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.

November 18, 2019

Denver Broncos give up 20-point halftime lead over the Minnesota Vikings, lose 27-23

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

On Sunday afternoon, the 7-3 Vikings hosted the 3-6 Denver Broncos at US Bank Stadium in a 1:00pm start. Minnesota was without some key starters, including wide receiver Adam Thielen who is still recovering from a hamstring injury suffered early in the Detroit game, right guard Josh Kline (concussion), nose tackle Linval Joseph who had minor knee surgery and may be out for a few more games, along with safety Anthony Harris.

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

Vikings fans were quite worried that the team would come out flat, having made the classic mistake of looking past the current opponent … making it a “trap” game:

Aside from that, one of the storylines of interest coming in was that it was going to be the first Vikings game for wide receiver Josh Doctson, who was just activated from injured reserve. He joined the Vikings early in the season, but was injured in one of his first practices with the team. The absence of Adam Thielen was thought to give him a good opportunity to show if his chemistry with Kirk Cousins had carried over from their time together in Washington. I watched the entire game, and while an Arif Hasan tweet told me that Doctson got on the field in the third quarter, he certainly didn’t make any catches.

For the first 30 minutes, this game totally lived up to the “trap” billing … the Vikings were putrid on defence, and cover-your-eyes awful on offence. As Matthew Coller put it, “There are 1,000 ways to lose a football game and the Minnesota Vikings attempted to try out every one of them on Sunday.” I’m not exaggerating by much to say the Vikings MVP in the first half was punter Britton Colquitt. At least he did his job with no obvious errors or miscues. It would be difficult to say the same for anyone else wearing purple in the first half. They went into the locker room — which must have appeared as welcoming as the gates of hell with Coach Zimmer ready to bite heads off — on the wrong side of a 20-0 score.

For every Vikings game, I print off a copy of the team roster and as the game progresses, I make notes beside players’ names for excellent play (“+”), terrible play (“-“), penalties (“P”), sacks (“S”), and so on. After 30 minutes, I had no “+” entries at all. The Vikings had gained all of 47 yards while holding the ball for only 11 minutes. The CBS crew covering the game helpfully noted that the last 99 teams to be down 20 points at the half had all lost the game. As you’d expect, the loyal fans took it well:

Even Ben Leber, who works for the Vikings Entertainment Network had to admit things were not going well:

The second half started well … in fact, the second half looked like a completely different team was wearing the purple uniforms than the collection of random bums who’d stumbled through the first half. The team gained nearly twice as many yards on their first drive as they’d done through the entire first half, taking the ball from their own 25 yard line to score their first points of the day on a Kirk Cousins to Irv Smith, Jr. ten yard pass (Smith’s first NFL TD). Vikings Twitter seemed to approve of the new plot twist:

But would the new-look Vikings continue the good work or lapse back into that zombie state of the first half? They did allow the Broncos to score, but only a field goal, then got back to work. It was the fourth quarter when the Vikings finally established a points lead they would not relinquish (although it went down to the final play of the game):

On their final drive, the Broncos pushed the ball all the way down to the Vikings’ 2-yard line. Denver had three chances on first-and-goal, but the Minnesota defense … and, specifically, Jayron Kearse … came up huge on the final three plays to hold on to the victory.

Kirk Cousins was absolutely on fire in the second half of this football game, and he ended up completing 29-of-35 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns. After a first half where he had no catches, Stefon Diggs wound up with five receptions for 121 yards and a touchdown on the afternoon. Kyle Rudolph had five catches for 67 yards and a touchdown, while Olabisi Johnson had six catches, but managed just 35 yards. Dalvin Cook had 31 yards on five receptions, Tyler Conklin had two catches for 28 yards, Irv Smith Jr. had three catches for 20 yards and his first NFL touchdown, and Ameer Abdullah (two catches, 11 yards) and C.J. Ham (one catch, six yards) caught passes as well.

Cook didn’t get a whole lot going on the ground, though he did cross over the 1,000-yard threshold for the season. He had just 26 yards on 11 carries, as the Broncos did a very good job of taking him away.

