Post by Purple Pain on Sept 28, 2021 9:45:22 GMT -6
Vikings-Seahawks: 10 observations as Minnesota finally gets in the win column by Chad Graff
The Vikings’ 13-point win over the Seahawks on Sunday may have only been a Week 3 contest and only the first victory of the season for Minnesota. But it was clear afterward how much it meant to Mike Zimmer. For all the talk of how close the Vikings were to a 2-0 start, things could’ve gotten pretty bleak if they were 0-3 with Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns coming to town.
“It feels good to win,” Zimmer said. “Nice to finish out the game like we did.”
Amazingly, that was the Vikings’ first meaningful win since Week 13 last year when they beat the Jaguars. So before we turn our focus to the Browns, let’s look back at 10 things that stuck out from Sunday’s game.
1. We have to start with Kirk Cousins. This is easily the best three-game start to a season for Cousins, who has historically been a bit of a slow starter. But it’s also among the best three-game stretches of his entire career and it has him ranked among the best in the NFL. Let’s get into the numbers.
Cousins has completed 74 percent of his passes, thrown for 918 yards, has an adjusted average passing attempt of 9.06 and has thrown eight touchdowns without an interception. He ranks No. 2 in ESPN’s QBR (only behind Matthew Stafford and directly ahead of Teddy Bridgewater). In his last 10 games, he ranks second in passing yards (3,036), third in touchdowns (26), third in interceptions (two) and third in completion percentage (71). No matter how you look at it, Cousins is rolling.
Cousins has always put up decent stats. But what’s impressing Zimmer and teammates most are the individual important plays throughout a game where Cousins has struggled in the past. Case in point: third-and-5 with a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter Sunday. Fail to convert there and we start getting flashbacks of Russell Wilson leading fourth-quarter comebacks against the Vikings. The Seahawks brought an all-out blitz on that play. Cousins recognized it, bought time while backpedaling, then threw it to KJ Osborn, trusting that his receiver would get to the right spot and make a play.
“You see a flash of purple,” Cousins said of what he could see with linebackers charging at him. “You have a ballpark idea, but I think when I talk about getting reps, reps give you the ability to play on instinct, and so when you get a lot of reps on a play, you can see flashes of purple and just feel where you need to throw the ball.”
Cousins has had a lot of great three-game stretches — his trio in October of 2019 against the Giants, Eagles and Lions is probably the best. But he doesn’t have a lot of great four-game stretches. This could be a historical pace for him with another good game this week.
2. Speaking of Osborn, he was great again. I feel like we note him in this column every week, but he continues to do things that warrant attention.
The Vikings have lacked a viable third target since Jarius Wright left. But Osborn has stepped up when teams take away Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen in big moments. That’s Osborn now. He’s been targeted seven times on third or fourth down this season and has caught all seven passes.
“I have (lots) of trust in KJ’s ability to separate versus man coverage and go get the football,” Cousins said.
3. Everson Griffen is quickly becoming the team’s starting defensive end opposite Danielle Hunter. By Griffen’s own admission, it has been a work in progress after missing all of training camp and trying to get in game shape before Week 1. But Griffen’s playing time has gradually increased, and on Sunday, he played as many snaps as DJ Wonnum (34 each) and considerably more than Stephen Weatherly.
Griffen was the most effective of those three and notched a third-quarter sack of Wilson that produced arguably the loudest reaction from the home fans Sunday.
“It’s going to take a little bit,” Griffen said, “but I’m still getting my feet under me. The more reps I get, the better I feel like I’m going to get, and I’m going to start making my team better.”
4. Thanks to a text he got from Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison found out before the rest of us that Cook wasn’t going to play Sunday. Mattison said he went through the week a bit differently to account for getting all of the reps in practice and knowing he’d have a heavy workload against the Seahawks.
These games are important for Mattison, who wants to show that he can be a starting running back when his contract expires at the end of next season. And if Sunday was any indication, he’s right.
Mattison took a career-high 26 carries for a career-high 112 yards to go with 59 receiving yards. The Vikings have quite the luxury that they can go from arguably the league’s best running back to a backup who would be a starter on a lot of teams.
“It feels good to win,” Zimmer said. “Nice to finish out the game like we did.”
Amazingly, that was the Vikings’ first meaningful win since Week 13 last year when they beat the Jaguars. So before we turn our focus to the Browns, let’s look back at 10 things that stuck out from Sunday’s game.
1. We have to start with Kirk Cousins. This is easily the best three-game start to a season for Cousins, who has historically been a bit of a slow starter. But it’s also among the best three-game stretches of his entire career and it has him ranked among the best in the NFL. Let’s get into the numbers.
