[OC] Full Notes on Vikings vs Lions Part 1
This week’s notes are going to be a little bit different. Previously I was looking at PFF’s highest grade O and D player but this game the D was so damn dominate the top 4 graded players were all defenders. So this week you get to enjoy the beautiful defensive performance put on by Everson Griffen, Danielle Hunter, Linval Joseph and Anthony Barr.
Everson Griffen 90.7
Everson Griffen made headlines last week by saying the Lions LT Greg Robinson was lazy, normally this is a faux pas but man Griffen whooped him so badly he can call him whatever he wants.
Griffen has faced more chip blocks than any other defender through a quarter of the season and this game was no different. He faced the likes of chips and double teams plus the Lions quick passing O yet still managed to wreak havoc.
Took get an idea of how freakish this dude is, check out the power he packs on this bullrush
That’s crazy power
In the 4th quarter the Lions decided to single block him for some reason and he literally beat the LT off the rip
Later after jumping offsides to give the Lions an easier 3rd down attempt he’s left one on one vs a TE for some reason and runs by him like he was doing a bag drill, he then chases down and hits Stafford leading to throwing one of 4 dropped picks (Griffen was partly responsible for 2 of them)
With the 2 minutes to go in the game and the Vikings needing the ball back after a failed 4th down attempt, Griffen slants inside vs the run redirects when he sees the pulling blocker and RBs and makes the TFL
Griffen terrorized the Lions all game and was virtually unblockable one on one, Danielle Hunter received a lot of the fanfare last year but Griffen has steadily been our best DE and one of the top DEs in the league.
Danielle Hunter 86.2
Danielle Hunter had a breakout sophomore season, showing the league that he was forreal at only 21 years old. Through three weeks he had zero sacks on the season, but was quietly making his impact on the field. This week he was anything but quiet, in fact, he basically brought a megaphone to the game letting the Lions feel his presence from literally the first play of the game.
The clock his still sitting at 15:00 when this ball is snapped and Hunter bullrushes the RT before hitting the inside move for his first sack of the 2017 season.
Hunter waits until the first quarter is coming to a close before picking up his second sack of the year. This time he jumps outside playing the run before jumping back inside seeing the OT overplaying him, plus the RB coming to help, before spinning back outside then getting low and making a holy sh*t how the h*ll did he do that one arm sack on Matthew Stafford.
The last time I remember seeing a one arm sack this sick was when Jared Allen sacked Eli Manning by pulling him down with one hand while still being blocked by the OT the entire time.
In the second quarter on a third down Hunter shows off his world-class athleticism timing his jump to easily bat the ball down.
Hunter was on fire this game and the 22-year-old is looking to show the world that the Vikings have the best edge rush duo in the entire NFL.
Linval Joseph 85.2
Through 3 weeks of the season, Linval Joseph was registering the highest run stop percentage among all interior defenders per PFF. Versus the Lions our resident run stopping king was on his A game, despite Abdullah putting up solid numbers on some missed assignments and tackles but other Viking defenders.
I’ve said before that Linval cannot be blocked one on one and through a quarter of the season I’m still waiting to be proven wrong.
Look how easily he runs sideways on this stretch play basically ignoring the OL to make a stop for zero yards.
Later with little over 2 minutes left and the Vikings needing the ball back, he gets even more disrespectful to the Lions OL. For some reason, the Lions try blocking him solo so he ragdolls this 300+ lb grown man and makes the tackle for only one yard.
Like I’ve mentioned before Linval has progressed very well as a pass rusher and here he walks his blocker back and sheds for a big sack in the redzone, taking advantage of the near miss sack by Hunter.
Linval is the king of run stopping so far this year while also throwing in a pocket collapsing ability that has elevated his game to level that’s put him in the tier right below the Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh aliens of the world.
Anthony Barr 84.2
Enough has been said about Anthony Barr’s great disappearing act last year, but this season has seen a turnaround that most believed would never happen. He’s back to making plays all over the field for the first quarter of the season. The top pass rushing off ball LB has also reverted back to a much more aggressive player in the run game and an absolute star in the pass coverage.
