There were a lot of doubters (ahem) about the Vikings getting the ship back on course after the team’s struggles in the first four games, but going to Philadelphia and beating the defending champions on their own field is a nice sign that they’re making the right adjustments. Back from his African safari, the Daily Norseman‘s Ted Glover offers his post-game Stock Market Report:
It’s not the end. It’s certainly not the beginning of the end. Perhaps it’s the end of the beginning.
It’s tough to call the fifth game of the season a must win game, but that’s exactly what the Minnesota Vikings were facing in Philadelphia Sunday. A porous defense and a one dimensional offense had the Vikings looking into the abyss of one win in five games with a loss, and a shot at the playoffs would have seemed like a pipe dream.
But the Vikings would not go gentle into the good night. They planted their flag and made a stand, and quite possibly saved their season with an inspired 23-21 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on the road.
And no Stock Market Report is complete without the Buy/Sell recommendations…
Buy/Sell:
Buy: Rashod Hill, LT. I thought Hill played pretty well on the left side on Sunday. I don’t remember Kirk Cousins getting a lot of pressure from his blind side once Hill took over for Reiff, and I thought he played a pretty clean game.
Sell: Rashod Hill, RT. Brian O’Neill played much better than Hill did on the right side yesterday, though. In fact, it seems to me that O’Neill has outplayed Hill whenever he’s been put in to the lineup, and I’d like to see him start.
Buy: The running game was good enough today. 23 carries for 77 yards total isn’t great, but the Vikings stuck with the running game for four quarters instead of abandoning it early or ignoring it completely, and it paid off in the fourth quarter. There’s still a lot of work to do to get better, but it felt that the Vikings took a step in the right direction against Philly.
Sell: The running game issues are solved. The Vikings still can’t run the ball effectively though. Murray is the team’s leading rusher, with a paltry 106 yards and a YPC average of 3.5. I don’t know if o-line changes are in order, but I’d look at putting Hill at LT until Reiff is healthy, I’d swap out Brett Jones for Compton, and I’d put O’Neill at RT. Maybe that will help things out, maybe it won’t, but the Vikings need to do something to try and get the running game untracked.
Buy: Dan Bailey’s 52 yard field goal was clutch. That fourth quarter drive to seal the game was something the Vikings got really good at last year. They had a slim lead, but were able to run the clock down, get some points, and seal the game. They started from their 11 after the defense forced a punt on the Thomas fumble, and ate up over six minutes of game clock by effectively running and throwing the ball. It culminated with Bailey nailing a 52 yard field goal, right down the middle. Ball game.
Sell: The rest of Dan Bailey’s game was clutch. Yeah, I guess kickers missing kicks are just going to be part of this team from now on, though. He hit three field goals, but doinked a 28 yarder off the left upright on the first drive of the game, and went wide right from 48. Both misses were in the first half, and if he makes one of those, the 52 yarder isn’t necessary. I really am getting tired of the kicking issues with this team, and I’d like just one guy to come in and stop the bleeding. And if the second most accurate kicker in NFL history can’t fix this issue, who can?
In a separate post, Ted also pointed out just how well the new Kirk Cousins-to-Adam Thielen connection is working out:
On Sunday, Thielen and Cousins set a couple records, and they’re unique ones in NFL history. First up, Thielen:
Adam Thielen is first WR in Super Bowl era to record 100+ receiving yards in team's first 5 games of season. #MINvsPHI
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) October 7, 2018
I can’t get over what an incredible statistic that is. Why? Let’s do a little background. Starting in the 1980’s, the NFL really shifted the rules to open up the passing game, and the best wide receivers to ever play the game have mostly come from this modern era where passing is the norm—Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens, to just name a few.
Coming into the season, Thielen was considered one of the better wide receivers in the league, but it was genreally thought Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, Jr., Michael Thomas, and DeAndre Hopkins were better. Heck, you could even make an argument (and you still can) that Thielen wasn’t even the best WR on the Vikings, because Stefon Diggs is every bit as capable as any of the other aforementioned contemporaries.
And none of them were able to accomplish what Thielen did on Sunday, with his fifth straight 100+ yard receiving game. Only Adam Thielen has done that, and it’s the first time anyone has done it since 1961…which ironically was the inagural season for the Vikings.
Thielen also has more receiving yards after five games than any other player in Vikings history:
#Vikings WR Adam Thielen now has the most receiving yards in #Vikings history through the opening 5 games.
1. Adam Thielen, 583 yards, 2018
2. Randy Moss, 515 yards, 2003
3. Gene Washington, 493, 1969— Vikings PR (@VikingsPR) October 7, 2018
But Thielen wouldn’t be doing all this without Kirk Cousins. On Sunday against the Eagles, Cousins set an NFL record of his own:
Today, Kirk Cousins became the first QB in NFL history to complete 30 or more passes in 4 consecutive games. Congratulate him on the feat! @KirkCousins8 #vikings
— VikeFans (@VikeFans) October 8, 2018
That’s a statistic that’s almost as incredible as Thielen’s record, especially since you can’t really hit the quarterback anymore, and passing is now the norm in the NFL. Cousins has also thrown for 400 yards twice this season. The last Vikings QB to do twice in one season was Daunte Culpepper in 2004, and the only other time that has happened in team history was in 1994, when Warren Moon did it. No QB in Vikings history has done it three times in one season, although Tommy Kramer threw for more than 400 yards four times in his career (1980, ‘81, ‘85 ‘86),
The last Vikings QB to throw for 400 yards in a game was Brett Favre in 2010, and it’s a feat that’s only been accomplished 13 times in team history.