As Christopher Gates also pointed out, this was only the fifth time in team history the Vikings have come back from a 20-point deficit to win the game. Andy Carlson provides his post-game take:

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.

November 4, 2019

Minnesota Vikings 23, Kansas City Chiefs 26

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

On Sunday afternoon, the 6-2 Minnesota Vikings visited the 5-3 Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Both teams were hoping to get recently injured stars back in time for the game, with Minnesota’s star wide receiver Adam Thielen recovering from a hamstring injury suffered in the Detroit Lions game and the Chiefs’ starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes (reigning NFL MVP) having suffered a knee injury (the Chiefs activated Chad Henne from injured reserve on Saturday as insurance). The Vikings hadn’t won a game at Arrowhead since December 1974, a 35-15 result, and came in hoping to change that and move to 7-2 on the season.

“4762 Arrowhead” by nickhall is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Adam Thielen started the game, but was quickly benched as his injury flared up again. Mahomes was not active for the Chiefs, so Matt Moore got the start.

Although the Vikings had the NFL rushing leader, they started the game with a run-deficient plan that saw quarterback Kirk Cousins throw three times on the opening “drive”, then yield to Britton Colquitt to punt the ball away. The second Vikings possession went by just as quickly with three plays and a punt. The Chiefs got on the scoreboard on their second possession with a long pass to Tyreek Hill that beat the Vikings’ coverage. The following drive may have featured the best play by former first-round pick wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, who had two key receptions on the drive that was capped off with a touchdown pass to Olabisi Johnson to tie the game at 7-7.

The second quarter saw each team eke out a field goal to keep the score tied 10-10 at the half. At that point, it was clear that November Kirk Cousins is a poor second to October Kirk Cousins, who was the NFC Offensive player of the month … 9 of 21 for 101 yards isn’t the kind of thing we’d been led to expect from the Vikings quarterback.

In the third quarter, the TV announcers re-iterated that Kansas City wasn’t known for their running game, just in time for a 91-yard scoring run by Damien Williams (have you ever noticed that TV announcers have a knack for pointing out something relevant about the game just before a big play happens…). The score was tied in the last few minutes, but the Chiefs were in field goal range and scored the winner just before time expired.

Matthew Coller:

You knew from the very first drive that it was Bad Kirk time on Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Minnesota Vikings opened their contest against the Kansas City Chiefs in a manner that did not reflect their last four weeks of offensive excellence. Dalvin Cook had a pass bounce off his hands on the opening play and then Kirk Cousins tentatively flipped a pass into the flat in the direction of Adam Thielen but the low throw not only fell incomplete, it ended Thielen’s day. He came into the game with a “questionable” designation with a hamstring injury and did not see the field after the first drive.

[…]

Cousins overcame some frustration — that was caught, as always, by the FOX TV cameras — to give his team a chance to win.

The defense, however, showed its weakness again. After sacking Moore on second down, the Chiefs’ quarterback found Hill open over the middle for a first down. He created separation from Xavier Rhodes, who has struggled to shut down receivers as he did in the golden age of the Vikings defense. Moore then heaved the ball up to Hill down the sideline and he jumped over Trae Waynes for a 41-yard to put KC in field goal position.

Harrison Smith came through with a sack on third down but the Chiefs were still able to tie the game at 23.

Bad Kirk returned on the subsequent drive. Not only did he go three-and-out but Cousins’ only completion was a 7-yard loss.

The Vikings’ defense had a chance to redeem itself for a day of allowing big plays in big spots after Colquitt shanked a 27-yard punt to put KC at mid-field. Maybe two years ago they would have. This time around, Hill found space in the middle of the field for a first down to set up a game-winning field goal.

Here’s what it means: If the Vikings want to prove themselves as legit contenders, they can’t have Bad Kirk show up for any length of time. They can’t put everything on their defense. Otherwise they will end up walking off with the same defeated feeling as they did on Sunday at Arrowhead.

Becca Murphy:

Everybody on the Vikings is going to have a rough go of it on Monday when they watch the game film of this loss.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins, whose inaccuracy throughout the first half left first downs and points on the field, will hardly be able to re-examine some of his poor showing. His offensive line won’t have an easier time of it, watching themselves bullied by their Chief opponents from quarter one to quarter four.