In the first quarter, Barr shows off the upside in the run game, mirroring the ball carrier before exploding to make the tackled after the RB commits to trying to hit the edge.
Barr makes this look extremely easy but as we saw all game Abdullah is an elite athlete with crazy cuts and breakaway speed. Barr, however, is an elite athlete in his right and uses his closing speed and angle to easily handle a back who gave many Vikings trouble all game.
In the second quarter, Barr makes a near perfect play, first getting his hands on the TE to disrupt the timing of the play before getting his eyes back to Stafford and making a ridiculously athletic play on the ball to breakup (drop) the pass.
Later in the game on the Lions’ only TD drive Barr comes on the blitz easily beating the RB and forcing Stafford to scramble eventually leading to a dropped pick by Trae Waynes in the endzone (an all too common theme).
This play in the 3rd quarter was what really convinced me that 2016 Anthony Barr was gone. On the screen Barr avoids the cutblock before bringing down Abdullah in space for only 3 yards. What really stands out here is his ability to avoid the cutblock, because last year he was consistently taken out of screen plays after being cut down by an olineman. Seeing him easily avoid the cut makes me really believe whatever was going on with him last year is done, hopefully for good.
The defense was on fire this game, flying all over the field and making play after play, only giving up 14 points vs a good Lions offense. Sadly, the effort was wasted by a piss poor Vikings offense which seems to be a theme vs the Lions lately. However, this was a stellar game by the D that gives hope for the season, once a non backup QB is in, even with the loss of Dalvin Cook.
Other Notes:
Stefon Diggs: Still good.
Adam Thielen: Still good.
Kyle Rudolph: Too often ignored by Keenum (was the team’s highest graded player on O with an 81.3 grade).
Dalvin Cook: Gone too soon.
The run game: Toast...Again.
Keenum: His scattershot accuracy shows why he’s only a backup.
Eric Kendricks: Besides the missed tackles and a blown coverage assignment actually did fine but yanno can’t ignore those missed tackles. That must be cleaned up.
Mike Zimmer: The pressure package was bringing heat again.
Kai Forbath: Why isn’t he a FA yet??
Mackensie Alexander: Looking much improved.
Everson Griffen 90.7
Everson Griffen made headlines last week by saying the Lions LT Greg Robinson was lazy, normally this is a faux pas but man Griffen whooped him so badly he can call him whatever he wants.
Griffen has faced more chip blocks than any other defender through a quarter of the season and this game was no different. He faced the likes of chips and double teams plus the Lions quick passing O yet still managed to wreak havoc.
Took get an idea of how freakish this dude is, check out the power he packs on this bullrush
That’s crazy power
In the 4th quarter the Lions decided to single block him for some reason and he literally beat the LT off the rip
Later after jumping offsides to give the Lions an easier 3rd down attempt he’s left one on one vs a TE for some reason and runs by him like he was doing a bag drill, he then chases down and hits Stafford leading to throwing one of 4 dropped picks (Griffen was partly responsible for 2 of them)
With the 2 minutes to go in the game and the Vikings needing the ball back after a failed 4th down attempt, Griffen slants inside vs the run redirects when he sees the pulling blocker and RBs and makes the TFL
Griffen terrorized the Lions all game and was virtually unblockable one on one, Danielle Hunter received a lot of the fanfare last year but Griffen has steadily been our best DE and one of the top DEs in the league.
Danielle Hunter 86.2
Danielle Hunter had a breakout sophomore season, showing the league that he was forreal at only 21 years old. Through three weeks he had zero sacks on the season, but was quietly making his impact on the field. This week he was anything but quiet, in fact, he basically brought a megaphone to the game letting the Lions feel his presence from literally the first play of the game.
The clock his still sitting at 15:00 when this ball is snapped and Hunter bullrushes the RT before hitting the inside move for his first sack of the 2017 season.
Hunter waits until the first quarter is coming to a close before picking up his second sack of the year. This time he jumps outside playing the run before jumping back inside seeing the OT overplaying him, plus the RB coming to help, before spinning back outside then getting low and making a holy sh*t how the h*ll did he do that one arm sack on Matthew Stafford.
