The 4-2 Minnesota Vikings visited the 2-2-1 Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon. Minnesota was riding high from 18-point wins in their last two games, while the Lions were nursing a grudge from their bitter loss to the Packers on Monday night (largely due to bad officiating). By the end of the game, tempers were flaring along the line of scrimmage and there was a lot of pushing and shoving during the Vikings’ “victory formation” snaps, finally drawing a 15-yard penalty on the Lions.

Detroit Lions kicking off against the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field, 23 December 2018. Minnesota won 27–9.
Photo by Michael Barera via Wikimedia Commons.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins had another very good game, both statistically and also by the non-statistic “eye test” fan evaluation, with 24 completions on 34 passing attempts for 337 yards and a passer rating of 141.4. Adam Thielen caught the first of four Cousins TD passes, but was injured on the reception and did not return to the game. Other TD receptions were by Bisi Johnson, C.J. Ham, and Kyle Rudolph (all three were the first TD of the season for each player). Dalvin Cook had his fifth 100+ yard rushing game of the season with two touchdowns. Defensive ends Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen each got a sack on Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, although each was also penalized during the game. The Vikings’ secondary did not have a great day overall, giving up a season-high 30 points, and the corners seemed vulnerable to Stafford’s long passes too often.

As Matthew Coller points out, the Vikings appear to have found ways to get their tight ends involved after several weeks in the witness protection program:

The Vikings’ aim when they drafted Irv Smith in the second round was to create mismatches using him and Kyle Rudolph on the field at the same time. Throughout the victory over the Lions, the Vikings found ways to create open space with play-action throws for the third straight week and Smith played a significant role in that, catching five passes for 60 yards with two of the receptions coming on a key drive in the second half that put the Vikings up 28-21.

The tight end position has historically been difficult for young players to adapt from college to the NFL but Smith has become a weapon in the passing and blocking game early in his first season. Rudolph, who hasn’t been a big part of the offense this year, stepped up with four catches for 43 yards, including several key third down receptions.

“That was important, that will be a big part of our offense,” Cousins said of the tight ends’ big day. “We have three tight ends on the field a lot, we ask them to protect, we ask them to run block, we ask them to run the entire route tree and I can’t say enough about the way all three of them contribute.”

In other good news, the offensive line also seems to be getting better on pass protection, which will definitely make Kirk Cousins a much happier quarterback:

Most importantly the O-line gave Cousins all sorts of time to throw the ball. He was rarely pressured throughout the day, finding big plays down the field and intermediate throws that kept the chains moving. The Vikings had touchdown drives of eight, 15 and 12 plays and a missed field goal drive of 11 plays.

When kept clean, Cousins is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Coming into the matchup with their NFC North foe, he ranked third best in QB rating on throws in which he was not pressured. In the Vikings two losses — at Green Bay and at Chicago — he was under duress for most of the game and it appeared to have a cumulative effect.

On Sunday the confidence in the Vikings offensive line was obvious. Rookie playcaller Kevin Stefanski, who drew up another explosive gameplan, elected to have Cousins drop back and launch the ball to Diggs with just over two minutes remaining and the Vikings up by five points. The O-line gave Cousins a completely clean pocket and his high-arching throw came down in Diggs’ hands to put the game on ice.

“There was no safety help, that corner had to defend Diggs 53 yards across the field and 80 yards deep and we just felt like we don’t want to punt back to them and give them a chance to die or win this game so lets take advantage of the fact that they are going to load the box and call a play that puts Diggsy in a position to get open and he did a great job,” Cousins said.

Update: At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover provides his traditional post-game Stock Market Report on the Vikings.

Buy: Olabisi Johnson was very good in place of Adam Thielen. It’s really hard to come in and take over for a guy that’s close to becoming a Vikings icon. But after Thielen went out after his 25 yard touchdown catch, his only catch of the game, Johnson stepped in and played well. he didn’t drop any passes, averaged 10 yards a catch, and had a big touchdown when the game was still in doubt.

Sell: Johnson is a long term answer to Thielen. Still, Thielen is a big part of this offense, and him out for any extended time is going to be tough for this offense to absorb. WR depth was an issue heading in to the season, and if this turns out to be a serious deal, you could make an argument that the Vikings might want to make a trade before the deadline next week. Still early to hit that panic button, but WR depth may need to be addressed.

Buy: Kirk has had three great games in a row. We’ve already documented how good Cousins has been the last three games. It’s flat out undeniable. Unless you work for Pravda, comrade.

Sell: All the questions surrounding Kirk have been answered. Still, I’m sure it’s not good enough for some people. Like I mentioned in the intro, folks who think this is a fluke will say Kirk and the Vikings haven’t beaten anyone in this three game roll, and will move the goalposts until whatever inane argument they’re making works. There’s still nine games to go, yes, and there’s a lot of football left to be played, but this team is clicking right now, and they’re going to be formidable as we move to the second half of the season.

Buy: The Vikings defense had a bad day. The Lions were 6-11 on third down, amassed over 400 yards of offense, and were 4-4 in the red zone. If you look at those numbers in a vacuum, you might think the Vikings not only lost, but lost badly.

Sell: The offense couldn’t bail out the defense. But they actually kicked the hell out of the Lions, thanks to the offense. One of the more notable things about the Kirk Cousins era has been when the offense has a good day, it wasn’t quite good enough, as the defense had a particularly awful one and the Vikes would end up losing. Today, the Vikes defense had a really bad day … and the offense picked them up and carried them. Minnesota went down 7-0, 14-7, and then after taking a 21-14 lead, Detroit tied it up at 21. From there, the defense was finally able to get off the field, and the offense took control of the game. Cousins threw for over 300, Cook ran for over 140, the Vikes rolled with over 500 yards of offense and had no trouble doing whatever they wanted.

Buy: Stefon Diggs saved the season after the Bears game. I am going to go to my grave believing that after Diggs spoke up (and Thielen, for that matter) about his frustrations over the offense, there was a come to Jesus meeting between Vikings ownership/management to the Vikings coaches/players. I don’t know if ownership was involved; maybe a players only meeting, or just the coaches to the players, but something went down. And in the aftermath this team has clicked, and it wasn’t just because of who their competition has been the last three weeks. This is a completely different team than what we saw take the field in Chicago, and I honestly don’t care who said what to whom and whether or not there had to be multiple hurt feelings reports filed, I’m just glad this team is living up to their potential right now.

Sell: There is no sell. That’s it. Diggs saved the season. Sorry, he did. Bitch all you want about him being selfish, or a whiner, or a prima donna. He’s not, and him speaking up was the catalyst for this turn around. Wait, maybe he is a selfish guy. Let’s check and see:

“SAM FROM ST LOUIS PARK I THINK DIGGS PLAYING CATCH WITH FANS IS HIS WAY OF SAYING HE WANTS ANYONE THROWING TO HIM BUT COUSINS THANKS I’LL HANG UP AND LISTEN.” — Some rube on talk radio after the game who’s still butthurt about Diggs three weeks ago, probably.