Minnesota Vikings Week 1: Top 5 takeaways vs. New Orleans

The Minnesota Vikings kicked off their quest to become the first team to play a Super Bowl in their own stadium with a home victory over the New Orleans Saints on Monday night.

As the fans filtered out of U.S Bank Stadium on Monday, they certainly had higher expectations of their team than they did before kickoff, and for good reason. The game wasn’t as close as the score suggested and it was one of the most complete Minnesota Vikings performances in recent memory.

A Vikings’ offense that gathered skeptics for their lack of production throughout the preseason proved their critics wrong as they played with an unseen swagger that was missing throughout the previous year.  Defensively, Minnesota looked reminiscent of the unit that started 2016 red-hot, rather than the one that faded as the season wore on.

If both sides of the ball can perform consistently at the levels like they did against the New Orleans Saints, there will be talk of a Lombardi trophy making its way to Minneapolis.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, join me as I break down the top five takeaways from the Vikings’ Week 1 excellent performance.

Cooking on Gas

As the Vikings’ ghost of running backs past sullenly looked on from the opposite side line, their ghost of the future stole the show.

In his NFL debut, Dalvin Cook stuck it to the Saints, gaining 127 yards rushing on 22 carries for a very healthy 5.7 per carry average. The second round selection out of Florida State routinely made the most of the blocking in front of him and when the holes were there, he showed the explosiveness to gain every yard he could.

The world was watching in prime time and they were certainly impressed

There might not be a better example of his impressive burst than his 33-yard scamper out of the shotgun to secure the Vikings’ victory by allowing them to run out the clock.

It was certainly an odd sight watching legendary Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson suit up for New Orleans, but once the game began any lingering feelings for seeing him back in purple and gold quickly faded. Despite a feisty nine-yard run to open the game, number 28 proved to be a non-factor, only gaining nine yards on his remaining five carries and spending much of his time in the second half sulking on the bench.

As great as Peterson once was for the Vikings, there is no doubt that they made the right decision by moving forward at the position and drafting Cook. Not only does the rookie look like a natural running out of the shotgun (a formation Peterson always looked uncomfortable in), but he possesses the receiving ability out of the backfield that Peterson also never had.

He may have only had three catches (and a drop) for 10 yards, but he represents a threat that defenses have to account for.

At this point my only concern regarding Cook is that I will quickly run out of food related puns to describe his sterling displays.

Bent but never Broken

The Vikings’ defense started just as it did in 2016, with a dominant performance. Tasked with facing the number two scoring offense from last season, the Vikings didn’t give up a touchdown until they were up by 17 with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Saints were able to march down the field into the red zone three times, but each time the Vikings forced them to settle for just three points. Had one of those drives resulted in a touchdown, the result of the game could have easily swung in the Saints’ favor.

To say Mike Zimmer and company strategized to perfection may be going too far (the performance wasn’t quite up to the Panthers game last season), but they were able to severely restrict one of the best offenses in the NFL. Forgoing his usual blitz happy strategy Zimmer opted to rely on his front four to pressure Drew Brees and dropped his remaining defenders into coverage.

The defensive line may have failed to live up to their usual gaudy numbers (just a single sack by Everson Griffen) and Brees managed to complete a few long passes (here’s looking at you Trae Waynes), but the lack of touchdowns speaks for itself.

It wasn’t only touchdowns that were at a premium, New Orleans also found rushing yards hard to come by. Despite a backfield that looked mightily impressive on paper, Peterson, Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara all failed to top three yards per carry.

The Vikings’ front seven looked impenetrable and with Ben Gedeon seamlessly replacing Chad Greenway, the Saints were held to 60 yards on 21 carries. It wasn’t just the front seven who impressed in run support, as Harrison Smith flew all over the field, particularly impressing those at Pro Football Focus.

"“86.8 OVERALL GRADE Smith, the Vikings’ All-Pro safety, started this season the same way he has played his entire career, a solid, dependable playmaker. Smith had the Vikings’ highest defensive grade of the night, excelling in both run defense and in coverage. Smith was targeted three times, allowing two catches for 17 yards (only five of which were after the catch) and added in a pass defensed for an 84.1 coverage grade. In run defense he was disruptive, recording one stop and finished with an 86.4 run defense grade”"

With Big Ben and the vaunted Killer B’s of the Pittsburgh Steelers looking to show that their struggles against the Cleveland Browns last Sunday were a momentary blip on their way to meeting dominant expectations, Week 2 offers no let up for Zimmer and Minnesota’s defense. Zimmer will undoubtedly alter his strategy for his upcoming foes, but the Vikings have certainly have shown the ability to go toe to toe with the best.

Upgraded Offensive Line

This takeaway comes with a word of warning, the New Orleans Saints ranked 27^th in the league with a paltry 30 sacks in 2016 and failed to make any noticeable improvements to their pass-rushing core in the offseason. With that said, the redeveloped Minnesota offensive line showed signs of life on Monday night.