The last time I remember seeing a one arm sack this sick was when Jared Allen sacked Eli Manning by pulling him down with one hand while still being blocked by the OT the entire time.
In the second quarter on a third down Hunter shows off his world-class athleticism timing his jump to easily bat the ball down.
Hunter was on fire this game and the 22-year-old is looking to show the world that the Vikings have the best edge rush duo in the entire NFL.
Linval Joseph 85.2
Through 3 weeks of the season, Linval Joseph was registering the highest run stop percentage among all interior defenders per PFF. Versus the Lions our resident run stopping king was on his A game, despite Abdullah putting up solid numbers on some missed assignments and tackles but other Viking defenders.
I’ve said before that Linval cannot be blocked one on one and through a quarter of the season I’m still waiting to be proven wrong.
Look how easily he runs sideways on this stretch play basically ignoring the OL to make a stop for zero yards.
Later with little over 2 minutes left and the Vikings needing the ball back, he gets even more disrespectful to the Lions OL. For some reason, the Lions try blocking him solo so he ragdolls this 300+ lb grown man and makes the tackle for only one yard.
Like I’ve mentioned before Linval has progressed very well as a pass rusher and here he walks his blocker back and sheds for a big sack in the redzone, taking advantage of the near miss sack by Hunter.
Linval is the king of run stopping so far this year while also throwing in a pocket collapsing ability that has elevated his game to level that’s put him in the tier right below the Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh aliens of the world.
Anthony Barr 84.2
Enough has been said about Anthony Barr’s great disappearing act last year, but this season has seen a turnaround that most believed would never happen. He’s back to making plays all over the field for the first quarter of the season. The top pass rushing off ball LB has also reverted back to a much more aggressive player in the run game and an absolute star in the pass coverage.
In the first quarter, Barr shows off the upside in the run game, mirroring the ball carrier before exploding to make the tackled after the RB commits to trying to hit the edge.
Barr makes this look extremely easy but as we saw all game Abdullah is an elite athlete with crazy cuts and breakaway speed. Barr, however, is an elite athlete in his right and uses his closing speed and angle to easily handle a back who gave many Vikings trouble all game.
In the second quarter, Barr makes a near perfect play, first getting his hands on the TE to disrupt the timing of the play before getting his eyes back to Stafford and making a ridiculously athletic play on the ball to breakup (drop) the pass.
Later in the game on the Lions’ only TD drive Barr comes on the blitz easily beating the RB and forcing Stafford to scramble eventually leading to a dropped pick by Trae Waynes in the endzone (an all too common theme).
This play in the 3rd quarter was what really convinced me that 2016 Anthony Barr was gone. On the screen Barr avoids the cutblock before bringing down Abdullah in space for only 3 yards. What really stands out here is his ability to avoid the cutblock, because last year he was consistently taken out of screen plays after being cut down by an olineman. Seeing him easily avoid the cut makes me really believe whatever was going on with him last year is done, hopefully for good.
The defense was on fire this game, flying all over the field and making play after play, only giving up 14 points vs a good Lions offense. Sadly, the effort was wasted by a piss poor Vikings offense which seems to be a theme vs the Lions lately. However, this was a stellar game by the D that gives hope for the season, once a non backup QB is in, even with the loss of Dalvin Cook.
Other Notes:
Stefon Diggs: Still good.
Adam Thielen: Still good.
Kyle Rudolph: Too often ignored by Keenum (was the team’s highest graded player on O with an 81.3 grade).
Dalvin Cook: Gone too soon.
The run game: Toast...Again.
Keenum: His scattershot accuracy shows why he’s only a backup.
Eric Kendricks: Besides the missed tackles and a blown coverage assignment actually did fine but yanno can’t ignore those missed tackles. That must be cleaned up.
Mike Zimmer: The pressure package was bringing heat again.
Kai Forbath: Why isn’t he a FA yet??
Mackensie Alexander: Looking much improved.
