Quotulatiousness

January 6, 2020

Vikings upset New Orleans Saints 26-20 in wildcard round

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

The Minnesota Vikings visited the home stadium of the NFC’s #3 seed the New Orleans Saints for a wildcard game as heavy underdogs. The game started poorly for Minnesota, as wide receiver Adam Thielen fumbled a reception and the Saints recovered deep in Vikings territory. The Vikings held New Orleans out of the end zone and forced the Saints to settle for a field goal to open the scoring. The Vikings responded with a field goal drive of their own to end the first quarter with the score tied 3-3.

In the second quarter, Minnesota punter Britton Colquitt finally did something he hadn’t done all season long — punted the ball into the opposing team’s end zone for a touchback. While the Vikings seemed to have figured out how to defend against future hall of famer Drew Brees at quarterback, they were left without many answers when the Saints used tight end/quarterback/gadget player Taysom Hill under centre instead, and he started with a long pass to Deonte Harris to put the ball inside the Vikings’ 5-yard line. He then threw a block to free running back Alvin Kamara for the go-ahead score. The Vikings responded with a drive capped with a Dan Bailey field goal to stay within one score. On the following Saints drive, Brees had a long pass picked off by safety Anthony Harris and the Vikings turned that into a touchdown on a five-yard run by Dalvin Cook.

In the third quarter, the Vikings added a touchdown on a drive that featured long passes from Kirk Cousins to Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, capped off with another Dalvin Cook rushing TD.

The Saints got back into contention in the fourth, leading to a tied score at the end of regulation. The Vikings won the toss and elected to receive the kickoff to start overtime and drove down the field, scoring the winning touchdown on a Kirk Cousins to Kyle Rudolph corner of the endzone pass. Minnesota advances to the divisional round of the playoffs to face San Francisco next weekend.

Andy Carlson offers his winners and LOOOHOOOOHOOOOOSERS for the game:

At the Pioneer Press, Chris Tomasson says Kirk Cousins has answered his critics:

Enough of the talk that Kirk Cousins doesn’t step up in big games.

In the biggest game of his life on Sunday, the Vikings quarterback rose to the occasion when it mattered most.

Cousins led the Vikings to a 26-20 overtime victory over New Orleans in a wild-card playoff game at the Superdome with a decisive nine-play, 75-yard drive to open the extra session. The Saints never got the ball in overtime, and all future hall of fame quarterback Drew Brees could do was watch Cousins in action.

Cousins showed Brees-like poise in overtime, completing 4 of 5 passes for 63 yards. The Vikings won it on Cousins’ 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Rudolph with 10:40 remaining.

“He got the game ball in the locker room,” Rudolph said. “He deserves it. All we’ve heard is Kirk Cousins this, Kirk Cousins that. Playoff games, big games on the road, so much nonsense. It takes 10 other guys on offense, and I said that all year long, and (Sunday) 10 other guys stepped up huge to allow Kirk to go out there and play well.”

Among the stats attached to him, Cousins has a career 0-9 record as a starter on Monday Night Football. His latest loss was 23-10 to Green Bay at home on Dec. 23, his last action until Sunday since he sat out the meaningless Dec. 29 regular season finale against Chicago.

Against the Saints, Cousins completed 19 of 31 passes for 242 yards and a touchdown as the Vikings advance to Saturday’s divisional playoff game at San Francisco. In overtime, he hit Adam Thielen with a 43-yard pass down the right sideline to the Saints 2 before Rudolph scored three plays later.

It was the first playoff win for Cousins in his eight-year NFL career, the first six with Washington. With the Redskins, he got into one playoff game as a reserve as a rookie in 2012 and another as starter in 2015.

At SKOR North, Judd Zulgad explains the impact Dalvin Cook had in the first half:

Dalvin Cook got only one carry on the Vikings’ opening series of their playoff game Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, but it was an important one. After missing two games because of a shoulder injury, Cook took a handoff from quarterback Kirk Cousins and gained 9 yards to make it second-and-1 at the Minnesota 39-yard line.

Wide receiver Adam Thielen’s fumble on the ensuing play turned over the ball to the Saints, but Cook’s initial carry provided optimism that one of the Vikings’ biggest offensive weapons was back. Cook would carry the ball four times for 16 yards on the Vikings’ next possession that ended with Dan Bailey’s 43-yard field goal that tied the score at 3.

The Saints’ defense knew at that point that one of the top running backs in the NFL, at least when healthy, was going to be a handful and had to be a focus of their attention. That was good news for everyone in purple, especially quarterback Kirk Cousins and play-caller Kevin Stefanski. It also was an important part of the reason the Vikings were able to depart the Superdome with a 26-20 overtime victory that set up a second-round meeting against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday in Santa Clara, Calif.

“I’m excited. We won our first playoff game, I won my first playoff game and there are some guys in the locker room that won their first playoff game,” Cook said when asked about his emotions. “It’s big for the organization. I just want to do everything my team needs me to do and do it at a high level. We’ve got some guys in that huddle where when they’re locked in, we can play some good football.”

Cook played his best football in the first half, rushing for 84 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown and catching one pass for 19 yards. The touchdown came on a 5-yard run with 27 seconds remaining in the second quarter that gave the Vikings a 13-10 lead and followed safety Anthony Harris’ interception of a Drew Brees pass.

Cook also had the first touchdown of the second half, scoring on a 1-yard run to give the Vikings a 10-point lead, but the Saints slowed him in the final two-plus quarters. Cook had only 10 total rushing yards on 12 carries (in part because of a couple of plays that lost yardage) and caught two passes for 17 yards. But Cook played a big role in overtime, gaining 11 yards on a carry before Cousins completed a 43-yard pass to Thielen at the Saints 2 that set up the winning touchdown.

Paul Allen and Ben Leber have tried, manfully, to keep their exultation down to a dull roar in their “Between the Lines” post-game show:

At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover gives us his Stock Market Report on the Saints game:

Junk Bonds
No one. Seriously? You want me to be “that guy” today? Sorry, I don’t have takes that hot. Let’s enjoy one of the biggest wins in franchise history, and focus on the 49ers starting tomorrow.

Buy/Sell
Buy: There was contact on the Rudolph touchdown. Hi, welcome to the NFL, both players were jockeying for position. If you want to say there was a foul on Rudolph there, you could just as easily say there was defensive holding while Rudy was still on his route. Honestly, I thought that although there were a few bad calls in the game, they weren’t tilted to favor one team or the other. For all the complaining we rightfully make about NFL officiating, I thought the ref crew did a good job and let the players play.

Sell: It was offensive pass interference. Just shut up with that weak ass sauce. Like I said above, if you call PI on Rudolph, you HAVE to call either defensive holding or PI on the linebacker covering him, because you can make a strong argument Rudolph was creating separation because he wasn’t allowed a clean break on his route by the defender.

Buy: Stefon Diggs, wide receiver. Loved the passion Diggs had on the sideline, and it seemed weird that the Vikings didn’t look his way more today.

Sell: Stefon Diggs, running back. But…you know, let’s not look at him as a running back. That play never feels like it’s going to work…and it didn’t again today.

Buy: The Saints season is over. I can’t tell you how much pure, unadulterated joy it gives me knowing that smug jackass Sean Payton had his season end three years in a row, in heartbreaking fashion, and two of those came at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings.

Sell: The Vikings season is over. It is far from over. The Vikes showed a ton of fight today and punched the Saints in the mouth while punching their ticket to San Francisco. The 49ers present another huge challenge, but if the Vikes can continue this kind of play, they’re going to be a tough out.

Quote of the Week
My wife doesn’t watch a lot of sports. She’s not a big football fan, but she’s sympathetic to my plight as a Vikings fan. Today, for some reason, she decided to sit and watch the game with me. There were the usual twists and turns, the peaks and valleys, and when it looked like Dalvin Cook had fumbled and the Saints returned it for a TD (which was overturned), she looked at me and said “I can’t take this” and went upstairs.

Two minutes later, when she realized it wasn’t a fumble, she was back, watching the game, all the way to the end. When it was over, she turned to me and said:

“Honey, why do you put yourself through this every week? I don’t know how you do it.”

Me either, baby. Me either.

So, Vikes win and we’re on to San Francisco. Let’s do it all again next week.

