The good, the bad, and the ugly
The Minnesota Vikings improved to 5-0 this season and 4-0 all-time in London games with a 23-17 victory over the New York Jets.
But it wasn’t all the best of times for the Vikings in London, as once again a big early lead evaporated over the second half as the offense struggled and special teams screwed up.
Here are some takeaways:
The Good: The Vikings’ Defense
The Vikings’ defense won the game for them. They provided three takeaways including a pick six that were key in taking the big early lead and preserving the victory at the end of the game. They also held the Jets to just 36 yards rushing, 5/18 on 3rd/4th down, and just 3.6 yards per play and 254 total yards. They also had three sacks and several more hits and quarterback pressures. The only hiccup was allowing a 66% red zone conversion rate off of some special teams miscues.
The Bad: The Vikings’ Offense
This was going to be a tough game for Sam Darnold, as the Jets defense and the matchup in the secondary was the toughest he’s seen so far this season. It was a game to exploit the Jets weaker run defense by feeding Aaron Jones, but unfortunately he was sidelined late in the first half with a hip injury. Ty Chandler proved to be a noticeable downgrade, averaging just 2.1 yards per carry that put the Vikings’ offense in unfavorable passing situations.
Even without top cornerback Sauce Gardner for over a quarter, Darnold had trouble connecting with receivers much of the game. Darnold appeared to have trouble reading the Jets coverage, as he held the ball a long time on most dropbacks. He finished just 14/31 for 179 yards and an interception. That led to just a 50.3 passer rating and a 19.2 QBR. Both were by far his worst of the season. The offense was helped by a handful of pass interference penalties by the Jets’ defensive backs, but also had some costly penalties of their own.
Darnold holding the ball longer led to more pressures and sacks by the Jets’ defensive front. Kevin O’Connell said after the game that the Jets were taking away short routes (likely with man coverage) which forced Darnold to hold the ball for longer developing routes and generally deeper attempts later in the game.
Ty Chandler also fumbled a pitch in Jets’ territory which killed a promising drive.
But bottom line for the offense, this wasn’t a good game to lose Aaron Jones against a tough Jets pass offense but weaker run defense. Unfortunately Ty Chandler wasn’t able to replace Jones’ production, particularly on early downs.
The Ugly: Vikings’ Special Teams Except Will Reichard
Will Reichard came up huge in this game, making three long field goals including two over fifty yards. The punt coverage unit also was able to down two punts inside the ten yard line- as expected given the punts were from midfield.
But the punt teams committed several miscues that proved to be significant liabilities for the Vikings. The biggest was a marginal roughing the punter penalty against Ivan Pace Jr. There was also another holding penalty on a punt return that put the Vikings back inside the five yard line, another penalty for hitting the punt returner after a fair catch that put the Jets at midfield, and another poor punt coverage that allowed the Jets to start at the Vikings’ 31.
These are inexcusable miscues that put extra pressure on the defense and led to ten of the seventeen points scored by the Jets.
Given that kickoffs are effectively dead plays with nearly all of them being touchbacks, and a flawless kicker, punt returns and coverage teams are where coaching should be focused. And yet this is where the Vikings have struggled the most between penalties and some poor coverage. Vikings’ special teams coordinator Matt Daniels needs to do a better job coaching situational awareness and fundamentals. On punt coverage and returns so far this season, the big thing has been to avoid negative plays like stupid penalties and taking on a risky play that can lead to a negative play when it’s not needed or worth it.
The Vikings have been playing with significant leads, thanks to their top ranked offense and defense, when these special teams miscues have happened the last couple games. That shows poor situational awareness that could be coached before each special teams play. Daniels could do a better job coaching how to avoid special teams penalties and overall effectiveness for both punt teams. Daniels has been special teams coach for three seasons now and hasn’t really distinguished his coaching ability by the results on the field. The Vikings’ special teams have graded average or worse each season Daniels has been coordinator.
Daniels needs to do some heavy lifting as special teams coordinator during the Vikings’ bye-week to get things corrected. Replacing him isn’t a mid season priority at this point, but Daniels needs to show more over the rest of the season if he wants to be retained at the end of the season.
Amazing Stat
Aaron Rodgers, future first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the best quarterbacks all-time, is also the owner of an incredibly embarrassing stat for a quarterback of his caliber.
Prior to the London game, Aaron Rodgers is just 1-47 in games where he trailed in the fourth quarter against winning teams. Now he is 1-48. There were some older stats out there from 2018 (he was 0-37 at that point), and from 2021 when he was 0-42. But adding his 2022 season (he missed last season), updated it to 1-47, now 1-48. A surprising blemish on Rodgers’ HoF resume.
Bye-Week Bottom Line
The Vikings are 5-0 but need to be diligent in self-scouting and working on improvements against looks that have given them the most trouble on both sides of the ball. They also need to clean up special teams and do a better job of coaching in-game situational management and fundamentals.
Kevin O’Connell and Josh McCown also need to continue to coach Sam Darnold to eliminate the turnovers. That’s one area of his game that hasn’t improved so far this season.
They also need to prepare a solid game plan against the Lions and get healthy. Hopefully Aaron Jones will be back for the Lions game and T.J. Hockenson too. If the Vikings can beat the Lions at home after the bye-week, they may never fall out of first place en route to the division crown.
Stay tuned.
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