Minnesota Vikings Best and Worst: Week 10 vs. Dallas Cowboys

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When Kyle Rudolph hauled in that amazing catch in the back of the end zone, Cousins knew there was a low percentage of it being completed. He knew he had to throw high and ahead of his tight end and couldn’t wait in the pocket anymore. Giving Rudy a slim chance is all he needed to make a great catch and stay in bounds for the score.

Rudolph has come a long way in the last few games, becoming a true red-zone target and making tough catches to move the chains or put points on the board. He’s beginning to prove he might actually be worth the contract extension the team gave him. Two touchdowns and a two-point conversion were big in this game.

Here are some other good things to come out of Week 10 for the Minnesota Vikings:

• We all needed that review. If you were like me, you let out a “HOLY S#!T” when Stefon Diggs turned around, got one arm under the football, and hauled in a catch the referees called incomplete. What made it even better was when he just looked at the ref and signaled the catch was good. That catch should go right into his highlight films RIGHT NOW!
• Filling in for a Pro Bowl player. When it was revealed that Linval Joseph was out for this week, fans had to be a bit curious how Jaleel Johnson would handle his job. The short answer: amazingly. While he didn’t have the same pass rush success “The Big Goon” might have, he held his own, took up space, and controlled the run. Two tackles, all solo, aren’t going to light up the stat sheet, but not all great performances show up on paper.
• It’s “Good Kirk” again! It’s always nice when this kind of Kirk Cousins shows up for Minnesota. During this game, he was efficient completing 23 of his 32 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns. It was Kirk’s play-action that really helped to get the running game going late in the contest, and that skill should continue to pay dividends.
• It’s Mutombo time! In the past, the Vikings have really struggled to break up passes during games. While Minnesota did give up a lot of short passes and some big plays, they also denied a total of EIGHT passes by swatting them away in a team effort where no individual player had more than two individual breakups.
• Great special teams efforts. Dan Bailey connected on both his field goals and both his extra point attempts. Britton Colquitt averaged 42.5 yards per punt, landing two inside the 20. Finally, the Cowboys didn’t have a single yard of punt or kickoff return yardage with Ameer Abdullah getting 29 yards on his one kickoff return. Good stuff!