Vikings’ offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanksi may have to leave the room as the film comes to its last minutes, lest he see just how bland and predictable his playcalling was in the Vikings’ final two possessions.

Mike Zimmer may be the most uncomfortable of all Viking players and coaches, having to re-experience the fact that the one player his defense should have kept in check (Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill) had six catches for 160 yards and a touchdown in the game.

Update: From the ever-reliable Daily Norseman, here’s the Buy/Sell section of Ted Glover’s Stock Market Report.

Buy: Adam Thielen was healing and close to playing. Thielen is a big part of this offense and makes it immeasurably better. His hamstring injury was described as minor all along, so it felt like missing the Redskins game and then having 10 days off would be a smart plan for him getting back on the field.

Sell: Playing Adam Thielen. Yet, that plan backfired early. Thielen tweaked his hamstring on the Vikes first or second drive and didn’t return. Now the team is dealing with an injury that can linger for weeks, and no one truly knows how long he’ll be out. The smart play would be to keep him out for the next two games, as that leads into the bye week. Will that be enough time, though? Hamstring injuries are the worst, and they can linger for a lot longer than three weeks. It’s something that can be problematic for the rest of the season if Thielen pushes too hard, and when he’s out it affects what the offense can do. One thing we all agreed on coming into the season was the Vikings WR depth after Thielen and Diggs, and now here we are two months into the season with no real go to guys after Diggs.

Treadwell had a good game today, Bisi Johnson has had his moments, and maybe we’ll see something out of Josh Doctson in the coming weeks. But not addressing WR3 in the off-season has officially come back to bite this team in the ass, at the worst possible time.

Buy: Kirk’s decisiveness to run on third and 7 early second quarter. One of the things that Mike Zimmer wanted to see from Kirk Cousins this year was more decisiveness when deciding to keep the ball and run with it. Early in the second quarter today, Kirk bailed from the pocket and took off, with a lot of open field in front of him.

Sell: Kirk sliding and coming up short of first down. Yet, with all the open field, Kansas City closed in pursuit, Kirk gave himself up, and went into the “steal second base” dive. The only problem with that was that he was a yard short of the first down, bringing up fourth down. Minnesota ended up kicking the ball away to the Chiefs, who took the ball and ended up kicking a field goal.

Buy: Getting the ball twice late in the 4th quarter with a legitimate chance to win the game. With a 23-20 lead, Minnesota got the ball with 7:47 left. A team that’s serious about putting away opponents goes on a long, clock eating drive there, and ends the game. But they didn’t. Still, with the score tied at 23, Minnesota got the ball back again with 2:30 left. All they needed to do was drive about 50 yards to get into field goal range and get out of there with a win.

Sell: Winning the game. Those last two drives were particularly frustrating. The Vikes had momentum on that first drive, as the offense had scored and then the defense forced the Chiefs to punt. A long drive there that ends in points seals the game. Even with that last drive, it was a very doable situation. They had the 2 minute warning, two timeouts, and the ball on the 25. It wouldn’t take much against one of the worst defenses in the NFL to get into scoring position, kick a field goal, and win the game. Yet, in those two drives, the VIkings ran six plays and lost seven yards. Remarkable.

Buy: Kirk Cousins with three touchdown passes. Sometimes Kirk Cousins makes a throw, and I have to rewind my DVR to make sure what I saw just happened. His TD throw to Kyle Rudolph, for example, was one of those throws. It was in traffic, down in the red zone, and he placed the ball in a spot that only Rudolph could get it. Incredible throw and catch

Sell: Kirk Cousins, airmail specialist. Other times, Kirk Cousins makes a throw and I also have to rewind my DVR to make sure what I saw just happened, because I ask myself how the hell a vet with that much time in the league airmails that many throws? It felt like he overthrew guys seven or eight times today, easy. Very frustrating to watch, when a couple of those plays looked like they were going to go for some big yards if he makes those throws.

Buy: The re-emergence of Laquon Treadwell. With Adam Thielen’s hamstring now officially “a thing”, Treadwell stepping up today was a welcome turn of events. Someone is going to need to become WR2, and why not Treadwell?

