There were certain games that all Vikings fans circled on the schedule when the NFL released them back on May 15th. You always circle the division matchups, any primetime games, and of course, the game against your former quarterback and his new team. Going into the season, if you had said that one of these two teams would be floating between in and out of the playoffs and the other team would be one of the most explosive in the league, many people would say that the Falcons would be the latter. But the revival of Sam Darnold’s career and the injury to Kirk Cousins rearing its ugly head, the roles are reversed.
Vikings fans were stern with Cousins as he took the field, greeting him with subtle boos. Nothing malicious by Vikings fans, I truly believe they are grateful for what he brought to the organization. But the Vikings are in the midst of a knock-down, drag-out, bare-knuckles brawl for the prized one-seed in the NFC (first-round bye and home-field advantage thru the playoffs). There’s no room right now for sentiment, the Vikings (fans included) are out for blood. So much so, the organization played no sort of tribute video for Cousins’ time in Minnesota, a common practice for a player who returns to play against their old team. I thought about whether this was a risky move by the Vikings, would that fire up Cousins even more? Then I remembered Kirk gets fired up about the 20% off rack at Kohl’s, not about getting snubbed in a pregame tribute video.
Atlanta’s offensive line did a pretty good job protecting Cousins considering his glaring lack of mobility and the fact that Vikings DC Brian Flores blitzed more than a Gregg Williams Jets defense*. Flores’ gameplan was simple, Cousins can’t move so lets make him move. This would ultimately lead to more Kirk Cousins mistakes that Falcons fans like me are begrudgingly becoming accustomed to.
The two quarterbacks could not have played games more polar opposite of each other. Sam Darnold had the game of his career, throwing 22/28 for 347 and five total touchdowns. Cousins had the game that might signal the beginning of the end of his career, throwing two interceptions and no touchdowns for his fourth straight game. The Vikings receiving corps was essentially running routes on air against a Falcons defense whose heads were spinning so fast they were covering their teammates better than their opponents. I have never seen NFL receivers as open as frequently as Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson were yesterday afternoon. On multiple different occasions Addison and Jefferson would make a catch with a 20-yard radius of space surrounding them, along with a couple Falcons defenders on their backs. It was a route-running clinic.
Minnesota’s air attack has ascended to a level that has become almost unstoppable in the NFL. There are three, maybe four teams in the league that can essentially get anything they want on offense right now. Those teams are the Bills, Lions, Rams and Vikings. The Bills are the outlier because the offense goes as Josh Allen does, but the other three teams all have one thing in common. Two elite receivers that defenses simply cannot cover together. Because of an early onslaught of injuries, the Rams are on playoff life support. But, as proved in yesterday’s 44-42 shootout with Buffalo, their offense can go toe-to-toe with anyone thanks to Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. The Lions offense is humming for a multitude of reasons, Jared Goff is playing at an MVP level, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery are the best one-two punch out of the backfield in the NFL, but they too have an elite-level duo at receiver with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams. It’s the same thing with Minnesota. Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson are each others perfect yin and yang.
Guys like Justin Jefferson are nearly impossible to cover man to man. He is just physically more talented and gifted than every defender literally on the planet. To combat this, defenses will “bracket” cover him which means two defenders float around him. This helps limit Jefferson’s productivity but it uses a valuable body that is now vacant somewhere else. Queue Jordan Addison. Because of how much attention Jefferson was getting, Addison was able to expose the open spaces of the defense. Once defenses picked up on it, they started to pay more attention to Addison. While Addison’s production tempered slightly, Jefferson’s production started to pick up again. Then you have what happened yesterday, the Falcons defense being so thoroughly outmatched by both of these guys that they just run roughshod all over Atlanta’s secondary. Jefferson finished with 7 catches for 132 yards and 2 TD’s. Addison finished with 8 catches for 133 yards and 3 TD’s. Both stat lines are career games for most receivers, and these two guys did it on the same team in the same game. Unbelievable what this offense can do.
You have to feel good for Sam Darnold in all of this too. He was the guy who was never really slated to be “the guy”. Cousins wanted too much money, the Vikings wanted to start fresh with a new franchise QB, but they just needed Sam Darnold to be the bridge-guy. No one could have expected what Darnold would blossom into under Kevin O’Connell’s regime. Even myself who was shouting from the rooftops for Vikings fans to just trust that Sam Darnold would be able to facilitate this offense has been blown away with his success. Maybe the lack of expectations around him was a blessing in disguise for Sam Darnold opening himself up to play more freely and comfortably. Whatever confidence was instilled within Darnold is paying off 10x over.
Even with the win, the Vikings still find themselves in a precarious playoff position with the Lions bus showing no signs of making any stops. Even at 11-2, because the Lions sit at 12-1 the Vikings are currently in the 5-seed behind the other division winners. This would mean if the playoffs started tomorrow the Vikings would be on the road against a gritty Buccaneers team, not an ideal first-round draw. This makes it crucially important for Minnesota to take care of business over the next three weeks versus the Bears, Seahawks and Packers because the final game of the season is against Detroit and that could be for all the marbles. Minnesota fans, you now become Bills fans for the week. Welcome, we’re glad to have you! If the Bills beat Detroit Sunday, you are a Sunday Night Football win over the Bears away from being tied for the one-seed. Don’t worry, there is always room for you within Bills Mafia!
*Gregg Williams earned the nickname “Dr. Heat” during his time as defensive coordinator for the Jets because he blitzed so much. He even cost the Jets a game by blitzing 8 players on a hail-mary that was completed by the Raiders.
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