Vikings Squeak Out 27-24 OT Win Over Jaguars

That game was far more stressful that it ever needed to be, and it began before the game even started. Once we figured out that Eric Kendricks wasn't going to be playing due to an injury suffered in pre-game warmups it was like a gut punch, and it was easy to tell that the defense felt it. Mike Glennon tore apart the defense on that opening drive, which ended in a "touchdown pass" that quickly swung all of the momentum their way. Right when the Vikings were back in the swing of things starting the second half, is right when we lost momentum again from the Jaguar's pick six. But it was good to see the fight that this team had. They could've easily rolled over and died after that point, but they fought back into the game and came out with a win, although with a little more work than was needed. It was nice to see these kinds of efforts in back to back weeks, where we were able to climb our way out of a hole. The biggest issue at this point is to stop falling into the damn hole in the beginning of a half.

I thought Cousins played really well in this game, besides the interception and the fumble although it's still murky what happened between him and Cook on that fumble. Cousins finished the game with 28 completions on 43 attempts for 305 yards and 3 touchdowns, all to different receivers. For the most part I thought Cousins made good decisions with the ball and regularly got the ball out quickly. There was a few ill-advised throws that I questioned as soon as the ball left his hand, such as the deep shot down the sidelines to Thielen at the end of the fourth quarter. He took a few sacks that I would like to see him avoid, but he is also getting better at using his legs to avoid pressure as he had 3 carries for 12 yards. Behind a shaky offensive line performance, I thought Cousins stood his ground in the pocket and delivered some really nice throws, which is something he didn't do a lot in recent years. It's always good to see the quarterback improving, and it has been really exciting to watch Cousins lead the Vikings on this current hot streak they're on.

Of course a strong passing game benefits from a strong rushing game, which we have in Dalvin Cook. The first half was a really shaky start, and he really couldn't find anything to get going. He finished the game with 32 carries for 120 yards, as well as 6 receptions for 59 yards. If you look at the final numbers Cook had a really solid performance, but he doesn't seem truly dominate as he was weeks prior against the Packers or Lions. Cook is still the star of this team, and I credit Gary Kubiak for always finding a way to get him involved in the game plan when everybody in the world knows the ball is going to him. It's always exciting to see Cook turn a corner and get up field because you forget how fast this guy is when you look at him. He has the built of a power back but still has explosive speed that scares you when he gets into open field. His strong running game is essential to the offense, even when his numbers don't reflect it, just because he always keeps the defense on their toes.

Most of the receiving today came between Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. Jefferson had 9 catches for 121 yards and a touchdown, and Thielen had 8 catches for 75 yards and a touchdown. Both receivers seemed like they were always trying to create plays, and Thielen came up huge on a lot of third down conversions. His comeback routes right at the sticks are practically impossible to guard and it kept our drives moving a lot of times when we really needed it. Jefferson has been the explosive player this season, and is always drawing comparisons to Randy Moss. I think they're well deserved after he became only the 5th receiver in NFL history to have over 1000 yards receiving in their first 12 career games, and he's done so in such a way that bring so much energy to the offense. The griddy is becoming a team favorite dance move because of him, and it seems like he is always smiling or working. It's always positive to see a guy like that just having fun and racking up yards and touchdowns, especially when he's on our side. Shoutout to C.J. Ham for also scoring a touchdown because fullback touchdowns are amazing and should happen more. The only receiver that I felt really slacked in todays game was Kyle Rudolph. He had a few targets but was held catchless. I had really felt that he was going to be a huge part of the game today, but he was mostly a blocker. I think part of it might be the absence of Irv Smith Jr., but I thought Rudolph still should have seen some more passes come his way.

The defense played really well, and Cam Dantzler had a couple of huge moments. They only allowed 2 touchdowns on the day, one on the first drive and one on the last in regulation. To be fair, I will not say we allowed that first touchdown, but rather the football gods felt bad for them and handed them that first touchdown. The defense was also shell shocked on the first drive because they noticed Troy Dye and Todd Davis in at linebacker instead of Kendricks and went right after them. But the adjustments got made and they settled into their style of defense. They really slowed down James Robinson after a strong first half, and they limited their receivers to a lot of small gains to the tightends. Dantzler also came away with his first career interception, and he forced a fumble, both of which swung the tides in our favor. We saw slightly more pressure on Glennon today, but we still noticeably miss Danielle Hunter and Michael Pierce. Ifeadi Odenigbo also had a huge safety sack that allowed the Vikings to get the ball and make it an 8 point game. And of course Harrison Smith had a huge interception in overtime that allowed Dalvin Cook to salt the game away. The defense is getting better and better every week, especially the young corners like Dantzler, Jeff Gladney, and Kris Boyd. The "bend don't break" style of defense is really scary to watch and it gives the opposing teams a lot of yards, but it keeps them out of the endzone for the most part. The only bad time to run it is when you're protecting a one possession game and let the team march right down the field to tie the game up, but if we stop doing that we're golden.

The special teams still sucks and it's frustrating to watch. To be fair the punt coverages on both sides of the football improved drastically. I think I saw K.J. Osborn return a punt for the first time this week because he wasn't immediately surrounded by defenders when he caught the ball. He had another fumble on a return, which luckily didn't cost us, but it was nice to see us run punts back rather than muff them due to constant pressure. On the opposite of the ball, I felt our punt coverage improved a little. Not quite as much as the return side, but we pinned the Jaguars back a couple times and made some good tackles to prevent big returns. The main issue is the kicking. 5 points were left off the scoreboard today due to missed kicks that probably would've kept us out of overtime and relieved us of the stress we endured. Dan Bailey is a great kicker, but it doesn't matter when he puts on a Vikings jersey, he is then cursed. The Vikings kicker haunting continues as we haven't found a consistent kicker since Ryan Longwell. At this point I don't know what to say about the two missed extra points and the missed game winning field goal. It didn't seem like a bad snap or a bad hold like in recent weeks, it just seems like he kicked the ball wrong. The spin on the ball was very noticeably wrong and pushed every kick wide. Hopefully he can clear this up before next weeks huge game.

We're in a good spot right now, but also very dangerous. We control a lot of our own destiny from this point if we just keep winning games. Perhaps the biggest game of the year is next week against the Bucs, who are now just one spot above the Vikings in the wild card standings. IF we are able to beat the Bucs then we can start to move up the chain towards a potential 5 seed wild card rather than 7, or if we're super lucky maybe catch the Packers. However if we lose to the Bucs this next week we'll be sitting at 6-7 and scrambling to make up ground in a fight with a lot of teams such as the Cardinals, Lions, Bears, and 49ers. A win would be huge for the playoff push next week, but I have serious doubts about our secondary's ability to cover all of the weapons the Bucs possess. I hope we're up to the test, but it is a huge test and I think we're really going to need to put some pressure on Brady. I've said it a lot recently but with the progress we've been making this year with such a decimated defense, it makes me really excited to see what we can do next year when we're restored. We played todays game against the Jaguars without either starting DE, without 2/3 starting LBs, without our starting DT, and without some of our top corners and we still only allowed two touchdowns all day. Granted it was the Jaguars but the progress is definitely there and when combined with the stars like Hunter, Barr, Pierce, and Kendricks in full health I think we're going to be dangerous. Hopefully it's not blind hope.

As always, with cautious optimism, skol Vikings.