Sell: Laquon Treadwell having more receiving yards than Stefon Diggs. Still, let’s chat about Treadwell having more receiving yards than Stefon Diggs today, because THAT is NOT a recipe for success. One catch, four yards. Really??

Buy: Going for it on 4th and 1 right before the half. I loved the call. Minnesota was driving, and got down to the KC 15 with 29 seconds left. On 4th and 1, the Vikes decided to go for it, and Cousins found Irv Smith for a four yard gain, and a first down at the Chiefs 11.

Sell: The play call sequence after that 4th down conversion. Maybe it’s me, but it kind of felt that after the Vikes got the first down, they were content with settling for the field goal at that point. On first down Cousins was pressured and threw it towards Treadwell. On second down and third down Cousins threw it out of the left corner of the end zone. Really poor play calls for the pressure KC was bringing, and the Vikes still had a timeout to play with. Just seemed like a haphazard plan, and it turned out to be one of the turning points in the game.

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.

October 14, 2019

Philadelphia at Minnesota – Stuffed Eagle added to Vikings’ trophy case

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

Sunday’s match-up between two 3-2 teams had the hometown Vikings slightly favoured by the bookmakers at 3 (most NFL games assume a three-point advantage to the home team, so this indicates the teams are seen to be pretty equal overall). The Eagles, coming off a high-scoring beat-down of the hapless New York Jets, hoped to carry on their winning ways, while the Vikings wanted to keep the momentum going from last week’s win against the New York Giants.

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

The first quarter went as well as the Vikings could have hoped, keeping the ball away from Carson Wentz and the Eagles’ offence: at one point near the end of the first quarter, the Vikings had almost a 5:1 advantage in time of possession. Kirk Cousins opened the scoring with a pass to Adam Thielen in the corner of the end zone, and Dan Bailey scored a field goal on the Vikings’ second possession to take a 10-0 lead in the first frame. Philadelphia started to show signs of life during the second quarter, but the score at the half was 24-10, with the Eagles set to receive the second-half kickoff … after the Eagles attempted an end-of-half fake field goal that ended with an athletic Everson Griffen interception.

Of course, no game is complete without at least one head-scratcher, as the TV broadcast initially indicated a Philadelphia safety before correcting to a Vikings touchdown reception by Stefon Diggs (one of three on the day):

To start the second half, Philadelphia managed to narrow the Vikings’ lead to only four points before Minnesota found the accelerator again and ended up with a very comfortable 18-point winning margin. Overall, it was a good game, although there were a few things missing: the early running game and all the yellow hankies we’ve grown so familiar with littering the field. Kirk Cousins finished the day with 333 yards passing (22 completions on 29 attempts) with four touchdowns and one interception. Stefon Diggs had his biggest day of the 2019 season so far with 167 receiving yards with three touchdowns and two drops, one of which was intercepted by former Viking safety Andrew Sendejo. Adam Thielen had (for him) a quiet day, receiving for 57 yards on six throws and the opening TD. Dalvin Cook was mostly kept in check by the Eagles’ number-one rushing defence, tallying 16 runs for 41 yards and one TD. Backup running back Alexander Mattison had more luck, gaining 63 yards on 14 rush attempts, but also had a late fumble down near the Eagles’ goal line.

Judd Zulgad contemplates the bulletin board material a current member of the Iggles provided for Kirk Cousins:

Philadelphia linebacker Zach Brown attempted to plant doubt between the ears of Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins when given the opportunity on Friday.

“I think every defense is going to want that guy to throw the ball,” said Brown, who was a teammate of Cousins’ in Washington in 2017. “For me, that’s probably the weakest part of their offense is him. Everything else is good. They’ve got a good running game, probably one of the best in the league. They have real good receivers. You just want them to pass the ball. You want Kirk Cousins to get it in his hands.”

Brown was gambling Cousins’ reaction to his comments would be to over-think them and potentially fall apart on Sunday. Turns out Brown didn’t know Cousins as well as he thought he did and Cousins, well, he claimed he didn’t even know about Brown’s comments until after the fact. Not only did Cousins not fall apart but he put together one of his best games since signing a three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings in March 2018.