Cousins has completed 74 percent of his passes, thrown for 918 yards, has an adjusted average passing attempt of 9.06 and has thrown eight touchdowns without an interception. He ranks No. 2 in ESPN’s QBR (only behind Matthew Stafford and directly ahead of Teddy Bridgewater). In his last 10 games, he ranks second in passing yards (3,036), third in touchdowns (26), third in interceptions (two) and third in completion percentage (71). No matter how you look at it, Cousins is rolling.
Cousins has always put up decent stats. But what’s impressing Zimmer and teammates most are the individual important plays throughout a game where Cousins has struggled in the past. Case in point: third-and-5 with a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter Sunday. Fail to convert there and we start getting flashbacks of Russell Wilson leading fourth-quarter comebacks against the Vikings. The Seahawks brought an all-out blitz on that play. Cousins recognized it, bought time while backpedaling, then threw it to KJ Osborn, trusting that his receiver would get to the right spot and make a play.
“You see a flash of purple,” Cousins said of what he could see with linebackers charging at him. “You have a ballpark idea, but I think when I talk about getting reps, reps give you the ability to play on instinct, and so when you get a lot of reps on a play, you can see flashes of purple and just feel where you need to throw the ball.”
Cousins has had a lot of great three-game stretches — his trio in October of 2019 against the Giants, Eagles and Lions is probably the best. But he doesn’t have a lot of great four-game stretches. This could be a historical pace for him with another good game this week.
2. Speaking of Osborn, he was great again. I feel like we note him in this column every week, but he continues to do things that warrant attention.
The Vikings have lacked a viable third target since Jarius Wright left. But Osborn has stepped up when teams take away Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen in big moments. That’s Osborn now. He’s been targeted seven times on third or fourth down this season and has caught all seven passes.
“I have (lots) of trust in KJ’s ability to separate versus man coverage and go get the football,” Cousins said.
3. Everson Griffen is quickly becoming the team’s starting defensive end opposite Danielle Hunter. By Griffen’s own admission, it has been a work in progress after missing all of training camp and trying to get in game shape before Week 1. But Griffen’s playing time has gradually increased, and on Sunday, he played as many snaps as DJ Wonnum (34 each) and considerably more than Stephen Weatherly.
Griffen was the most effective of those three and notched a third-quarter sack of Wilson that produced arguably the loudest reaction from the home fans Sunday.
“It’s going to take a little bit,” Griffen said, “but I’m still getting my feet under me. The more reps I get, the better I feel like I’m going to get, and I’m going to start making my team better.”
4. Thanks to a text he got from Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison found out before the rest of us that Cook wasn’t going to play Sunday. Mattison said he went through the week a bit differently to account for getting all of the reps in practice and knowing he’d have a heavy workload against the Seahawks.
These games are important for Mattison, who wants to show that he can be a starting running back when his contract expires at the end of next season. And if Sunday was any indication, he’s right.
Mattison took a career-high 26 carries for a career-high 112 yards to go with 59 receiving yards. The Vikings have quite the luxury that they can go from arguably the league’s best running back to a backup who would be a starter on a lot of teams.
Link:
theathletic.com/2852371/2021/09/27/vikings-seahawks-10-observations-as-minnesota-finally-gets-in-the-win-column/
The Athletic:
Team that saved its season: The Vikings
On third-and-5 in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks sent a zero blitz at Kirk Cousins. Drifting backward and bracing for a big hit, he put terrific touch on a pass to K.J. Osborn for a 15-yard completion. Cousins was on fire all afternoon, completing 30 of 38 passes for 323 yards and three touchdowns. The Vikings had the best offensive performance of any team in Week 3 and the fifth-best offensive performance for any team in a single game so far this season, according to EPA per snap.
The defense got lit up early but shut out the Seahawks on three second-half possessions.
Minnesota entered the game 0-2, despite having just a minus-4 point differential. The Vikings won as home underdogs and are the only team in the NFC North with a positive point differential (plus-9).
On third-and-5 in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks sent a zero blitz at Kirk Cousins. Drifting backward and bracing for a big hit, he put terrific touch on a pass to K.J. Osborn for a 15-yard completion. Cousins was on fire all afternoon, completing 30 of 38 passes for 323 yards and three touchdowns. The Vikings had the best offensive performance of any team in Week 3 and the fifth-best offensive performance for any team in a single game so far this season, according to EPA per snap.
The defense got lit up early but shut out the Seahawks on three second-half possessions.
Minnesota entered the game 0-2, despite having just a minus-4 point differential. The Vikings won as home underdogs and are the only team in the NFC North with a positive point differential (plus-9).