December 16, 2019

Minnesota Vikings defeat Los Angeles Chargers 39-10 in turnover-fest

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The 9-4 Vikings headed to the west coast for a game against the San Diego Chargers at (I kid you not) Dignity Health Sports Park (I realize that naming rights can be lucrative, but that moniker hardly rolls off the tongue, does it?). It’s a very small stadium (less than 26,000 seats), and visiting teams have often had nearly as many of their fans attend games in Los Angeles as the Chargers manage. You could say that the Chargers don’t really play any home games, based on fan support at the stadium.

The first quarter was relatively uneventful, but the end of the second quarter more than made up for that lack of excitement, as both teams notched interceptions and then the Chargers lost the ball on a pass attempt that was picked up by Vikings backup defensive tackle Ifeadi Odenigbo and run back for a touchdown. Up to that point, the Chargers were looking to take the lead on a strong passing game (with Xavier Rhodes out, Mike Hughes was matched up against a taller receiver (Mike Williams at 6’3″) and Philip Rivers was able to get passes over Hughes for consistent early gains). Matthew Coller:

To open the second quarter, future Hall of Fame quarterback Philip Rivers put on a clinic in anticipation and accuracy, hitting receivers all over the field and converting third down after third down on a 10-play, 75-yard drive to put the Chargers up 10-9.

Along the way, Rivers hit Keenan Allen for 19 yards on third-and-7, and then Allen again for 14 on third-and-8 and delivered a beautiful ball to running back Austin Ekeler for a 27-yard wheel route. The drive was capped off on a fade to 6-foot-3 Mike Williams, who jumped over cornerback Mike Hughes for a touchdown.

At that point you would have put your money on a shootout — maybe one that favored the future Hall of Famer.

But the next three Chargers drives would prove the game to be exactly the opposite — partly because of their own wild incompetence but equally because of the Vikings’ pure talent on defense.

Over the past three-and-a-half months we have not seen the type of stingy defense that the Vikings have normally brought to the table under Mike Zimmer especially against the pass but they still have Pro Bowlers and record setters on the defensive side along with some players who have been developing for a few years. All of them showed up and defined Sunday’s win.

After the Vikings took back the lead with a field goal, Rivers felt like his hot streak on third down would continue. He flung a ball up in the air on third-and-17 and Harrison Smith jumped in for his 23rd career interception.

Giving the offense the ball near mid-field gave the Vikings a shot at picking up a two-score lead but instead Kirk Cousins threw an interception on a screen pass, putting the Chargers in a spot to take back the lead with under a minute remaining in the first half.

An LA touchdown would have been huge considering they were set to get the ball back to start the second half. That’s when Danielle Hunter — who is making his case for defensive MVP — slapped the ball out of Rivers’ hands. It was picked up by improving young D-linemen Ifeadi Odenigbo, who used Hunter as a lead blocker to take the ball back 56 yards for a touchdown.

Early in the third quarter, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook re-aggravated the shoulder injury he’d been nursing for the last few weeks and was declared out for the rest of the game. Backup Alexander Mattison was inactive with an ankle injury, so running back duties devolved to Mike Boone, Ameer Abdullah, and C.J. Ham, who were certainly up to the task — Boone scored his first and second NFL touchdowns. Overall, the teams were far better matched than the final score indicated, but no team can win when you turn the ball over as often as San Diego Los Angeles did (seven … which is six more than the Vikings gave up).

At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover describes it as not so much a game as a “MurderDeathKill”:

When the Minnesota Vikings took the field against the Los Angeles Chargers, they knew that any realistic hope of winning the NFC North was all but gone, as the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears 21-13. They still controlled their playoff destiny with the sixth seed, but to ensure a playoff spot they needed to keep winning and keep one game clear of the other Los Angeles team, the Rams.

While the Vikings were taking care of business in Los Angeles, the other LA team was getting their collective ass handed to them by Dallas…

With the win, the Vikings move to 10-4 on the year and hold on to the sixth seed in the NFC. Combined with the Rams losing big to the Cowboys (they were down 34-7 in the fourth quarter at the time of this writing), Minnesota moves to the cusp of securing a playoff spot, as they would lead the Rams by two games with two to play, if that score holds up. A Minnesota win or a Los Angeles loss gives the Vikings the sixth seed, and they still have an outside chance at the NFC North with the Packers coming to town next week. The Rams will head to San Francisco.

In the longer-term view, we may have our future defensive co-ordinator picked out:

Andy Carlson offers his list of the game’s winners and looo-hooo-hooo-sers:

November 10, 2019

Minnesota Vikings 28, Dallas Cowboys 24

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 23:59

On Sunday night — in prime time, Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Kirk Cousins’ least successful time to play — the 6-3 Vikings visited Dallas to play the 5-3 Cowboys. Both teams depend on their star running backs — Minnesota’s league-leading Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliot for the Cowboys — to help move the chains and open up passing opportunities by forcing the defence to focus on stopping the run. The team that managed to force the issue was likely to end up on the winning side of the equation, and that team turned out to be the Vikings. Dalvin Cook was bottled up for a while, but ended up with 97 yards on the ground and 86 receiving yards. Elliot was held to 47 yards rushing and 16 yards in the air.

Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium) on 1 October, 2009.
Photo by bobbyh_80 via Wikimedia Commons.

Coming into the game, both teams were facing reputations for “not beating anyone” despite their respective records. While the Vikings have struggled against teams with a winning record (and Kirk Cousins had a 1-6 record against the Cowboys from his time in Washington), the same could be said of Dallas:

In 2019, Dallas started the season 3-0, and the NFL torches came out right behind them. The Cowboys are always good for business.

This team hadn’t been 3-0 to start a season in over a decade. The Dallas Star Telegram even printed a history of the Cowboys Super Bowl victories after starting so quickly.

It was on again in Texas.

In reality, those three wins came against the now 2-7 New York Giants, the 1-8 Washington Redskins, and the 1-7 Miami Dolphins, a three-pack of tin cans if ever were packaged.

A month later, the again ascendant Cowboys, “America’s Team” refortified, were merely a .500 squad, having lost to the NFC South-leading New Orleans Saints, the NFC North-leading Green Bay Packers, and the AFC East bottom-dwelling New York Jets.

Yes, I said the New York Jets – a team with the now 31st-ranked offense and 25th defense in the league.

After that embarrassing loss in New York, the 3-3 Cowboys then took a bye week to prepare for a game against division rival Philadelphia Eagles in Dallas, licking their wounds and out of the fickle view of the press.

The Cowboys then bounced back – in pure tomato can fashion – by handing the Eagles their fourth loss in six games in AT&T Stadium and then traveling back to New York to give the lowly Giants their fifth consecutive defeat.

In short, both teams came into Sunday’s game needing a win to change “the narrative”.

In the early going, it looked like Minnesota was going to run away with the game, getting out to a 14-0 lead before Dallas could put together a scoring drive. Both first half touchdowns were passes to tight end Kyle Rudolph after solid running by both Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison. The first TD looked more like Cousins was just trying to throw the ball out of the end zone, but Rudolph made an amazing one-handed catch with both feet inbound for the score.

The second quarter wasn’t as picture-perfect for the Vikings, as Dallas scored twice to tie things up and Minnesota could only muster a field goal on the last possession of the half to go into the locker room at 17-14.

After the break, the Vikings got the ball first, but again were only able to get a Dan Bailey field goal to make the score 20-14, and the Cowboys did better with their next possession scoring a TD to take the lead for the first time in the game. On the Vikings next drive, Cook and Mattison again provided most of the yards, with Mattison almost scoring a rushing TD, but he was marked down inside the 1-yard line after review. Dalvin Cook did manage to get in from there, and then the Vikings elected for a two-point conversion attempt with Cousins getting the ball to Kyle Rudolph to put the Vikings ahead by 7.

In the fourth quarter, neither team could get a sustained drive going, and the only scoring was a Dallas field goal. In the last few minutes, the Cowboys got dangerously close to the Vikings end zone, but stalled out inside the 10-yard line and turned the ball over on downs. The Vikings final possession wasn’t pretty, but it forced the Cowboys to use all their time-outs before getting the ball back for a final chance. The game ended on a failed Hail Mary pass that was intercepted in the end zone by Jayron Kearse.