Given that the 2016 version of the unit struggled against all opponents, the new look offensive line provided a breath of fresh air to Vikings fans as they provided the ground work for the offense to flourish. The big fellas up front only gave up a solitary sack and two QB hits, across the board they had a respectable night in pass protection.

The left side of the line looked especially stout with Reilly Reiff impressing and gaining an 83.1 Pro Football Focus grade.

The right side of the line did give cause for concern with Mike Remmers having some questionable moments, negating a nice play with a holding call and allowing the only sack of the night. Hopefully Remmers will improve before opposing teams figure out consistently sending their most talented pass rusher at him is the quickest way to a sack.

In their run blocking duties the o-line had a solid outing. The Vikings’ running backs didn’t always have the biggest holes to work with, but when the opportunities were there, they took full advantage. The new look interior of Easton, Elflein, and Berger made some headlines as they helped the Vikings gain 129 yards on the ground.

You can see a few examples of how they did it below. Elflein getting downfield to demolish opposing players on a swing pass, made me sit up and take notice.

Sterner tests unquestionably lie ahead, starting with the Steelers coming off a seven sack performance. If the offensive line can keep Bradford fairly clean against Pittsburgh, Minnesota may just have a competent unit on their hands.

A Deadly Duo

In the build up to the season opener, my colleague Jordan Schmidt detailed that it had been eight long years since the Vikings had a wide receiver reach the 1,000 yard milestone. Based on the performances of Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen on Monday night, Minnesota has a legitimate chance of having two this season.

Thielen led the way from a yards perspective, racking up 157 on nine catches and a longest catch of 44 yards. With Bradford having time to go through his progressions, he found Thielen open time and time again.

The Saints’ cornerbacks might not have the best secondary (or even a mediocre one) but Thielen’s ability to gain separation was undoubtedly impressive. With Diggs potentially garnering much of the attention, Thielen should benefit from facing several second-choice cornerbacks throughout the year. Hopefully he can earn post game pizza every week.

https://twitter.com/SlopingGiraffe/status/907400060056559617

While Thielen was busy moving the chains, Diggs focused on putting the points on the board. Diggs put on a show catching seven of his eight targets for 93 yards and two scores. If he wasn’t running free in the end zone, he was hauling in absurd catches in traffic.

After getting wide-open on a play-action pass in the second quarter, Diggs hauled in his first touchdown with ease and celebrated by paying homage to Monday night’s Ring of Honor inductee Randy Moss. During the course of the night, Diggs continually payed homage to Moss with a series of increasingly difficult catches.

As if making a glorious toe-tapping sideline catch wasn’t enough, Diggs would follow it up with a grab between two defenders and hang on despite an illegal hit. The icing on the cake was his second touchdown catch where Diggs leapt above a cornerback to secure the back shoulder throw with the defender draped all over him.

With Diggs putting to rest any concerns about his ability to play on the outside and Theilen moving seamlessly into the slot the race to 1000 yards is officially underway.

Slinging Sammy Bradford

Heading into the season opener, Sam Bradford had been called the check-down king by many (myself included) and others were seemingly counting down the days until Teddy Bridgewater was able to take the field again (also guilty). After his performance in prime time on Monday, those critics were forced to eat their words having watched Bradford play possibly the best game of his career.

Bradford was on fire all night long as he completed an astronomical 84 percent of his passes for 346 yards and three touchdowns. Let’s be clear, that completions percentage was anything but constant check-downs.

Finally given time to sit in the pocket and go through his progressions, Bradford dissected the Saints, pushing the ball down the field by making the right decisions, firing lasers in to double coverage, hitting receivers in stride, and putting the ball where only his receiver could make the catch. Having watched Bradford throughout his career, I haven’t often used those words to describe him.

We’ve shown you plenty of examples of all three attributes in previous slides, so let’s look at the lone completion Bradford had to Jarius Wright.

Despite facing an oncoming rusher, Bradford scans the field, notices the defender with his back to the ball, and delivers the football to Wright in stride where only he has the opportunity to catch it.

The analysts at Pro Football Focus rated Bradford’s performance highly and so did many others.

"“QB SAM BRADFORD, 87.4 OVERALL GRADE The offensive line gave Bradford time all night and he consistently delivered. He was nearly flawless throughout the game, in particular on intermediate and downfield passes, where he completed nine of 10 attempts for 234 yards and two scores.”"

For your viewing pleasure you can see the best of Bradford big game below.

As I feel obliged to say again, the Saints aren’t very good on defense. Bradford won’t face many secondaries as generous as the one he faced on Monday, but if he can play at 75 percent of the level he displayed against New Orleans, he is going to get PAID come the end of the year.

Next: Week 1 Rookie Report

Think I’m reading too much into the Vikings succeeding against a historically poor defense? Think I’m jumping on bandwagons too early?  Use the comments section below to let me know your thoughts on my takeaways or if you have any of your own. Alternatively hit me up on Twitter.