Link:
theathletic.com/2851955/2021/09/28/bears-are-a-mess-raiders-are-cooking-and-chiefs-fans-dont-panic-colts-fans-do-nfl-week-3-reality-check/
Purple Insider:
Much will be made of Kirk Cousins’s first three games, none more impressive than Sunday’s win over Seattle where he tied a Vikings career high with a 93.3 QBR.
It would be hard to blame anyone for rushing to a Las Vegas betting window to place a long-shot MVP bet after Cousins’s fast start — Vegas Insider lists him as a +8000 proposition. The quarterback is top five in passing touchdowns (8), passer rating (118.3) and completion percentage (73.9%) while being one of six quarterbacks to not throw an interception.
If Cousins is to continue this red-hot run, odds are his offensive line has stayed hot in its own right.
The right side of the line has been outstanding so far. Right guard Oli Udoh is graded as the eighth-best full-time guard in football through three weeks, while Brian O’Neill is the only tackle in football not to allow a pressure.
Center Garrett Bradbury has improved greatly off a rough first week, and left guard Ezra Cleveland posted a career-high PFF grade in Week 2. Only Rashod Hill has arguably been a weak link, but most importantly, there haven’t been any offensive line scapegoats the last two weeks. The team is fourth in rushing yardage, and Cousins has only been sacked once in each game. His 4.03 percent sack rate in eighth-best in the league.
Though the sample size remains small, this is the type of balance from the offensive line the Vikings have sorely lacked.
“[Klint Kubiak] has had a great game plan the last three weeks,” said Bradbury. “Like we all said and we all talked about, the penalties hurt us Week 1, but I think he’s done an awesome job. Him and Kirk are really in sync right now. I thought we were balanced; that always helps out, too, and just hammering the technique. Coach Rauscher and Coach Steele have done a good job. We’re working hard on Wednesday through Friday leading up to the game and taking individual really seriously and hammering technique and making sure our hands are inside and we’re doing what we’re supposed to, because when Kirk has a clean pocket, we all see how good he can be.”
Cousins is torching teams from a clean pocket so far this season. When not pressured, Cousins has a passer rating of 127.9, third in the league and almost 50 points higher than his passer rating under pressure of 79.0. The quarterback has been kept clean on 73 percent of dropbacks, the seventh-highest rate in the NFL.
“They've done a great job,” said Cousins. “It's a good group, it's a young group, and they're well-coached. Phil [Rauscher]'s done a phenomenal job with them. They love Phil, and I’m proud of the way they're playing, running the football, protecting. A lot of fun to work with every day.”
It would be hard to blame anyone for rushing to a Las Vegas betting window to place a long-shot MVP bet after Cousins’s fast start — Vegas Insider lists him as a +8000 proposition. The quarterback is top five in passing touchdowns (8), passer rating (118.3) and completion percentage (73.9%) while being one of six quarterbacks to not throw an interception.
If Cousins is to continue this red-hot run, odds are his offensive line has stayed hot in its own right.
The right side of the line has been outstanding so far. Right guard Oli Udoh is graded as the eighth-best full-time guard in football through three weeks, while Brian O’Neill is the only tackle in football not to allow a pressure.
Center Garrett Bradbury has improved greatly off a rough first week, and left guard Ezra Cleveland posted a career-high PFF grade in Week 2. Only Rashod Hill has arguably been a weak link, but most importantly, there haven’t been any offensive line scapegoats the last two weeks. The team is fourth in rushing yardage, and Cousins has only been sacked once in each game. His 4.03 percent sack rate in eighth-best in the league.
Though the sample size remains small, this is the type of balance from the offensive line the Vikings have sorely lacked.
“[Klint Kubiak] has had a great game plan the last three weeks,” said Bradbury. “Like we all said and we all talked about, the penalties hurt us Week 1, but I think he’s done an awesome job. Him and Kirk are really in sync right now. I thought we were balanced; that always helps out, too, and just hammering the technique. Coach Rauscher and Coach Steele have done a good job. We’re working hard on Wednesday through Friday leading up to the game and taking individual really seriously and hammering technique and making sure our hands are inside and we’re doing what we’re supposed to, because when Kirk has a clean pocket, we all see how good he can be.”
Cousins is torching teams from a clean pocket so far this season. When not pressured, Cousins has a passer rating of 127.9, third in the league and almost 50 points higher than his passer rating under pressure of 79.0. The quarterback has been kept clean on 73 percent of dropbacks, the seventh-highest rate in the NFL.
“They've done a great job,” said Cousins. “It's a good group, it's a young group, and they're well-coached. Phil [Rauscher]'s done a phenomenal job with them. They love Phil, and I’m proud of the way they're playing, running the football, protecting. A lot of fun to work with every day.”
Link:
purpleinsider.substack.com/p/the-rundown-a-resurgent-offensive
... and neither is this Chris guy.