Update: Andy Carlson wraps up the game’s winners and losers on his post-game podcast:

I might quibble with a few of his choices, but I think he’s right that Mike “The Cornerback Whisperer” Zimmer needs to get his bag of magic tricks out and fix the secondary. The Cowboys should not have converted all those third-and-forever passes in the direction of Mike Hughes and Xavier Rhodes. Every team we face for the rest of the season will be dialling up plays to take advantage of our corners because they can’t seem to stop anyone.

Chris Tomasson compliments Kirk Cousins on getting the “can’t win in prime time” monkey off his back:

Say what you want about Kirk Cousins not being able to win big games on a national stage. He got one Sunday night.

The Vikings quarterback had a stellar showing in a 28-24 win over Dallas in a nationally televised game at AT&T Stadium.

It was easily Minnesota’s biggest win of the season. And it followed road losses earlier in the season at Green Bay, at Chicago (when the Bears were still good) and at Kansas City.

Cousins, in the second year of a three-year, $84 million contract, has had his share of struggles in prime-time games. He entered Sunday 1-7 in his career in such games against winning teams.

“I think I’ve played well in prime time,” Cousins said. “Have we won them all? No. But to get this one was a great step in the right direction. Hopefully, we can get a few more here. We need to get a few more before the season ends.”

Cousins completed 23 of 32 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns. He bounced back from the previous week, when he completed 19 of 38 passes in the 26-23 loss to the Chiefs, just the third time in first 82 career starts he had not completed more than 50 percent of his passes.

“I thought he played great,” said Vikings coach Mike Zimmer. “I thought he put the ball in the right place. He made some really good throws.”

And finally, Ted Glover’s Stock Market Report on the game, including the Junk Bonds section and his Buy/Sell recommendations:

Junk Bonds

Mike Hughes and the rest of the secondary. Amari Cooper and Randall Cobb (really, Randall Cobb??) made some great plays tonight, especially the 64 toe tap catches Cooper had. But … yeesh. The Cowboys carved up the Vikings secondary all night, as Dak Prescott had 397 yards passing, and both Cooper and Cobb went over 100 yards receiving. The Vikes did a great job of getting the Cowboys in third and long, but the Cowboys had four 3rd and 8 or longer plays in this game, and they converted all four of them. Minnesota had a good first quarter defensively, but couldn’t find an answer to what Dallas was dialing up for the rest of the night.

Buy/Sell

Buy: The Vikings first quarter. The Vikings started the game exactly the way they needed to. The defense stopped Dallas, and their first drive ended with Brett Maher missing a 57 yard field goal attempt. Minnesota answered by going 53 yards in five plays, and it was culminated by that crazy Rudolph catch to go up 7-0. After Dallas punted on their second drive, the Vikings went 90 yards in 13 plays, and once again Cousins found Rudolph for another one yard TD to go up 14-0.

Sell: The Vikings second quarter. But all of that slipped away in the second quarter. Minnesota’s offense stalled early in the quarter, and the Cowboys offense came to life. They scored two touchdowns, and evened the score at 14-14 with just under two minutes remaining in the half.

Buy: The two minute drive to end the half. But to Minnesota’s credit, they took the ball with 1:57 left in the half, drove the field, and stunted the momentum Dallas had built up with those two second quarter scoring drives. They took the ball down the field, in one of the better two minute drives the Vikings have had in recent years, and kicked a field goal to take the lead at 17-14 going in to the locker room.

Sell: Throwing to Irv Smith in the middle of the field with 10 seconds left in the first half. But it feels like the Vikes might have left points on the field before halftime. With 10 seconds left and the ball on the Dallas 15 with one timeout, Kirk Cousins threw a short pass over the middle to Irv Smith, Jr., for seven yards. It seemed inexplicable at the time, at least to me. The Vikes had one timeout, so it felt like there was time for two shots into the end zone, as it was second down. It seemed really important to get a touchdown there to thwart Dallas momentum, but it felt like the VIkings were content to settle for a field goal.

Buy: Opening up the second half with a scoring drive. Still, though, the Vikes took that scoring drive to end the first half and built on it coming out of the locker room. They took the opening kickoff and went 66 yards in 12 plays, culminated by a Dan Bailey field goal to take a 20-14 lead.

Sell: Giving up a scoring drive to lose the lead right after that scoring drive. But the Vikings defense couldn’t build on that. At that moment in the game, it really felt like if the Vikings defense could force a three and out they could blow the game open. The Dallas defense had been on the field for 12 plays, and a quick three and out would have put a tired defense back on the field, having to face a RB tandem in Cook and Alexander Mattison that seemed to be finding a bit of a groove. Dallas went 75 yards on five plays, and it culminated with a ridiculous Amari Cooper toe tap touchdown that gave Dallas a 21-20 lead.

Buy: Stonewalling Ezekiel Elliott. Minnesota came in to this game intent on not letting THE Ohio State legend Ezekiel Elliott beat them. And they succeeded in that. Zeke ended up with just 47 yards on 20 carries, couldn’t get untracked all night, and his longest run of the evening was only six yards.

Sell: Dak Prescott carving up the Vikings secondary like Dexter. But Zeke not being able to run didn’t really matter, as Dak Prescott had a whale of a game. He made some flat out sick throws to Amari Cooper, Randall Cobb, and Michael Gallup, who ended up with 76 yards and a TD. The Vikes had no answer for what the Cowboys were doing through the air, and the only time it seemed like the came up with a stop in the second half was the Jayron Kearse interception to end the game.

Buy: Football in the state of Minnesota this weekend. It was a great weekend for football in the state of Minnesota. On Saturday, the Golden Gophers upset fourth ranked Penn state and broke the top 10 for the first time since 1962. They control their own destiny to win the Big Ten West and advance to the Big Ten Championship game, and P.J. Fleck has made the Gophers relevant for one of the few times in my life. The Vikes beat Dallas on the road, advanced to 7-3, and have a really great shot to go to 8-3 heading into the bye. They have a lot of football left to play, and are still very much in the hunt for the NFC North title.

Sell: The season is over. For as good as this weekend was, neither the Vikings or Gophers have accomplished anything. Both teams have a lot of football left to play, and if they don’t stay focused, what could be special seasons for both could be rendered meaningless if they don’t keep their eye on the prize. Skol U mah, and let’s keep it going. Beat Iowa and bring Floyd home, and beat Denver.

October 25, 2019

Vikings defeat Washington 19-9 at US Bank Stadium

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

There wasn’t much excitement in advance of this Thursday night game between the 5-2 Minnesota Vikings and the 1-6 Washington Redskins, and the odds in Las Vegas had the Vikings as 17-point favourites. Thanks to a slow start, the Vikings didn’t come close to covering the spread, but did end up with a fairly comfortable win. A fumble by wide receiver Stefon Diggs gave Washington an early boost, but Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter strip-sacked Case Keenum (recovered by Shamar Stephen) that gave the ball back to Minnesota before the Redskins could capitalize.

Exterior of US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings by “www78”
“Viking Stadium” by www78 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Washington coaches have clearly been studying recent Vikings game film, as they seemed to concentrate on cornerback Xavier Rhodes for much of the first half, picking up yardage on passes and on penalties. Rhodes still seems to be unable to get back to his early career form.

Do you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when the talking heads on the TV start digging up stats on individual players? I did, when the Fox crew started complimenting Vikings right tackle Brian O’Neill for not having given up a sack so far in his NFL career … which, of course, he promptly did on that drive (Cousins was sacked twice in the span of three plays, which snuffed out a drive and the Vikings had to settle for a field goal attempt).

There was, however, a Dalvin Cook touchdown run on the night (the only TD by either team):

In addition to Cook’s rushing, backup Alexander Mattison did some great work … that unfortunately won’t show up on the stat sheets due to penalties wiping out his runs. He’s not as shifty as Cook, but he’s an excellent 1-2 combination with Cook and I’m delighted the Vikings have him on the roster.

Matthew Coller says the Vikings didn’t earn any style points in the win:

Over the past three weeks the Minnesota Vikings played a brand of football that looked like some of the best offenses in team history. They were video-game-numbers wins, the type that fans get a thrill out of watching. Thursday night’s 19-9 win over Washington did not fall into those categories.

