Chances are, if you’ve ever read anything I’ve written, it was about baseball. I’ve been working behind the scenes at Daily Norseman for a couple of months now, and am ready to start writing a little bit more than just the open thread every few days.
But I realize my limitations. Football is my second love, and it’s not like I’m completely without knowledge of the game. In fact, I wrote the game notes for Fox’s coverage of the game.
So what I deduced could be fun is observations from the average fan. I might not be able to diagnose a Cover 2 as well as Arif Hasan or break down film like Luke Braun, but like Luke I think I can learn as the season goes from our community.
So let’s go! Here are my observations from Week 1.
Let’s start with the blatantly obvious:
- Sam Darnold was ballin’
To the outside observer, 200 passing yards might not seem like much. But for some context, 18 passers threw for 200-plus yards in Week 1 last season. So far this season — albeit with Monday Night Football left — only 14 have done so. That might not seem like much of a, but it’s a reduction of 22.2 percent as is, and it could stay there with neither the Jets nor the 49ers a huge high-volume passing offense (the 49ers more so, but the Jets are a tough defense to roll up yards on, anyway).
The Vikings kept Darnold upright for much of the day, and he rewarded them greatly.
He showed tremendous touch all day long with good velocity on his throws besides, and nicely manipulated the defense on his 44-yard completion to Justin Jefferson early in the second quarter.
That wasn’t his only great throw to Jefferson on the drive, either, as they capped it with a fourth-down touchdown on a quick slant from three yards out.
Let’s not forget he completed the first 12 passes of his day, and his interception was on a play that was less about poor decision-making and more about being hit as he was thrown. That’s not to try absolve him of any blame, but watching some other quarterbacks in Week 1 — like, you know, the guy who just left here — makes one feel a bit better about how the ball came out of Darnold’s hand against the Giants.
With one game remaining in Week 1, Darnold was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded quarterback with an 88.1 — just ahead of Patrick Mahomes (87.9) — and the second-highest graded passer (86.2) behind Derek Carr.
We’ve seen plenty of one-week wonders — especially at quarterback, especially with the Vikings — but there’s plenty to dream on here. Darnold felt like the kind of guy someone’s going to sign for four years and $160 million in the offseason — and hopefully not regret it.
- Andrew Van Ginkel was everywhere
AVG was anything but average in Week 1, and as of this writing ranks 10th in PFF grade among defenders (90.6, just ahead of teammate Harrison Smith who was at 90.4 and 11th).
But this is also simple box-score watching. AVG had a pick-six, a sack, four total tackles, one pass defensed and a pair of quarterback hits.
Any guesses on the last Vikings player with a sack and a pick-six in the same game? That’s right — you have to go back a full decade (10 years plus one day) when a fresh-faced Harrison Smith had one of each against the Rams in Week 1 of 2014 (Sept. 7).
Since 2000, only four Vikings have done so:
- Van Ginkel – Week 1, 2024
- Smith – Week 1, 2014
- Kevin Williams – Week 1, 2007
- Lance Johnstone – Week 7, 2003
Feels like it might be a Week 1 thing?
- Harrison Smith is ageless
See above for his 90.4 grade, but no wonder he’s not ready to say this is his last year. Sheesh.
- Daniel Jones is #not #good
There was plenty of bad quarterback play from well-compensated passers on Sunday, and right near the top of the list was Jones — who is/was just six games into his mega deal with the Giants.
He was rendered completely ineffective by Brian Flores’ defense and well, himself, on the way to a 22-for-42 day with 186 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. He was also sacked five times — which is not an encouraging start when considering Giants passers were sacked 20 more times than any other team last season.
Jones averaged just 4.4 yards per attempt on Sunday, a mark salvaged by the fact that four passers attempted at least 20 passes and somehow posted worse numbers. Two of them were in their NFL debuts — Bo Nix (3.3) and Caleb Williams (3.2) — one was a sophomore who still has a lot to prove (Will Levis, 4.0) and the other was human trash bag Deshaun Watson (3.8).
Jones’ legs didn’t help him much, either, as he rushed for just 15 yards on six totes (2.5 average).
Surely, there was pressure on Sunday. The Vikings graded out second (again, so far) in pass defense with an 82.9 PFF grade, but it wasn’t necessarily due to pass rush (59.8 grade, 22nd).