Cousins completed 22 of 29 passes for 333 yards with four touchdowns, one interception and a 138.4 passer rating in a 38-20 victory that put the Vikings at 4-2 and will silence the Cousins’ critics (this one included) for the time being.

“I just found out about (Brown’s comments) about 20 minutes ago,” Cousins said after the game. “(An ESPN reporter) talked to me on the field and mentioned it. I didn’t even know what (Brown) said. I really do stay in here and not read anything and that’s for my best interest. Zach was a teammate in Washington, he’s one of the better linebackers I played with or against. I have a lot of respect for him. If you’re trying to write a story about how it was a motivator this week, it wasn’t because I didn’t know about it. Ignorance is bliss. I just put my head down and work and prepare the same way every week and not try to ride the roller coaster.”

At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover provides an uncharacteristically upbeat Stock Market Report on the Eagles game:

Junk Bonds

No one. So, there were some players that had some bad individual plays, but not over the course of the whole game. Xavier Rhodes comes to mind once or twice, Pat Elflein had a bad whiff that led to a sack, and Mattison had a fumble late, for example. Overall, though, I don’t think there was anyone that stood out so poorly that deserved a junk bond. If you disagree, let me know.

Buy/Sell

Buy: Something snapped in the Vikings after the Bears game. After the Chicago shitshow, it felt like the Vikings were one bad game or locker room outburst from spiraling out of control. But, something different happened. I don’t know what it was — a locker room speech, the Diggs and Thielen comments, or something else, but whatever it was worked, and the Vikings have gone on a a little bit of a tear, kicking the hell out of two NFC East teams in a row.

Sell: It’s going to last. As much as I would love to see it happen, the chances the Vikings go 14-2 are remote. So when the next loss does come, I will really be looking at how the Vikings react, and how they rebound the following game.

Buy: Anthony Barr fumble recovery. After the Vikings had gone up 38-20, there was still enough time left for the Eagles to rally, and they had proved earlier in the game that they could, in fact, do just that. But when it looked like the Eagles were driving, Eric Kendricks stripped the ball from Zach Ertz at the Vikings 28, Barr scooped it up, and essentially put the dagger in Philly’s comeback hopes.

Sell: Anthony Barr pass coverage. Of course, Barr helped breathe life into their comeback. Down 24-10 Barr let Miles Sanders get behind him for a 45 yard gain, and that got the ball down to Vikings 4. Two plays later the Eagles were in the end zone, it was 24-17, and sphincters throughout the Upper Midwest tightened.

Buy: 88 yard drive to ice the game. So here’s the situation. It was 31-20, and even though the Vikings defense had stopped the Eagles a couple times, and the Vikes had added a second half TD, it still felt like Philly wasn’t out of it. After a big sack by Kendricks and Mac Alexander stopped the Eagles around midfield, Philly punted and [the Vikings] took over at the 12. The Vikings went on an epic 8 play, 88 yard drive that took almost five minutes of game clock, capped by a Dalvin Cook one yard run to make the score 38-20, and it put the game out of reach. It was a killer instinct that has been lacking from this team for the better part of two seasons, and it was really nice to see.

Sell: Closing the Eagles out at 24-3. As awesome as that drive was, it didn’t come until after the Eagles had closed the score from 24-3 to 24-20. The offense started out en fuego, but, not unexpectedly, cooled off a bit. And just when they cooled off a bit, the Vikes defense went into a bit of a hibernation. Broken coverages, missed tackles, and a lack of pressure allowed the Eagles to rally, and before you could lean over and tell a bad Ole and Lena Joke, it was 24-20 with over 20 minutes of game time left. Both the offense and defense snapped out of it, but it was still a concerning lapse on both sides of the ball, and something the Vikings can’t do week in and week out.