On the Vikings’ first drive it appeared they might be in for another track meet when quarterback Kirk Cousins — who cleared 300 yards and a 135-plus quarterback rating in each of the last three games — found star receiver Stefon Diggs wide open in Washington’s secondary. But Diggs tried to cut back and escape defenders, which resulted in a fumble, his fourth of the season.

It appeared that Washington interim head coach Bill Callahan was well aware of the only way to stay in the game with the much more gifted Vikings: By slowing things down.

[…]

Keenum suffered a concussion in the first half when defensive tackle Linval Joseph slammed him to the ground forcing rookie Dwayne Haskins into the game. It wouldn’t take long for him to show exactly why Washington has been hesitant to play him.

After an aggressive decision by Mike Zimmer to go for a fourth-and-short failed late in the third quarter, Haskins overthrew an open receiver, which bounced directly into the hands of Anthony Harris, ruining Washington’s chances to tie the game and give themselves a shot at a stunning upset.

The Vikings took advantage, grinding out a field goal drive to put them up 19-9 with 11 minutes remaining. Haskins continued his struggles, taking a third down sack and the Vikings killed clock with Cook and Alexander Mattison. Of course the Vikings’ final drive wasn’t without penalties that drove them back to first-and-25. But Mattison closed things out with a 19-yard gain on third down that put things on ice.

Mixed into the game were a total of 11 penalties for 120 yards, six sacks, less than four yards per carry for the Vikings and few targets for receivers that went in anyone’s direction outside of Diggs.

Judd Zulgad on the performance of Kirk Cousins against the team that drafted him:

… there was one curiosity that existed when it came to this matchup. That would have been the fact Kirk Cousins was facing his former team — the franchise that never believed in him — in prime time. Gulp. You did not have to look very hard to find that Cousins was 5-13 in prime-time games.

This was the exact type of game in which Cousins would try to do too much and make a key mistake. Maybe it would be an ill-timed interception, or a goofy fumble on a sack or an overthrow on a deep pass to a wide open receiver. The absence of wide receiver Adam Thielen (hamstring) didn’t help matters.

“I’m going to talk to (Cousins) a little bit about some of those things,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said a few days back. “He needs to just focus on his job, focus on getting guys in the right place and doing what he’s supposed to do. There’s always some emotions when you’re playing a team that you went against.”

Cousins might have felt those emotions but he never let them against the best of him in the Vikings’ 19-9 victory over Washington. The Vikings’ fourth consecutive victory put them at 6-2. They could be tied with Green Bay atop the NFC North if the Packers lose on Sunday night in Kansas City.

Cousins wasn’t dynamic on Thursday but he didn’t need to be. What the Vikings needed was a solid game and Cousins provided exactly that. He completed 23 of 26 passes for 285 yards with no touchdowns, no interceptions and registered a passer rating of 112.3. Cousins’ 88.5 completion percentage was the highest in franchise history. It was Cousins’ 24th start with the Vikings and only the second time he has not thrown a touchdown. The first time came in the Vikings’ Week 4 loss at Chicago. That left Vikings fan infuriated. This time? Hey, Cousins won the game, right?

Update: At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover provides his usual post-game Stock Market Report:

Winning ugly is better than losing ugly

Coming into this game, the Minnesota Vikings had been on an historic run. QB Kirk Cousins set an NFL record with yards passing and passer rating over three games, the Vikes offense had been on a three game stretch that’s been more productive than at any other point in team history, and the 1-6 Washington Redskins were just supposed to be another bump in the road.

That bump almost turned into a pothole, as old friends Case Keenum and Adrian Peterson returned home wearing the colors of the opponent, and they gave the Vikings everything they could handle. But on an off night when things weren’t going the way things were supposed to, new friend Kirk Cousins played almost mistake free football, and the Vikings made enough big plays to get a win on night when they weren’t firing on all cylinders. […]

Solid Investments

Alexander Mattison, RB: Officially, Mattison had 61 yards on 13 carries, including a remarkable 28 yard run on third and 19 that daggered the Redskins. Unofficially, he had about 247* yards on 17 carries that were nullified due to penalties. Seriously, on that epic drive that ended the game, he had 30 yards on consecutive plays that were nullified by holding penalties. Mattison is making the folks that called him a mistake pick in the third round look foolish, and he is one of the most violent runners in the NFL.

*Maybe not that much, but it kinda seemed like it.

Kirk Cousins, QB: Tonight was bit of a weird game, and it’s kind of evidenced in Cousins’ statline: 23/26, 285 yards … and no touchdowns. But, he also had not interceptions, and no turnovers. Cousins and the Vikings did a really good job of moving the ball between the 20’s, but self destructed once they got in the red zone. Whether it was an inability to run, bad protection, or bad play calls, the Vikes were just not as efficient down there as they have been the last three weeks. But, on the flip side, Cousins played a solid game and didn’t make any mistakes, and when the Vikes did get within the shadow of the end zone, they did come away with points.

Junk Bonds

Xavier Rhodes, CB: It’s becoming more and more apparent that one of two things has happened to Xavier Rhodes: he is either playing hurt at a level that he probably shouldn’t be playing, or his skill set has diminished so much he is no longer feared by opposing teams. Tonight, Case Keenum and the Washington Redskins targeted Rhodes, and whoever he was covering they threw to, and Rhodes either allowed a completion, allowed a completion and missed a tackle, or was flagged for pass interference.

Pat Elflein, G: Elflein has had some rough games, but this might have been his worst. He was called for three holding penalties, one of which was in the red zone and one of which cancelled out a nice Mattison run. Washington was also able to generate a lot of pressure up the middle, and Elflein was a big reason for that. I still don’t know what Mike Zimmer has against Brett Jones, but I think we need to have a discussion about seeing what Jones could do. And as a Pat Elflein fan, it pains me to say that.

October 21, 2019

Minnesota Vikings 42, Detroit Lions 30

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

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.

September 30, 2019

Minnesota Vikings unable to handle the Chicago Bears at Soldier field, losing 16-6

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The visiting Minnesota Vikings wore their usual purple uniforms, as the Bears broke out one of their (many possible) throwback uniforms for Sunday’s NFC North match-up at Soldier Field. The inactive lists for both teams included valuable players not available for the game — starting right guard Josh Kline for the Vikings and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks and linebacker Roquan Smith for the Bears, who missed the game for personal reasons. Despite missing starters, the Chicago defence kept the Vikings off-balance and away from the end zone until a garbage time touchdown by Dalvin Cook saved Minnesota from their first shut-out in more than a decade. The Vikings offensive line couldn’t keep quarterback Kirk Cousins clean and he was sacked six times.

Chris Tomasson:

The Vikings’ running game disappeared Sunday at Soldier Field, and so did the rest of their offense.

The Chicago Bears, despite being down five starters to start the game and then losing quarterback Mitchell Trubisky on the first series, easily defeated Minnesota 16-6.

The Vikings got a 2-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook with 2:58 left to avoid their first shutout since losing 34-0 at Green Bay on Nov. 11, 2007.

The Vikings have had plenty of struggles in Chicago, but few have been worse than this one. The Bears, with backup quarterback Chase Daniel and a rugged defense leading the way, outgained Minnesota 249 yards to 64 in first three quarters. The Vikings piled up some late yards to make the final margin 269-222.

The Vikings, who entered the game second in the NFL with an average of 193.7 yards rushing, were held to just 40 yards on the ground. Cook, who came in leading the NFL with 375 yards rushing, was held to just 35 yards on 14 carries.

The Vikings dropped to 2-2, denying them a chance to tie Green Bay (3-1) for the NFC North lead. Instead, the Bears (3-1) have moved into a tie for the lead.

On the game’s sixth play, Trubisky was knocked out of the game with a left shoulder injury after he was sacked by Danielle Hunter and lost a fumble that was recovered by Minnesota’s Everson Griffen. However, the turnover was wiped out because of defensive holding on Vikings safety Anthony Harris.

Judd Zulgad:

No one who is employed by the Minnesota Vikings, or a fan of the team, should put any stock in the team’s two victories this season. Atlanta and Oakland are bad football teams that fell apart in the din of U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings’ two losses? Those have been very instructive when it comes to judging this team and right now the judgment of Mike Zimmer’s collection is not kind.