Instead, it was just way too much of this:
The calls for Drew Lock have begun. Normally, I’d preach caution. I’m not prone to overreaction — but this might not be overreacting. It’s bad.
- Aaron Jones appears to have some juice left
This is just more simple box-score watching, as the Vikings exhibited nice pass-run balance (24 pass attempts, 26 rush attempts) and gave Jones 14 carries for 94 yards (6.7 average) with a touchdown.
I know many of us would still like to see what Ty Chandler is capable of, but he didn’t make much of his eight rushes (17 yards), though he did provide help in the pass game with three catches for 25 yards.
That may be a nice balance to strike between a more traditional runner and a receiving back.
That also might be important, because…
- Jordan Addison’s ankle is….somewhat concerning
I’m still holding out hope because he managed to walk off under his own power, but an injury to a very important spot on a wide receiver’s body is already bad — and they ruled him out quickly.
It’s worth noting that this injury was to his right ankle (his gas pedal ankle); his issue this summer was to his left one. Is this better news? I’m honestly….not sure?
T.J. Hockenson won’t return for a while yet, and while Jalen Nailor made a nice play on his only target for a 21-yard touchdown, the Vikings are still pretty thin when it comes to pass-catchers.
Depending on the severity of Addison’s injury, it could make sense for the Vikings to monitor the trade market — it’s still early, but as teams sputter out of the gates, things will change — because the Vikings can ill afford to squander a quick start with the Packers dealing with Jordan Love’s injury and Caleb Williams looking about as seasoned as freshly caught salmon in his NFL debut.
One issue, however, is the Vikings don’t have much in the way of picks to deal — only three, and just one before the fifth round — though they ought to recoup one for the Cousins departure.
Still,
- The Vikings showed some serious mental toughness early
The first drive started about as poorly as one could for the Vikings. Jones rushed for a yard, Darnold was sacked and on third and 16, a dump-off pass to C.J. Ham resulted in an eight-yard gain — and a fumble that Bobby Okereke recovered and brought to the 20-yard line. Still, the Vikings held the Giants to a field goal — and held onto the ball the rest of the way.
Still, it’s already difficult enough to overcome an early fumble that puts the opposing team in the red zone.
And as we saw last season, early fumbles can put a team behind early — and those holes are obviously difficult to dig out of.
In Minnesota’s Week 1 loss last season to the Bucs, the team fumbled on their second and third offensive drives, and for good/bad measure threw a pick just before halftime.
Both of those fumbles were crushing in their own way. The first halted a nine-play drive that had spanned 60 yards and more than five minutes. The second was on a three-play drive that actually netted minus-6 yards and was recovered by Antoine Winfield Jr. (twist the knife a little more, huh) on the 18-yard line (and also led to a field goal).
There are no good times to fumble, obviously, but those drives ending how they did sure seemed to leave a cloud hanging over the team early on last season.
In Week 2 in Philadelphia, the Vikings fumbled on their second and fourth offensive drives — they only had four in the first half — and then on the opening drive of the second half, the Vikings fumbled which led to an Eagles touchdown and a 20-7 lead just over a minute into the second half.
The Vikings persisted and made a game of it but ran out of time in a 34-28 loss.
In Week 3, the Vikings fumbled on their first offensive possession, leading to a Chargers touchdown and a 7-0 lead that had them playing from behind yet again. And again, the Vikings made a game of it, but ran out of time in a 28-24 loss as Cousins threw an interception from the 6-yard line as the Vikings were driving to possibly win.
Again, absolutely soul-crushing play to start the season.
So to see the Vikings take a “here we go again” and progress into what became an ass-kicking is encouraging, even if tempered by the fact that the Giants may in fact be awful.
- The dynamic kickoff rules are lame — for now
I still have hope — but there may need to be some modifications. To my untrained eye, the potential for excitement is here. But like all new innovations, coaches will need time to figure out how to exploit/best use the resources at their disposal.
But for now, there have been 159 kickoffs and 101 touchbacks (63.5 percent). Last season, there were 2,698 kickoffs and 1,970 touchbacks (73.0 percent). That’s not quite enough for me to get too excited yet, but I think it’s going to change as the season goes on.
