They can’t all be gems
Fans of the Minnesota Vikings didn’t need to wait long, if at all, to see that even really, really good teams win ugly sometimes.
Almost concurrently with the end of Sunday’s Vikings game, the Kansas City Chiefs prevailed 16-14 over the Denver Broncos when Will Lutz’s potential game-winning field goal was blocked at the final whistle.
The Chiefs had to erase a 14-3 deficit to even be in that position, and had to withstand Bo Nix marching — if you can call it that — downfield to put his team in position for the win. Only one play on the drive went for more than 10 yards (when Nix found Courtland Sutton for 13 yards on 3rd and 6 just after the two-minute warning.
One wouldn’t call it methodical per se, but the drive chewed up nearly six minutes of clock (5:57) on 13 plays while moving the ball just 43 yards.
And yet, the Chiefs prevailed. Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.
If one was still taken by the Vikings to look across the way to the Chiefs, Sunday Night Football provided yet another bit of proof as the Detroit Lions weathered five Jared Goff interceptions to walk off the Houston Texans at home on a 52-yard field goal that nearly donged off the upright.
The Lions erased a 23-7 lead to win 26-23 on that field goal.
Here are some fun facts on winning/losing a game with five interceptions:
- Goff was the first quarterback to throw five-plus interceptions in a game his team won since Matt Ryan threw five almost exactly 12 years ago in a 23-19 win over the Cardinals (Nov. 18, 2012).
- Since 2000, only three quarterbacks have thrown five picks in a team win: Goff, Ryan and Tony Romo, who did so in a 25-24 win over the Bills on Oct. 8, 2007.
- Before 2000, the most recent instance of a player throwing five-plus interceptions in a team win was when Wade Wilson did so for the Vikings on Oct. 26, 1987.
- The Lions are 2-8 (.200) all-time when a quarterback throws at least five interceptions in a game. The last/only time the team previously won such a game was on Nov. 26, 1944. Frankie Sinkwich threw three touchdown passes and six picks that day, a little over a year after the Lions lost a game where he threw one touchdown and seven picks in a 27-6 loss (Oct. 24, 1943).
- Since 2000, there have been 45 instances of a team with five-plus interceptions; those teams were 42-3 (.933), with those losses, of course, being the Goff/Ryan/Romo games.
This is largely a data dump, but being a stats geek I nerd out over this kind of stuff.
NFL Week 10 Recap: Minnesota Vikings 12, Jacksonville Jaguars 7
Byron Murphy Jr. was PFF’s highest-graded player on Sunday (89.1). Brian O’Neill was second (87.9) and Jags corner Ronald Darby was third (87.1). Go figure — a member of the Jaguars cornerback group scored well when Justin Jefferson was primarily held in check.
Another one is that the top Jaguars offensive players totaled 44 snaps on Sunday — the same number played by Aaron Jones, who was carted off late with a chest injury (though he did return). That number was 10th (!) on the team, with six Vikings offensive players playing 84 snaps.
Minnesota Vikings News and Links
Over at Purple Insider, Matthew Coller basically lays out how the Vikings were able to overcome what amounted to a 60-minute-long brain fart from Sam Darnold.
Vikings survive a dip in the Darnold roller coaster
He makes a really good point, too; if you were just box score watching and didn’t see the score, you’d think the Vikings won in blowout fashion.
Over at ESPN.com they had their Week 10 capsules for each game played. I had previously thought it was odd to do them on Monday morning, but honestly that’s with what, 95 percent of the games played for that week? I’m an idiot.
What we learned in NFL Week 10: We answered big questions and sized up every matchup
This week’s Vikings-Jaguars capsule more or less lays it out — the defense bailed out Sam Darnold this week while Parker Romo made all the kicks he needed to.
Speaking of Darnold, Tom Schreier of Zone Coverage has a look at if the clock has struck midnight on No. 14. He makes some pretty compelling points — including that the Jaguars had more picks on Sunday (three) than they’d had all season to that point (two).
Has the Clock Struck Midnight On Sam Darnold?
Darnold’s season has had a pretty unusual look to it. Take a look at his game-by-game passer ratings:
- 113.2
- 109.1
- 119.2
- 123.4
- 50.3
- 103.5
- 128.7
- 107.1
- 48.2
Seems like he just has to put up a clunker every three or four games. That’s not ideal, but also true of about 20-25 of 32 starting quarterbacks on a weekly basis.
Schreier also has a dive into the team’s new-look kicking unit where the only holdover from last week was punter Ryan Wright.
Will the Vikings Continue To Stress-Test Their New Kicking Unit?
And while it would be easy to give Romo all of the credit, long snapper Jake McQuaide deserves some love as well, as does holder Ryan Wright, who masterfully held on all four field goals — including one that had a bit of a wonky snap.
And I think a fun question would be this: how much does it matter that a holder had a different snapper and kicker than the week before? I bet it’d make for a good answer, anyway.
In the news
- According to ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert, the Vikings — notably, head coach Kevin O’Connell — seem optimistic that Aaron Jones will play against the Titans next week. The Tennessee defense has allowed 116.9 rushing yards per game this season (11th fewest) on 4.55 yards per carry (10th).
- Daniel Jones’ time as quarterback of the New York Giants may be up sooner than later. According to ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan, head coach Brian Daboll is “evaluating things” which would seem to indicate Drew Lock or Tommy DiVito could be the next man up. The only reason to bring this up is that it still feels like the Vikings were playing 4D chess by letting him win that playoff game against them.
- Matt Eberflus has already had to address Caleb Williams’s status, as the rookie quarterback has been put through the wringer in recent weeks. Since lighting up the Jaguars on Oct. 13 for 226 yards, four touchdown passes and one interception (124.4 rating), the results in the meantime have been….unsightly (three games): 48-for-95 (50.5 percent) for 468 yards (4.9 per attempt) with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions (64.7 passer rating). All of this seems notable, with Williams having been dropped into a very accommodating offensive setup with D’Andre Swift, Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, Rome Odunze and Cole Kmet at his disposal. That offense has combined for just 12 points in the last two games. They’ll play the Vikings twice in the span of four weeks between late November and mid-December.
- Eberflus also had to address rumors of a change at offensive coordinator, as things have been….ugly with Shane Waldron at the helm. It’s going to get worse before it gets better in the Windy City, and hopefully the Vikings can be part of that.
Every victory Monday or Tuesday, assuming I’m writing the links, we will celebrate as such:
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