Two weeks after blowing a road game that the Green Bay Packers begged them to take, the Vikings traveled to Soldier Field on Sunday for another NFC North game with a chance to make a statement about themselves. They departed with a 16-6 defeat that came with Chicago missing three key players on defense and quarterback Mitch Tribusky having left on the sixth play of the day because of an injury to his left shoulder.

It was both an underwhelming and sorry-looking performance that will leave many wondering if general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer will be allowed to stick around after this season and also might call for Zimmer to do some of his best work since he took over as the Vikings coach in 2014.

We aren’t talking about the on-the-field stuff either. If it hasn’t started to happen already, Zimmer is about to be faced with a room full of very competitive guys wondering why the Vikings aren’t winning very-winnable games and why they aren’t being used in a more constructive fashion.

Ted Glover‘s Buy and Sell recommendations from his post-game Stock Market Report:

Buy: Everson Griffen fumble recovery on Chicago’s initial drive. The Vikings needed to start out fast today, and on the first drive of the game it looked like they might do just that. Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky rolled out to his left, got caught from behind by Danielle Hunter, who sacked Trubisky while causing him to fumble. Everson Griffen picked it up and was forced out of bounds at the Bears 32. Trubisky was helped off the field, and was knocked out of the game.

Sell: Defensive holding that negated the Everson Griffen fumble recovery. But it was all for naught. Anthony harris was called for defensive holding, giving the bears an automatic first down. So instead of the Vikings knocking out the starting QB and getting the ball in Bears territory, Chicago goes on a 14 play, 75 yard touchdown drive that eats up over 8 minutes of the first quarter, engineered by backup QB Chase Daniel. The drive ended with a Daniel to Tarik Cohen touchdown.

Buy: The theory of deferring. If you win the toss and defer, you are playing the odds of putting our stronger unit out on the field first, hopefully getting a lead at halftime, and then getting the ball to open the second half. If you have a strong defense, it’s a good theory.

Sell: Deferring. This theory sucks for the Vikings, at least against good teams. Against the Packers, Green Bay went 75 yards in a mere four plays. Against the Bears, Chicago … using their second string QB, mind you … went 75 yards in 15 plays, eating up more than half the time off the clock in the first quarter. Their second drive went 16 plays, for 72 yards, and the Bears kicked a field goal. Half over. But, wait, the Vikes get the ball to start the third quarter, and a good drive that ends in a TD to open the half, and we have a brand new ballgame. Yeah, Cousins fumbled on the first play, the Bears recovered, and the game was essentially over.

Buy: CJ Ham. I really like C.J. Ham. I think he’s a good fullback, and does his job well.

Sell: CJ Ham as primary targeted receiver over Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. I don’t like him as the main guy targeted by the quarterback while meaningful football is being played, though. Call me crazy that way.

September 23, 2019

Oakland Raiders take home no plunder from Minnesota, losing 34-14, marking the Vikings’ 500th win in team history

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

After a very disappointing result last week at Green Bay, the Vikings welcomed the Oakland Raiders to US Bank Stadium for a week three matchup. The Vikings came in to the game favoured by the bookies in Las Vegas, but last year at this time, the Vikings were in a similar situation, having played Green Bay the previous week (a tie) and facing a down-at-the-heels AFC franchise as heavy odds favourites at home. The Bills stampeded all over the Vikings in week three last year, flying back to Buffalo with an impressive 27-6 victory to their credit. Oakland was probably hoping history would repeat this year.

A view of the Minnesota Vikings’ new home stadium by “www78”
“Viking Stadium” by www78 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Chris Tomasson:

On a day for nostalgia, the Vikings won by playing old-fashioned Minnesota football.

With the Vikings holding the 50-year reunion of their first Super Bowl team, they won the 500th game in franchise history Sunday, defeating the Oakland Raiders 34-14 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

It was a victory similar to many from back in the old days. The Vikings utilized a strong running attack and played defense that made the “Purple People Eaters” proud. The legendary linemen gathered around the Gjallarhorn before the game, with Jim Marshall sounding it, and then were introduced at halftime along with teammates and coaches from the 1969 team.

The Vikings rushed for 211 yards, including 110 on 16 carries by Dalvin Cook. He became the first player in team history to run for 100 yards in the each of the first three games of a season.

Minnesota took a 21-0 lead in the second quarter and held the Raiders to just one touchdown until they scored a meaningless TD with 1:23 left in the game.

The Vikings bounced back from last week’s 21-16 loss at Green Bay, a game in which they trailed 21-0 early in the second quarter. They were determined to start fast on Sunday, and they did, scoring on their first possession on a 35-yard pass from Kirk Cousins to Adam Thielen.

Cousins bounced back after a disastrous performance against the Packers in which he completed just 14 of 32 passes while throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble. He was turnover free Sunday, completing 15 of 21 passes for 174 yards.

The Vikings won their 500th game on second try. They are 480-398-11 in the regular season and 20-29 in the playoffs for an overall record of 500-427-11.

Matthew Coller:

If you thought the Oakland Raiders’ offseaon was bad, you should have seen their first two quarters on Sunday.

Before the smoke (not fire!) from the Minnesota Vikings’ dragon had cleared from pregame ceremonies, the Vikings were up by three scores. And the Raiders went out of their way to make each score as easy as possible for the Vikings.

On the opening play from scrimmage, quarterback Kirk Cousins heard a handful of boos from the crowd after tripping on an offensive lineman’s foot. Following a crushing loss to the Green Bay Packers last week, the possibility existed for Cousins to lose confidence out of the gate.

But the Raiders simply would not allow it.

The Vikings were shut down on their first drive on third-and-9 but Oakland committed a holding penalty, providing Cousins with a restart. Cousins quickly took advantage, hitting tight end Irv Smith with a 20-yard pass down the seam. Then Oakland showed that they didn’t bother to watch the Vikings’ loss in Green Bay as they bit hard on a play-action bootleg, leaving Adam Thielen wide open for a 35-yard touchdown.

At US Bank Stadium, seven point leads feel like double digits. The Raiders made it feel like even more than that with their first two drives of the game, in which they totaled 17 yards.

Oakland’s punting game — it’s only strength on Sunday — pinned the Vikings in their own zone on Minnesota’s third drive of the game but the Raiders promptly showed everyone that they are the Raiders with two 15-yard penalties, one late hit on Cousins by Arden Key and a facemask by cornerback Gareon Conley. Both infractions came on third down.

Over at the Daily Norseman, it seems that Ted Glover let his purple pen run wild for a paragraph before getting down to the traditional post-game Stock Market Report:

Today, like they did against Atlanta … and like they didn’t against Green Bay … Minnesota started fast, jumped out to a big lead, and then used a pummeling ground game to bludgeon and gash the Oakland Raiders like Jack The Ripper used to bludgeon and gash his East End London victims. Today, The Vikings had their blood up, US Bank Stadium transformed into Whitechapel for a few hours, and the Raiders were a smelly pirate hooker that stood no chance. For a skittish fan base that was ready to bolt and stampede, this was just what we needed…

And then the Buy/Sell recommendations:

Buy: Playing aggressively to open the game. In two games, the Vikings offense has started fast. Today, they went right down the field, scored, and once again, before you could really get settled Minnesota was up 21-0.

Sell: Playing aggressively to end the first half. During the off-season, head coach Mike Zimmer has talked about how important it is to try and score points before the half, and he’s right. Well, one of the things about the Zimmer era that has bugged the ever loving hell out of me is how rarely the Vikings, you know, actually score before the half. Today, they got the ball on their eight, with one timeout and 1:06 left on the clock. The odds of a touchdown were long there, but getting into field goal range seemed very doable. Especially after the first play, which was a Dalvin Cook draw that banged for 16 yards. Yet, with a 14 point lead, Minnesota just decided to eat the clock and call it a half. Offense was clicking, so I don’t understand why they wouldn’t at least try to get into field goal range.

Buy: You could probably call a penalty on almost every play in a typical NFL game. Look, being a referee is hard, I get it. On almost any play, if you wanted, you could call holding, or some other infraction. The game moves at a fast pace, and there is probably a technical violation of the rules committed by both sides on every play. Judgement is a big part of the job, and knowing the rules of the NFL is tough.