October 7, 2019

Minnesota Vikings pillage the New York Giants, 28-10

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

The 2-2 Minnesota Vikings visited the 2-2 New York Giants on Sunday afternoon, still smarting from last week’s drubbing at the hands of the Chicago Bears. Earlier in the week, media rumours began that the Vikings were looking to trade wide receiver Stefon Diggs, followed by reports that Diggs was very unhappy with the Vikings this season (particularly the lack of receptions for him and Adam Thielen). Diggs failed to show for a team practice and meetings and was heavily fined by the Vikings for the absences. Quarterback Kirk Cousins has been taking a lot of heat for his sub-par performance in the first four games, and fans were hoping to see some signs of improvement in New Jersey. Cousins delivered … but mainly to Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook. Cousins threw for more than 300 yards and two touchdowns, both to Thielen, while Cook had a career day with 132 yards rushing on 21 carries and six receptions for 86 yards (but he did lose a fumble at the end of a run).

Christopher Gates:

This was exactly the sort of game that Kirk Cousins needed to have after his performance in Chicago. He completed 22-of-27 passes for 306 yards and two touchdowns and looked as good as he has all season. Adam Thielen was the recipient of both of Cousins’ touchdown tosses, and finished the afternoon with seven receptions for 130 yards. After causing some controversy earlier this week, Stefon Diggs had three catches for 44 yards, while rookie Olabisi Johnson had four grabs for 43 yards.

Dalvin Cook had another outstanding game, both on the ground and in the passing game. He had his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the year, rushing for 132 yards on 21 carries. He also caught six passes for 86 yards, all in the first half. Alexander Mattison picked up 35 yards on six carries, and Ameer Abdullah chipped in with three carries for 24 yards.

The Vikings move to 3-2 on the season, and will host the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Giants fall to 2-3, and have a short week ahead of them, as they’ll travel to take on the New England Patriots for Thursday Night Football.

The Minnesota Vikings get a victory over the New York Giants in Week 5 NFL action, winning by a final score of 28-10 at MetLife Stadium. Thank you to everyone that got their coverage of this week’s game right here at The Daily Norseman!

Judd Zulgad:

How fast can life in the NFL change?

A week ago, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins was offering wide receiver Adam Thielen a public apology for getting him the ball only two times for 6 yards in a loss at Chicago. Another wide receiver, Stefon Diggs, decided to stay away from the team facility for a few days because of his frustration with the Vikings going to a run-first scheme under Gary Kubiak and Kevin Stefanski.

By halftime of the Vikings’ 28-10 victory over the feeble New York Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Cousins had a season-high 278 yards passing, Thielen had a season-best six receptions for 121 yards and a touchdown and Diggs had, well, his involvement remained a work in progress (two catches for 24 yards).

Diggs added a 20-yard reception in the fourth quarter to finish with three catches for 44 yards, Thielen ended up at seven catches for 130 yards and two scores and Cousins completed 22 of 27 passes for 306 yards and the two TDs to Thielen. It was Cousins’ first 300-yard passing game since a 24-17 victory last Nov. 25 over Green Bay at U.S. Bank Stadium. That was nine games ago and also marked the last time Thielen had more than 100 yards receiving.

The Giants’ inability to stop the pass and the run didn’t hurt matters, but this was the exact type of game the Vikings needed after a week of drama that centered around a unit that isn’t even supposed to be the key to this team. Did this signify a turnaround for an offense that was held to 222 yards in a 16-6 loss to the Bears? Probably not, considering Chicago’s defense can be dominant and the Giants defense belongs in the XFL.

As usual after a Vikings game, Ted Glover provides his essential Stock Market Report on the day’s activities:

Buy: The offense was way better today. It’s really hard to find fault with an offense that had 490 yards, while the QB threw for over 300, RB1 had over 130 yards on the ground, and one of two WR1’s had 130 yards and two TD’s. It was a performance that was sorely needed for the team and the fans.

Sell: The Red Zone offense was better today. But nothing is perfect, and the Vikings struggled for the first time in the red zone today. On the opening drive of the game, they got down to the 13, but had to settle for a field goal. On their third drive Cook fumbled inside the five and the Giants recovered when it looked like he was going in to score. Granted, it turned out to not be a big deal, as the Vikings won handily, but it was mildly concerning.

Buy: What Diggs said needed to be said. Whatever the issue was had been simmering for awhile, and after the Bears game, it needed to be said. It worked, and the Vikings came together and had a whale of a football game. Hell, if it ends up with games like this, maybe he needs to call someone out every week.

