Minnesota Vikings News and Links: One Stat Speaks to Vikings’ Sunday Night Dominance

The Minnesota Vikings won the toss on Sunday night and elected to defer, so the Indianapolis Colts got the ball first.

Jonathan Taylor gashed the Vikings for 22 yards on his first three carries — with a 22-yard third-down reception by Kyren Granson mixed in — but inexplicably fumbled the first-down handoff from the 30.

Harrison Smith recovered it and the Vikings were in business.

Little did we know then, but that was about as close as the Colts would get to an offensive touchdown on the night. They did reach the 23-yard line early in the fourth quarter when Matt Gay made it a 14-10 game with 12:41 left — but that’s all the further the Indianapolis offense advanced on a night it was outgained 415-227 and lost the time-of-possession battle, 36:54-23:06.

That’s right, the Colts offense took ZERO snaps in the red zone all night long, as noted by Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings:

This was just the fourth time this season that a team didn’t have a single offensive play in the red zone.

And while you might not even realize it, this was also true when the Vikings lost to the Lions in Week 7.

Some changes appear to be coming to the special teams unit, though not for a lack of success. Sure, Will Reichard missed a pair of kicks on Sunday night, but it appears he could be sidelined for the near term, while long-snapper Andrew DePaola is going on IR and will miss at least four games.

NFL Trade Rumors has a list of available kickers, but it’s unclear when it was last updated, as Riley Patterson, Anders Carlson, and Brandon McManus have all signed in the meantime. Carlson could be one to watch, especially if the 49ers are ready to turn their job back over to the injured Jake Moody.

Randy Bullock is another name to watch, as the 34-year-old appeared in six games with the Giants last season, nailing 5-of-6 field goals (56 long) and all 10 of his extra points. Bullock has not missed an extra point since 2021 (38-for-38 in 2022-23 combined).

Minnesota Vikings News and Links

Over at Purple Insider, Matthew Coller has a solid breakdown of the Vikings outlasting the Colts in a battle of attrition on Sunday night, 21-13.

Vikings got all their weapons involved in win over Colts

As I said a while back and will again, I think Sam Darnold played pretty well. Obviously, there were some brain-melting throws you’d like to have back. But if we can be candid about it, Darnold still makes a lot of throws that many other quarterbacks wouldn’t dream of — especially not at his price point.

Kevin Seifert had some love for Cam Akers, who played capably in relief of Aaron Jones on Sunday night with 53 scrimmage yards on eight touches.

NFL Week 9: Biggest questions, takeaways for every game

He also notes that Darnold had a “no, no, yes!” type of game — which I think is a. pretty accurate and b. how it felt with Kirk Cousins under center for large stretches, too.

Zone Coverage site co-founder Tom Schreier had a look into how the Vikings attacked Joe Flaccon on Sunday night — most notably their work in the C gap (gaps outside the offensive tackles).

The Vikings Attacked the Old Man Through the C Gap

Surely, a big part of this was the absence of Bernhard Raimann, the team’s usual starting left tackle, who was out due to a concussion. But this also allowed the Vikings to keep Flacco in the pocket, searching for wideouts who just weren’t getting open — outside of Josh Downs, as Michael Pittman Jr. had an entirely forgettable evening.

They also had the typical mailbag column over at the mothership from Craig Peters on Monday morning.

Monday Morning Mailbag: Fans’ Reactions After Vikings Top Colts

Plenty of love is heaped upon the defense therein — deservedly so — but Kevin O’Connell didn’t just give out game balls to defenders on the evening, and Peters took note.

In the news

• It’s already coach-firing season, as the Saints dismissed head coach Dennis Allen after the team dropped seven straight following a 2-0 start to the season. The straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were, was a loss to a woeful Carolina Panthers team that was forced to turn back to Bryce Young at quarterback. In the meantime, special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi will be the interim coach.
• Now I state this to bring some NFC North flavor to it — I keep seeing seeds of discontent being sown by Bears fans, with a loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday (29-9) ramping up the “fire Matt Eberflus” rhetoric considerably. Not only were the Bears embearassed — pun intended, sorry — by a Cardinals offense with no passing attack to speak of, but Caleb Williams took six sacks. The last of which left the rookie signal-caller hobbled after a six-yard pass to Keenan Allen on the final play of the game. No matter how one feels about Chris Godwin getting hurt on a relatively meaningless play at the end of a game a few weeks ago, this one might be more concerning. Not because Williams got hurt more, but because it just seems to show a lack of any sort of plan from Eberflus. I don’t think a firing is imminent, but I do think that the Saints letting Allen go may speed up that process.
• Moody (see above) returned to practice for the 49ers on Monday, as did running back Christian McCaffrey (fantasy owners rejoice!). We’ll keep an eye on the Moody situation, because if Carlson becomes available and the Vikings have a need, it really feels like he’d be option 1a to Bullock’s 1b. McCaffrey thinks he’ll play in Week 10 against Tampa, for what it’s worth.
• From the “every good wideout except Justin Jefferson is hurt” department, CeeDee Lamb is “week-to-week” with a sprained AC joint in his shoulder. It was evident that it was bothering Lamb late in Sunday’s loss, especially when he caught a two-point conversion pass and was jostled a bit by a converging defender. He expects to play against the Eagles next week — we’ll see.
• Does anyone else feel like the “week-to-week” injury designation has become the go-to this season?
• In addition to Lamb’s injury woes, Dak Prescott left the game in the second half and is dealing with a hamstring injury that has him, you guessed it, week-to-week. Cooper Rush will play under center in his absence.
• Other injured big-name wideouts: Drake London is dealing with a hip injury; Chris Olave suffered yet another concussion; Keon Coleman is undergoing additional tests on a wrist issue on Monday; A.J. Brown is dealing with a non-serious knee injury that knocked him out of the game in the third quarter on Sunday; Michael Pittman Jr. appeared to be suffering from a dislocated finger in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s game; Brian Thomas Jr. returned from a chest issue but caught just two passes for 22 yards; D.K. Metcalf missed a second straight game with a knee issue; Puka Nacua left the game with a brain cramp (ejected); Christian Watson is fine he just can’t catch the deep ball (just checking to see if you’re still paying attention, haha).

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