Jefferson opened the season with a return to the end zone, rewarding the Vikings for the opportunity

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Carson Wentz saw the flag fly for offside late in the second quarter, quickly realizing the opportunity.

With the Minnesota Vikings trying to generate some momentum against Green Bay and Justin Jefferson racing along the left sideline in one-on-one coverage, Wentz stepped forward in the pocket and looked right before pivoting toward his star wide receiver in the season opener last week.

The no-risk pass was perfectly placed in the back of the end zone for Jefferson to slide in front of rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse — after setting him up with a slight veer to the outside — and catch it in time to drag both feet down inbounds.

“A lot of guys will struggle in those moments with a late weave or things like that, because then you still have to track the ball and know where you are and get your feet down,” Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell said. “So much of that play was Justin’s greatness.”

Wentz had taken over for the injured Kyler Murray, who practiced again on a limited basis on Thursday, and wisely targeted Jefferson as frequently as possible as the Vikings rallied from a 12-point deficit late in the third quarter to overwhelm the Packers by scoring the final 29 points of the game.

“The guy’s so good. He’s the best in the world at what he does, and sometimes you’ve just got to give him a chance,” Wentz said. “When it goes his way he usually finds a way to come down with it.”

Jefferson had two touchdown catches, his first multi-score game since Week 16 of the 2024 season. He matched Randy Moss for second place on the franchise's all-time list for career receptions with 587, on a pace to catch leader Cris Carter (1,004) sometime during the 2030 season.

With 916 yards over the next 16 games, Jefferson would pass Torry Holt (9,487) for the most career yards in NFL history over a player's first seven years in the league.

Most important to Jefferson, of course, was the win over the Packers that helped the Vikings properly move forward from the frustrating 2025 season that saw their passing game lag badly during J.J. McCarthy's rocky debut at quarterback.

Second on his list? Reaching the end zone at U.S. Bank Stadium again. He had only two touchdowns last season, none at home, and hadn't done that since Week 15 of the 2024 season. His frequent appearances on the videoboard during the game against the Packers last week showed an especially fired-up player.

“The juices were flowing for sure," Jefferson said. "I was definitely ready. I felt like the team was ready. The energy was high. I love those type of games.”

Jefferson and the Vikings have moved on this week to focus on their game on Sunday at Chicago, but he had more questions to field from reporters about that 39-yard touchdown catch he made look rather routine.

“Instinct, hand-eye coordination, peripheral view, there’s a lot more that goes into it than people understand,” Jefferson said. “It’s really a lot more difficult than it looks, a 40-yard throw in the back of the end zone in a crowded stadium with a brown ball, sunlight coming through. There’s a lot of barricades that kind of get in the way of you being able to track that ball and to come down with it, but I focus and practice on it all the time.”

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Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson celebrates a defensive stop against the Green Bay Packers as he watches from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson gains yards after a catch during the second half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) catches a touchdown pass as Green Bay Packers cornerback Brandon Cisse (2) defends during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates after catching two-point conversion pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Syrian military official convicted of torturing prisoners during the rule of former President Bashar Assad has been sentenced to 60 years in a U.S. prison.

A federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced Samir Ousman Alsheikh on Thursday. A jury found him guilty in March of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture while in charge of Syria's infamous Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.

“The conduct was heinous, unimaginably cruel, and almost unspeakably violent and brutal,” the judge said before announcing the sentence.

Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families.

Prosecutors said Alsheikh, seeking to quash political dissent, sent certain prisoners to a wing of Adra where they were held in small isolation cells and tortured.

At the two-week trial, three victims recounted beatings while suspended from pipes on the ceiling and the use of a device that folded their bodies in half at the waist. One person testified that Alsheikh stomped on the device with his foot, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Defendant knew that what he was doing was wrong,” DOJ prosecutors said in a sentencing memo filed this month. “Nonetheless he ordered and participated in the torture of his victims because he had the power to do so and because he thought he would never be held accountable.”

The memo included statements from several victims, one of whom, Nidal Shikhani, said he can “still hear the screams of others begging for mercy, repeating, ‘Leave me, leave me.’”

The prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera for a minimum sentence of 80 years. Alsheikh's attorneys, Nina Marino and Collin Cate, have called for a five-year sentence, noting that he is 74 years old and has “significant medical and cognitive conditions.”

They also said he was willing to be deported to Syria, where a new government has sought to hold Assad-era security officials accountable.

“Whatever moral weight this case carries in the broader arc of history — however much the world, or the victims, or the public might wish the sentence to ‘send a message’ — that desire cannot be the foundation of a just sentence,” Marino and Cate wrote in their Sept. 3 memo.

Alsheikh came to the U.S. in 2020 and applied for citizenship, but prosecutors say he concealed his involvement in torture. Federal authorities detained him at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.

Jurors also convicted him in March of lying to U.S. immigration authorities and fraudulently obtaining a green card and attempting to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.

Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024, bringing a 14-year civil war to an end, but the country has continued to suffer from sporadic outbreaks of violence.

In March 2025, armed groups aligned with Assad ambushed the new government’s security forces on Syria’s coast. A government counteroffensive then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and the massacre of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs.

On Thursday, three people were sentenced in the Syrian city of Aleppo in connection with the violence. Two members of the pro-Assad groups were sentenced to death and life in prison, while a member of the security forces who took part in the revenge attacks was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

The exterior of the federal courthouse is seen March 27, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)