4 wins in a row and going into the bye 5-1 has a nice ring to it. It wasn’t always pretty but the Vikings got the job done, winning 24-16 over the Dolphins. I’ll go over how I viewed the offense, and defense play from today’s game against the Dolphins.
Today the offense wasn’t at its peak the first 4 drives went 3 and out. They didn’t get a first down until there was 5:55 left in the 2nd quarter. Coincidently enough they scored a TD on that drive, it ended in Cousins throwing a TD in his 36th straight game. Kirk ended up going 20/30 for 175 yds and 2 TDs. The O-line wasn’t at its best today, they gave up 3 sacks and outside of Dalvin’s 53-yard TD run, they didn’t open much for holes. Dalvin finished with 13 carries for 77 yards and 1 TD. Without his long TD run in his return home, he would have had a quiet game. Jefferson finished with 6 catches and 107 yards after a very slow start. Thielen had 4 catches for 36 yds and 1 TD. All in all the offense did enough to help get the victory but they went 3 and out on 10 of 15 drives. They can’t keep doing that and expect to win. The bye is coming at the right time.
The defense played well after the 1st quarter. They allowed over 100 yards in that quarter alone, I know the offense wasn’t helping. In the first half, the Dolphins helped the defense by creating a lot of penalties. On one drive they had over 40 yards in penalties, knocking themselves out of Field Goal range. In the second half, the defense came out and played better, they had a bend but don’t break the game plan. They ended up getting 6 sacks, Patrick Jones with his first two career sacks, and Za’darius Smith (2) led the way. The line was able to get after Dolphin QBs today and pressure them. They forced 3 turnovers, 1 int right before half, 1 int, and 1 fumble toward the end of the game that helped burn some clock. The defense ended up giving up 458 yards, which isn’t great but they managed to do enough to win the game.
Now we are going to go into some numbers/records that happened for the Vikings in this game, that I haven’t already mentioned:
– WR Justin Jefferson (3,670) passed WR Jerry Rice (3,575) and Mike Evans (3,578) for most receiving yards through a player’s first three seasons in the NFL.
– Adam Thielen now has 51 career receiving touchdowns, passing Sammy White (50) for fourth all-time in franchise history.
– Harrison Smith has now recorded 31 career interceptions and is tied with S Nate Wright for the fifth-most INTs in franchise history.
– P Ryan Wright’s career-high 73-yard punt is tied with Greg Coleman and Bobby Walden for the fifth-longest in franchise history.
– Since entering the league in 2011, Peterson (30) has recorded the fourth-most interceptions in the NFL. He also has 1 in every season of his career.
– It’s just the second time EVER that the Vikings have won a game with less than 240 yards and over 450 opponent yards.
– The Vikings’ defense generated 25 pressures in Week 6, their most in a game since Week 11, 2016.
Phil Kujawa