Sell: The way Diggs said it. I’ve never been a fan of complaining to the press, though. Had the Vikings lost today, what Diggs said and did on Wednesday would have gone nuclear, and it would have taken on a life of its own. I get the frustration, as we all felt it, and I have no issue with calling people out when they’re underperforming. But like Diggs said himself in the locker room after the game, he could have handled it a lot differently. And yes, he wants to be in Minnesota.

Buy: This was a needed win. This win settled a lot of jittery nerves in Vikings Land. Not everything is all unicorns and rainbows yet, but at least the Vikings gave themselves a launching point to get to the unicorns and rainbows stage. A loss today would have meant death, pestilence, and plague across the land.

Sell: This win cures everything that ails the Vikings. They still have a tough schedule ahead. Philly comes to town this week, then a big road game against Detroit. The defense still had problems with drive extending penalties on third down, the offense had some issues in the red zone, and were it not for two Daniel Jones overthrows this could have been a completely different ballgame. Still, though, it was a good win, and that’s what matters for today.

Buy: The Vikings have a problem with penalties. We mentioned the defense and their mind numbing third down penalties. It killed them against the Bears last week, and it cost them again today. The Vikings are one of the most penalized teams in the NFL this year, and after five games it’s now officially “a thing”.

Sell: The amount of penalties in a typical game is good for the NFL. All of that said, it seems like the NFL is doing everything they can to make this great game unwatchable. Rules changes in recent years are making the game unrecognizable from what it was just 4-5 years ago. Referees are over legislating what penalties they do understand, are screwing up replay calls over what rules they don’t understand, and throwing ticky tack flags where everyone goes “wtf was that call” are dragging the game down.

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 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.

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.

August 11, 2019

Vikings ruin Saints’ preseason home opener, 34-25

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

It’s only the preseason, so there’s no real “need” to win, aside from the natural urge to beat your opponent that comes with any competitive activity, but it’s always nice to win at someone else’s home field. The Minnesota Vikings visited the New Orleans Saints on Friday night, coming away with a comfortable victory.

As is typical in the first preseason game, the presumptive starters only play for a limited time in order to both limit injury possibilities and to provide more snaps for players further down the depth chart. Chris Tomasson reported on the game for the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Kirk Cousins was close to perfect to start the preseason last year. On Friday night, he was perfect.

At least according to the NFL’s passer rating.

In a 34-25 win over New Orleans at the Superdome, the Vikings quarterback completed 4 of 4 passes for 65 yards and a touchdown for a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

In last year’s preseason opener at Denver, Cousins completed 4 of 4 passes for 42 yards and a touchdown with a passer rating of 150.0.

And once again the Vikings won an exhibition opener. Head coach Mike Zimmer is now 6-0 in such games since taking over in 2014.

It initially looked Friday as if Cousins had hit Adam Thielen for a 35-yard touchdown pass after the receiver made a diving catch. However, a replay showed Thielen was down just shy of the goal line, and Cousins connected on the next play with rookie running back Alexander Mattison on a 1-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.

For the Saints, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater also impressive, and he played a lot longer. With starter Drew Brees held out, the former Vikings quarterback went the distance in the first half, and completed 14 of 19 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Bridgewater, who played for the Vikings from 2013-17, suffered a severe knee injury in August 2016. He said on Wednesday he is fully recovered, and it certainly looked that way against his former teammates.

Cousins had expressed hope earlier in the week that the Vikings would score a touchdown on his only possession, and they delivered. Cousins also helped out with his legs, running for 10 yards on third-and-9 at the Minnesota 25 for the initial first down of the game.

At the Daily Norseman, Christopher Gates mentions some players who might have been buried in the depth chart before the game, but who materially changed their chances for making the final 53-man roster with their work on Friday night:

Bisi Johnson, WR – With the competition for the Vikings’ #3 wide receiver spot still pretty wide open, the seventh-round pick from Colorado State may have just jumped himself up to the top spot. He had two very nice catches on Friday night, including an 18-yard touchdown catch on a throw by Sean Mannion into very good coverage. He also got an opportunity as a kick returner in this one.

