Vikings Cough Up Game Against Lions

(by Travis Aune MN Sports Unlimited Founder)

The Vikings took one on the chin in more ways than one today at US Bank Stadium.  The Vikings dropped a pivotal division game to the Lions by a score of 14-7. The fact that this was such a winnable game leaves the fans frustrated. The defense was dominant holding Detroit to 251 total yards and sacking Lions QB Matthew Stafford six times. To make matters worse all world rookie running back Dalvin Cook appears to have a torn ACL and lost for the season.

            The offense was a train wreck. The biggest story coming out of the game offensively is the injury to Dalvin Cook who will be missed. Latavius Murray and Jerick Mckinnon will be counted on to carry the load. After a one week honeymoon Case Keenum came back to Earth as he went 16-30 for 219 yards, which was a far cry from his 369 yard performance the week before. Keenum struggled to find open receivers, consistently missing open targets. I think everyone got overly excited with Keenum after the one really good performance, but were disappointed in his performance today. A bright spot was Stephon Diggs who had 5 catches for 98 yards to continue his hot start.  Dalvin Cook had a good game averaging 5.1 per carry on 13 carries until he left the game. The biggest issue was turnovers as the Vikings had three fumbles by Jerick Mckinnon, Dalvin Cook, and Adam Thielen. The Lions cashed in as they scored 11 of their 14 points off of Viking turnovers.  I thought the offensive line played well except too many times tight end David Morgan was asked to block a defensive end and you can imagine how that went. The bottom line is the offense did not score enough points you can make excuses for them but it just was not enough points and that has to improve if they expect to win games going forward.

            Defensively, they were actually quite good as they held the high powered Lions offense to 251 total yards. The Vikings defense held Stafford to 19-31 for 209 yards. Stafford was under duress most of the game as he was sacked 6 times. That number could have been worse if the officials were willing to call holding penalties. The Vikings got two sacks from Danielle Hunter, one from Everson Giffen, one each from Eric Kendricks, Linval Joseph, and a team sack as well.  The defense constantly had Stafford on the run. As well as they did against the pass they were that porous against the run as Detroit rushed for 97 yards. Ameer Abdulah got 94 yards on 20 carries and almost ended a 55 game streak without a 100 yard rusher for the Lions. The 14 points that the defense gave up were almost directly related to the turnovers as eleven of the fourteen points came off turnovers. Xavier Rhodes was so good that Detroit just stopped throwing his way after some early attempts.

            There is no way to sugarcoat this it was a bad loss and one that is going to hurt for a long time with Cook out. The defense did its job, but the offense really struggled and that is unacceptable with the weapons that the Vikings have. Keenum missed way too many throws that need to be made to be a winning football team. It didn’t help that each time he had someone open he would miss him. The right decision is to sit Keenum and put Bradford back in the lineup. Keenum did well last week but his real place is as a backup QB. It also didn’t help that Kai Forbath missed a field goal and I believe the pressure got to him on it.  The Vikings had a stinker today plain and simple, but if they can beat the Bears and the Packer they are back in the race.  Today’s loss puts them behind the eight ball and it means they need to win both upcoming games against these division rivals.
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