Sell: Calling a penalty on almost every play in this NFL game. But my God, quit throwing a flag on what seems like every play. It’s gotten so bad that no matter what, at the end of literally every play in an NFL game, no matter who is playing, I wait to see if there’s a penalty. The only thing that can kill the NFL is the NFL itself, and sometimes it really feels they’re intentionally trying to make their game unwatchable. Seriously, the only person that tunes in to watch the referee is either his wife or his Mom. No one else does, yet these guys get so much camera time they’re going to need to join the Screen Actor’s Guild and start paying union dues. Let the players play the damn game.

Buy: Eric Wilson, pass rusher guy. When the Vikings sent Wilson after Carr or had him spy him today, it was generally successful. He was credited with two sacks, and did a really good job.

Sell: Eric Wilson, pass cover guy. But as good as he generally was in run support and the pass rush, he struggled mightily in pass coverage. He was fooled badly on Oakland’s first touchdown, and on the next drive his guy was wide open, and the only reason the play failed was because of a poor throw by Carr. If Oakland completes that pass, they’re in business in Vikings territory, and it might have changed the momentum of the game.

September 16, 2019

Vikings at Green Bay – a terrible first quarter dooms the Vikings, 21-16

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The Minnesota Vikings visited Green Bay for the first “Border Battle” of the 2019 season. Both teams had won their opening games, so the winner of this match would have the early lead in the NFC North division.

Among the inactives for the game were Vikings cornerbacks Mackensie Alexander and Mike Hughes along with starting left guard Pat Elflein and starting linebacker Ben Gedeon. I didn’t recognize any of the names on the Packers’ inactive list, so I assumed they returned all their starters from week one.

The game could hardly have started better for the hometown Packers, as they scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and looked unstoppable. Minnesota’s defence appeared to have been replaced by tackling dummies, as they could neither cover Pack receivers or stop Pack running backs. Dalvin Cook finally got the Vikings on the scoreboard with a 75-yard touchdown run to pull the Vikings back into the game. The Vikings defence finally got their act together after that, and kept the Packers out of the end zone for the rest of the game.

As several people pointed out on Twitter, it always seems as though the Vikings manage to be the first team to get screwed by new rule changes, as the decision to make pass interference a reviewable call turned into a touchdown taken off the scoreboard as review officials in New York decreed that OPI had taken place on the play and overturned the ruling on the field. Instead of seven points, the Vikings had to settle for a field goal from Dan Bailey. The next official ruling that took points away indirectly was an unsportsmanlike conduct call against Stefon Diggs for removing his helmet after scoring a touchdown. The fifteen yard penalty pushed the extra point attempt back and Green Bay was able to deflect the kick.

The Vikings’ last chance to win the game ended on a Kirk Cousins interception in the end zone. The Vikings defence held the Packers to a three-and-out, but Cousins and the Vikings offence did the same, and the Vikings only got the ball back after that with bare seconds left on the game clock, too far out for even a Hail Mary attempt.

Matthew Coller correctly says the Vikings wasted every comeback chance they had (and they had several):

Through sixteen minutes of football at Lambeau Field on Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers looked like a juggernaut. Over the final 44 minutes, the Packers played only slightly better than one of the teams hoping to draft No. 1 overall. And — to paraphrase Denny Green — the Minnesota Vikings let them off the hook.

Aaron Rodgers and the Packers received the opening kickoff immediately hit Davante Adams for a 39-yard pass. Seconds later they were in the end zone, going 75 yards for a touchdown in just 2:10. Following a Vikings missed field goal, they did it again, driving 63 yards for another TD pass by Rodgers, this time picking on the Vikings’ depth at defensive back, tossing the ball easily over recently-elevated safety Nate Meadors.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins then fumbled twice on the same drive, setting up Rodgers and the Packers at the Minnesota 33-yard line. That drive ended as quickly as the first and with the same result.

Before Packers fans were even inside the building from their morning tailgating efforts, it was a three-score game.

[…]

The Vikings’ loss in Green Bay had a little bit of everything — bad calls, missed kicks, turnovers, big plays and inexplicable decisions. Ultimately Cousins and the offense were given every chance to overcome the bad start and pull off a remarkable comeback. Instead another big game in the Cousins era ends with regret and missed opportunities.

September 9, 2019

Minnesota Vikings defeat Atlanta 28-12 in home opener

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The home opener for the 2019 NFL season saw the Minnesota Vikings welcome the Atlanta Falcons to US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Las Vegas oddsmakers had the Vikings as four-point favourites to win this game, but Atlanta had trouble from the get-go and didn’t manage to score until the fourth quarter, then were unable to get the two-point conversion. The final score of the game came with just over a minute left to go, but Atlanta was once again unable to convert the two-point attempt. Despite the final score, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins set a career low for pass attempts, tallying 8 of 10 for 98 yards and one passing touchdown (but he did score another on a quarterback sneak). The running game, however more than compensated as Dalvin Cook ran 21 times for 111 yards and two scores and rookie Alexander Mattison added nine carries for 49 yards.

Defensively, the star of the game was safety Anthony Harris who had two interceptions (one in the end zone) and also recovered a fumble forced by cornerback Trae Waynes. The Vikings defence tallied four sacks of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, one each for Anthony Barr, Everson Griffen, Linval Joseph, and Danielle Hunter (a second sack by Griffen was negated by a penalty).

A view of the Minnesota Vikings’ home stadium by “www78”
“Viking Stadium” by www78 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Chris Tomasson reported on the game for the Pioneer Press:

The Vikings vowed to run the ball more this season, and did they ever on Sunday.

They rolled up 174 yards rushing, including 111 by Dalvin Cook, in drubbing the Atlanta Falcons 28-12 in the season opener at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Cook had touchdown runs of 19 yards in the first quarter and seven yards in the third quarter. It was the third career 100-yard game by Cook, who is one of the keys to Vikings’ hopes of bouncing back after missing the playoffs last season.

The game was never in doubt as Minnesota took leads of 14-0 after the first quarter, 21-0 at halftime and 28-0 after the third quarter. The Vikings were dominant on offense, defense and special teams.

On defense, safety Anthony Harris intercepted two Matt Ryan passes and recovered a fumble. The Vikings sacked Ryan four times.

On the first possession of the game, linebacker Eric Wilson broke through to block a punt by Matt Bosher and the Vikings recovered at the Atlanta 21. It was Minnesota’s first blocked punt since Jasper Brinkley had one Nov. 30, 2014 against Carolina.

At the Daily Norseman, Eric Thompson fills in for Ted Glover on the post-game Stock Market Report:

Buy: Establishing the run is something this team can do going forward. The Vikings’ run blocking was very sound for the most part on Sunday, and it appears that should be replicable. The offensive scheme seems to fit the personnel when it comes to the ground attack.

Sell: Leaning THAT much on the run going forward. The Vikings aren’t going to jump out to a 14-0 lead every week. There will be plenty of times where they have to move the ball through the air throughout the season. Even with the extremely small sample size, the pass blocking was pretty suspect at times. It’s an area of the offense worth paying attention to going forward.

Buy: This was a great defensive performance against a very good offense. Atlanta, a team that had the sixth ranked offense in the league a year ago, didn’t score a single point for the first 50 minutes of the game. Of their 345 total offensive yards, 129 of them came on their final two drives when the game was all but decided. Julio Jones had 31 yards a day after signing a contract extension worth $64 million guaranteed. The Vikings defense kept a very dangerous Falcons offense in check until garbage time.

Sell: This was a clean defensive performance against a very good offense. The defensive performance could have been even better if they hadn’t jumped offside FOUR times on Sunday. I’m sure that drove Mike Zimmer as crazy at it drove us. The Vikings need to cut down on the mental mistakes going forward. The opposing quarterback next week has a reputation for making defenses pay on free plays.

Buy: It’s tough to start the season much better than the Vikings did on Sunday. Punt block. Touchdown. Interception. Touchdown. Exchange punts. Force a fumble. Touchdown. If Sunday’s game was being played out on Madden 20, there’s a 100% chance the guy controlling the Falcons rage quits by halftime. The Vikings didn’t just hit the ground running; they hit the ground driving a Bugatti.