Nate Meadors, CB – I’m not sure what his odds of actually making the roster at this point are, but there’s no scenario where a pick-six is going to go down as a negative, so he pretty clearly helped himself. As we’ve said all offseason, with Mike Hughes’ status up in the air and Holton Hill’s status very well-known, there could be some room at the bottom of the cornerback depth chart in Minnesota, and Meadors is making his case.

Tyler Conklin, TE – Fellow tight end Cole Hikutini has been one of the hot names at Training Camp so far this year, but if the Vikings are going to keep four tight ends, it looked tonight like Conklin is comfortably in the lead for that spot at this point. He led the Vikings in receiving yardage on Friday, despite having just two catches. He averaged 28 yards/reception, and showed some nifty skills after the catch on a screen pass in the second quarter.

The Vikings’ young defensive linemen – With both the Vikings’ starting defensive tackles out of this one, some of the younger players up front got some chances to shine, and both Hercules Mata’afa and Jalyn Holmes did just that. Ifeadi Odenigbo also made the most of his opportunities on Friday night. There are going to be some very, very difficult decisions that have to be made among the defensive linemen on cutdown day, as has been the case the past few years.

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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October 29, 2018

New Orleans Saints 30, Vikings 20, as the turnover bug bites hard

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 10:40

Even the hardcore Minnesota Vikings fans were getting tired of the replays of last year’s “Minneapolis Miracle”, as it turned up so often in media and social media coverage coming up to Sunday night’s rematch between the Vikings and the Saints. This time, largely thanks to Minnesota mistakes, the Saints got the win.

Both teams had turnovers, but New Orleans earned 14 points off Viking errors and Minnesota didn’t capitalize on Harrison Smith’s interception, as Matthew Coller explains:

At 13-10, with the Vikings in front, the much-anticipated contest appeared to be shaping up as expected. A Sunday Night Shootout in front of a crowd that was ready to drive Brees crazy all night.

Then the Vikings caught a break. An overthrown ball by Brees right into the hands of Harrison Smith set Minnesota up to take a double-digit lead into the half.

Instead the Vikings committed back-to-back mistakes that would turn out to not only shape the game but become the trend in the second half.

With 3:03 left in the second quarter, Cousins began dicing up the Saints’ defense again, hitting on two third-and-long conversions, one to Kyle Rudolph and the other to Aldrick Robinson. On first-and-10 from the New Orleans 18, the flung a quick pass to Thielen on a play the Vikings have used with great success throughout this season.

After four yards, the Vikings’ star receiver was drilled by a Saints linebacker, sending the ball tumbling into Lattimore’s hands. He returned it to the Minnesota 33, which might have made it possible for the Vikings to hold the Saints to a field goal, but Laquon Treadwell inexplicably took a 15-yard penalty, setting up an easy touchdown for New Orleans.

At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover provides his Stock Market Report on the game:

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October 15, 2018

Arizona Cardinals 17, Minnesota Vikings 27, as the Vikings discover you’re still allowed to run the ball

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

The Cardinals finally got their first win of the season last weekend and came into Minneapolis hoping to get their second. The Vikings, returning home after a hard-fought win against the defending Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles were just hoping that they didn’t have a relapse to the Buffalo game a few weeks back.

The Vikings had to re-shuffle their offensive line yet again, as starting left tackle Riley Reiff was unable to suit up for the game with a foot injury, so Rashod Hill slid over to the left side and rookie Brian O’Neill got his first NFL start on the right. Despite the change, the line was able to open some gaps for running back Latavius Murray (starting in place of the injured Dalvin Cook) who logged the Vikings’ first rushing touchdown and first 100-yard rushing game this season. That didn’t mean that quarterback Kirk Cousins was untroubled by the Cardinal pass rush: he had several passes batted down at the line and he was sacked four times and lost a fumble that Cards safety Budda Baker scooped and ran back for a defensive touchdown (and a tie game). The Vikings took a 3-point lead into the half, and then dominated most of the second half both statistically and on the scoreboard. The Cardinals put together one efficient scoring drive, but that was all they could muster.

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