin Cities to sip the bitter grog that is the aftermath of a nationally televised 45–7 thumping by the Packers.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune succinctly wrote: “Rodgers, Packers humiliate Vikings”:

Life at the top of the NFL must be nice. For at the bottom of the NFC North, the Vikings continue to experience all the agonizing headaches of a below-average team with so many flaws it’s hard to know which to correct first.

On the big stage of “Monday Night Football,” the Vikings sure seemed like the disconcerted neighbor, soaked in oil and trying to fix a faulty engine and a damaged carburetor on a 1987 Cutlass Ciera.

The Packers? They stood in their driveway applying another coat of wax to their sleek Aston Martin.

I’d disagree with the Aston Martin metaphor. (The Ciera might be available from Jerry Lundegaard once he gets out of prison.) A better metaphor would be a Ford F-Series pickup with a diesel engine computer-chip-modified to produce more than 500 horsepower … in green and gold, of course.

A similar theme comes from the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

The Vikings reaffirmed that their rhetoric is punchier than their play. All the talk about rejuvenation following a road victory at Carolina and a well-timed bye rang hollow as Minnesota mastered the role of patsy in Green Bay’s march toward perfection.

Untimely and undisciplined penalties helped doom the Vikings, who were flagged 10 times for 80 yards. They also were manhandled physically on both sides of the ball. …

Progress was impossible to mine from this disaster. Coach Leslie Frazier will be challenged to pull out of a potential death spiral and rally his team for seven more games, including five against legitimate playoff contenders.

The Strib’s Jim Souhan pours it on:

There are times in sports when you have to, as athletes like to say, tip your cap; when you get beat by a superior performance.

This was not one of those times.

The Packers are a great team. They needed only be competent on Monday night to destroy the confused and inept Vikings.

Green Bay’s 45-7 victory at Lambeau Field, which set a record for margin of victory in this rivalry, was more a product of Viking ineptitude than Packer supremacy.

“Disgusting,” Jared Allen said.

“Atrocious,” Visanthe Shiancoe said.

“Obviously the way we played in the second half showed the gap between our teams,” coach Leslie Frazier said.

Fifty-one weeks ago, the Vikings lost 31-3 to the Packers at the Metrodome, and Brad Childress got fired. Monday’s loss won’t prove as transforming, but it was every bit as embarrassing.

Tom Pelissero of 1500 ESPN adds:

Lifeless would be a kind assessment of this 60-minute sleepwalk. From the moment Randall Cobb caught a crease and raced 80 yards for a touchdown 1:18 in, the Vikings’ sideline was a morgue and their execution a mess.

They couldn’t throw against one of the NFL’s worst pass defenses. They couldn’t disturb the Packers’ stellar passing attack. They took 10 penalties. They embarrassed themselves in all three phases on a stage that should have given them every reason to at least show up. …

This is the sort of loss — the most lopsided in 102 all-time matchups between these division rivals — that commands questions about whether a team that played for a conference title two years ago might need two years or more just to compete for a playoff berth again.

So far this morning there is nothing from Paul Allen, the Vikings’ announcer (if that’s what you want to call the guy paid to scream at the team he’s covering on the air). I notice, though, that his Web page claims he’s married to ‘Nagzilla.” Which means he lacks personal class in addition to being a terrible announcer.

It certainly seems that the Vikings’ new stadium push won’t get any help from the players, as happened when the Seattle Mariners’ first playoff visit coincided with a push to replace the Kingdome. Which makes you think, again, that Los Angeles is about to swipe another team from the Twin Cities.