Sell: It’ll be that easy going forward. While the Vikings forced the Falcons into most of their mistakes, Atlanta did some of it to themselves with drive-extending penalties and uncharacteristically bad decisions from Ryan. The Vikings have historically done very well hanging onto an early lead under Mike Zimmer; we’ll see just how good this team is when they don’t get off to such a hot start.

Buy: Special teams were outstanding. As we touched on with Maalouf, the special teams phase was virtually flawless on Sunday. Anxiety levels have been significantly lowered for the time being.

Sell: We’re completely out of the woods there. There weren’t any field goal attempts by Bailey, and there were was some space for Kenjon Barner to make a few decent returns. We should know better than to completely let our guard down when it comes to the Vikings kicking game.

August 25, 2019

Vikings beat Cardinals 20-9 in sloppy “all-important 3rd preseason game™”

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The third NFL preseason game is traditionally the last chance for teams’ starters to get together in a game environment and show that they’re ready for the regular season to begin. This certainly wasn’t true for Saturday’s match at US Bank Stadium between the Minnesota Vikings and the Arizona Cardinals. Neither team’s starters looked fully awake, never mind ready to play in games that matter. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins in particular looked to be struggling with accuracy issues, as he registered a lot of incomplete passes in his first-half appearances (3 of 13 for 35 yards and a 39.6 passer rating), while Arizona’s rookie quarterback Kyler Murray kept the Vikings’ starting defence on its heels with his unpredictable mobility (although they did manage to keep Arizona out of the end zone).

With the notable exception of Dalvin Cook’s 85-yard touchdown run, Cousins and the starting offence seemed to be going backwards nearly as often as they went forward. The second team, under Sean Mannion didn’t do much better, and it took the third team to inject some energy in the fading minutes of the second half with All-Preseason Quarterback Kyle Sloter working his traditional magic to put the game out of reach. Sloter ended up with a gaudy stats line against Arizona’s third team: 6 of 7 passing for 102 yards with a touchdown, yielding a 158.3 passer rating. All he does is win games…

An exterior view of US Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings’ home field by “www78”
“Viking Stadium” by www78 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Christopher Gates sums up the action for Daily Norseman readers:

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a victory

On Saturday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings played host to the Arizona Cardinals in the third preseason game, which is generally viewed as a “dress rehearsal” for the regular season. The starters on both sides of the ball played most of the first half, and for the Vikings … at least on offense … it wasn’t good.

The final score showed that the Vikings defeated the Cardinals by a final score of 20-9, but the first team for the purple on both sides of the ball was less than impressive.

The offense for the Vikings in the first half provided just one highlight … but it was a really, really cool one. Dalvin Cook, seeing his first action of the preseason, saw just two carries. The first one went for three yards. The second one went for a lot more.

Cook took a handoff from Kirk Cousins and blasted for an 85-yard touchdown, giving him the longest run from scrimmage in Vikings’ preseason history.

The passing offense was, to put it mildly, awful. Between inaccuracy from Cousins and a handful of drops, with Stefon Diggs and Chad Beebe being the primary culprits, Cousins completed just 3-of-13 passes in the first half for 35 yards. A good chunk of those yards … 29 of them, to be exact … came on one pass to Diggs in the two-minute drill at the end of the half. Adam Thielen did not play in this one for the Vikings, but the pass offense was still bowling shoe ugly for the entire first half of play.

At SKOR North, Judd Zulgad discussed Kirk Cousins’ performance after the post-game interviews:

Murray’s performance provided hope. Cousins’ performance? Even the veteran knew it wasn’t close to acceptable.

“I’ll just start by saying, it’s a disappointing performance,” Cousins said. “Put it on me, it wasn’t good enough. If we play that way during the season it’s going to be a very tough year so we have to be much better than we were today. I really should say, I have to be much better than I was today and it’s about as simple as that. … I’m going to have a lot to look back at and learn from and correct.”

Cousins wasn’t exaggerating. The highlights with him in the game were few.

After the Vikings went three-and-out on their opening drive, running back Dalvin Cook, seeing his first preseason action, took a handoff on the first play of the second drive and went 85 yards on first-and-20 for a touchdown. Late in the second quarter, Cousins completed a 29-yard pass to Stefon Diggs on second-and-10 from the Vikings’ 46.

Got all that?

Otherwise, Kubiak and offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski had to be disappointed and at least a little (to a lot) concerned. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was far more succinct in summing up his quarterback’s play. “I think he can play a lot better than that,” Zimmer said.

The Vikings’ opening drive ended with Cousins overthrowing Diggs on a deep pass over the middle. After Cook’s feel-good moment, Cousins’ poorly thrown screen pass for fullback C.J. Ham was nearly picked by Cardinals linebacker Terrell Suggs on the Vikings’ third drive. Cousins had been sacked for an 8-yard loss on the previous play to set up a third-and-13 from the Minnesota 37. Cousins’ struggles to throw screen passes remain a mystery but the problem is very real.

It didn’t get better in the second quarter. After an incompletion for Diggs and a 1-yard run by rookie Alexander Mattison, Cousins was sacked again for a 3-yard loss on third-and-9 from the Minnesota 26. That sack was on tight end Kyle Rudolph.

“I think at the end of the day, I can get rid of the football,” Cousins said, taking responsibility for being sacked. “You can always as a quarterback, throw out of bounds, find an eligible (receiver) to throw it over his head so it’s in the direction of him or even try to skate out and start a new play.”

The Vikings did get a first down on their next possession — it came on a 7-yard Cousins completion to Brandon Zylstra — but that drive opened with a poorly thrown pass to wide receiver Chad Beebe and ended with a third-down pass that Beebe dropped.

Cousins’ struggles partially masked the Vikings’ ongoing kicker issues: recently acquired punter/kicker Kaare Vedvik missed both of his field goal attempts (43 yards wide left and 54 yards wide right). That won’t endear him to his head coach: Mike Zimmer has been noted as not being fond of kickers at the best of times.

December 31, 2018

Vikings’ playoff hopes end in dismal performance at US Bank Stadium

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

As a life-long Vikings fan, I had little faith in the “win-and-in” situation the Vikings found themselves in coming into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Chicago Bears … I’ve seen it happen all too often, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to have it happen yet again. The Vikings came into the game looking less-than-convinced, and the peformance on the field was less-than-convincing. The final score of 24-10 was just about right, although shading to flatter the Vikings a tiny bit more than they deserved. Even had they somehow managed to pull out a win late against Chicago’s backups, they didn’t look like they’d be more than one-and-done in the wildcard round anyway.

Lessons learned? Better offensive line players are required to get any significant benefit out of an $84 million quarterback, and you can never have too many good cornerbacks (but that’s always true in today’s NFL). Despite the disappointing finish, I don’t expect any significant changes in the front office, but I do expect a renewed emphasis on the offensive line during free agency and the draft. Despite Sunday’s underwhelming effort, this is still a team that can go deep in the playoffs if they fix the OL, and maintain the depth on defence.

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December 17, 2018

Miami has two really good plays in 41-17 loss to Minnesota

Filed under: Football, Wine — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Although the rest of the game may not be all that memorable for Dolphins fans, Minkah Fitzpatrick’s pick-6 in the second quarter and the 75-yard TD run to start the third were definite high points for Miami. Before Cousins threw that interception, Miami was down 21 points and the Vikings were threatening to run up the score. After the interception, the dreaded over-cautiousness came back to Cousins and he was clearly more worried about making mistakes than making plays. The Dolphins’ running touchdown was a fantastic effort that the football gods rewarded appropriately. Other than those two plays, however, there isn’t a lot of comfort for the team or the fans, especially when your quarterback ends up being sacked nine times.

The first quarter was practically flawless for the Vikings in new offensive co-ordinator Kevin Stefanski’s first game calling plays, with an almost perfect balance between passing plays and rushes. Dalvin Cook got his first rushing touchdown of the season and Latavius Murray ran in a second. Kirk Cousins was boasting a perfect passer rating at the end of the first fifteen minutes of play, and Miami didn’t have any answers at all.

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December 4, 2018

Putridity against the Patriots

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

The Vikings didn’t have a good outing against the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon. In fact, aside from one or two highlights, it was a miserable offensive performance. At one point, the broadcast talking heads (Joe Buck and Troy Aikman) were making noises about just how good a job the Vikings offensive co-ordinator had done this season and how he ( John DeFilippo) would certainly be a top candidate for one of the head coaching openings after the season is over. I nearly choked to death. Of course, so did the Vikings offence. If what we’ve seen of his body of work is accurate, I think the team should do everything in its power to encourage him to become head coach of another franchise (Green Bay? Can it be Green Bay? Please?). The sooner the better. The man seems to know even less about running a modern NFL offence than I do!

At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover offers his usual post-game Stock Market Report, of which the Buy/Sell recommendations are key:

Buy: Running the ball with Dalvin Cook early. For the first time since the Lions game, which feels like it was about two seasons ago, Dalvin Cook and the running game got going early in the game. Cook had 32 and 18 yards on consecutive runs in the first half, and the Vikings really looked good running to the perimeter.

Sell: Mostly ignoring Dalvin Cook on the ground. So, that 32 and 18 yard run? the 32 yard run came with 7:41 left in the first quarter, and the 18 yard run, the next time he carried it as a running back, came with 5:39 left … in the second quarter. In the meantime, Minnesota kept dumping off the Cook in the flat for a couple yards here and there (Cook ended up with 8 catches for 23 yards), and one would think after about the 37th dump off pass for three yards, one would try something else. One would be wrong, though.

Buy: The two minute drive to end the first half. Cousins was crisp, throwing dimes down field to Diggs, Rudolph, Robinson, and managed the clock perfectly. He hit Adam Thielen on a perfect out route in the end zone, and there was only :15 seconds left when the Vikings scored; too little time for Tom Brady. Hands down the best two minute drive the Vikings have orchestrated this year.

Sell: The 28 minutes that opened the first half. Other than Cook running the ball, though, the Vikings offense looked flat out putrid for the rest of the first half. The offensive line had trouble protecting Cousins, which led to either designed short passes or checkdowns that went for minimal gains. The result was an offense that went punt, missed fg, punt, punt in their first four possessions before their lone TD drive.

Buy: The Mike Zimmer challenge on the Gronkowski catch felt like a momentum shift. With 2:34 left in the first half, the Pats had a second and five from their own 22. Tom Brady completed a pass to Rob Gronkowski, which was ruled a first down. However, the spot was wrong, and Mike Zimmer challenged. He won, and instead of first and ten, it was third and one. On third down, the Vikings stuffed the Pats, they punted, and it felt like a seminal moment in the game.

Sell: The Vikings seized the moment. Yes, the Vikings took the ball on their ensuing drive and scored a touchdown, and went into halftime down only 10-7. Last year, a moment like that felt like it would be a lunching pad to take over the game and win it. But the offense reverted to what they did much of the first half, and didn’t find the end zone again. The defense had trouble getting off the field on third down, and couldn’t get a stop when they needed it. It’s become a broken record at this point, but the complementary football that the Vikings talk about, and were so good at last year, isn’t there this year.

Buy: The Vikings offense should be a top ten unit. They have a talented young running back, a good quarterback, a reliable tight end, and the best WR tandem in the NFL. I’m not saying this offense should be Oklahoma, but they’re built to score points

Sell: The Vikings offensive play calling. Honest to goodness, I have no idea what offensive coordinator John DeFilippo is thinking anymore. It feels like he tries to figure out what works, and then intentionally decides not do that thing. Look, when you have a running back that’s averaging 9.3 yards a carry, (and had two more good runs nullified because of penalties), why would you want to keep running the ball with him in bad weather? Silly cake eaters, what do we know? And once the Vikings do fall behind, there seems to be zero sense of urgency as time winds down. There is no quick huddle, the plays called are short dump offs that don’t stretch the field or get chunks of yards, and the clock bleeds time. By the time the Vikings do open it up, it’s much too little, too late. Nothing says ‘I don’t care anymore’ like a three yard slant on 4th and 11 down 14 with less than seven minutes to go.

It’s incredibly frustrating to watch, and the reputation Flip brought with him seems to be based on a resume every bit as flimsy as George O’Leary’s was when he was the Notre Dame coach for about 20 minutes back in the day. Late in the game, after about the 27th three yard pass that felt like it ate up 40 minutes of game clock and produced no first downs, Fox commentator Troy Aikman mentioned that Flip would be a head coaching candidate for a lot of teams in the off-season. I thought to myself ‘good, he won’t be on the Vikings anymore’, which was a completely different feeling than when Pat Shurmur left for the Giants last year.

Buy: Brian O’Neill has helped to fix the offensive line: When O’Neill was drafted, the general consensus was that he was going to have to sit for a year and bulk up, because he lacked upper body strength to be able to be effective in his rookie year. O’Neill has proven that narrative to be demonstrably false, and looks to be a fixture on the offensive line for a long time.

Sell: Brian O’Neill fixed the offensive line. All that said, the Vikings offense is struggling, in large part, to another poorly constructed offensive line. For all the good Spielman has done in constructing a roster in all other areas, the offensive line has been an ongoing issue for almost every season since he’s been named full time GM in 2012. The interior of the line is very subpar, the backups inspire little to no confidence, and if it’s not a priority for GM Rick Spielman in the off-season it could all quickly unravel for the Vikings.

November 5, 2018

Vikings sack Detroit, 24-9

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The headline would have been even more accurate had it been a road game played in Michigan, but setting a team record for sacks in a game (ten) certainly justifies a bit of hyperbole. In a surprising move at the trade deadline earlier this week, the Detroit Lions swapped their top wide receiver for a third-round pick in the 2019 draft. Through most of the first half, it seemed like the announcing crew had to work Golden Tate’s name into the discussion about every play, even when Minnesota had the ball. It got irritating quickly — not as irritating as a Joe Buck-/Troy Aikman-announced game, but nearly that quick.

Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter had a career game with 3.5 sacks and a fumble recovery returned 32 yards for a touchdown. Adam Thielen’s streak of 100+ yard games came to an end at eight, as with Stefon Diggs not active, the Lions could double-team him frequently. Thielen shares the NFL record with Calvin Johnson, who set the mark in 2012. Dalvin Cook also showed that he’s getting back to his rookie-year form, rushing ten times for 89 yards, including a 70-yard effort that set up the Thielen touchdown. The Vikings let the Lions stick around a lot longer than they should have, but the end result was still gratifying:

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October 2, 2017

Lions beat Vikings 14-7, in a game where if it could go wrong, it did go wrong (for the Vikings)

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Two very good teams met in Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, and the outcome was in doubt until the final minutes. Both teams’ defences held up very well, and both teams’ offences were lacking, so the outcome depended on penalties and luck. The officiating squad didn’t throw a lot of penalty flags (including some that were blatant, yet un-noticed), so the game came down to luck. The Vikings were in luck, but it was all bad.

Sam Bradford’s knee is still not back to normal, so Case Keenum got the start again for the third straight game. Keenum is a very good backup quarterback, but he tends to be a one-read player so he sometimes misses big opportunities because he’s watching the receiver he’s already decided to go to and doesn’t see a better chance elsewhere on the field. Against Tampa Bay, that didn’t matter, but against Pittsburgh and on Sunday against Detroit, it mattered a lot.

The Vikings defence played (mostly) lights-out against the Lions. Danielle Hunter started the game off with a bang, notching his first sack of the season on the opening play, and he got another sack during the game. Everson Griffin chipped in with a sack of his own and two tackles for loss. Linval Joseph also got a sack, and linebacker Eric Kendricks got two. On the other hand, it seemed like everyone in purple had a chance for an interception but none of them could hang on to the ball, and there were periods in the game where Lions ball carriers appeared to be coated in Teflon and the Vikings just couldn’t wrap them up on the tackle.

Injuries are always at least a background concern for NFL teams, and the Lions came in to Minneapolis with a long list of injured players, but the worst injury of the day was on a non-contact run by Vikings rookie sensation Dalvin Cook, who may have torn his ACL while trying to make a cut (he fumbled the ball at that point, but I’m certainly not going to hold it against him under the circumstances). He’ll have an MRI on Monday which will clarify the extent of his injury. Sadly, Eric Thompson’s tweet is still as appropriate as ever:

Update: Yes, coach Zimmer confirms that it’s an ACL tear and Cook is going to be put on the injured reserve, ending his season.

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