What did we learn about the Minnesota Vikings during their first win of the season?
It took a little longer than most were hoping, but the Minnesota Vikings finally picked up a victory this season when they defeated a winless Houston Texans team on Sunday.
Looking back on it, it seems like a game the Vikings should have easily won. However, let’s not act like Minnesota wasn’t able to have a number of impressive moments on Sunday against the Texans.
Now with a 1-3 record, the playoffs are still a possibility for the Vikings this season. Minnesota was desperate for a win this week and they were able to finally put together a good enough performance on both sides of the ball to leave the field with a victory.
Since there was no preseason this year, we’re still learning a ton about the current version of the Vikings. Minnesota is also learning more and more about their own roster, but it seems like they’re really starting to figure out which methods will give them the best chance to win each week.
When looking back at Sunday’s result against the Texans, what are some of the biggest takeaways from the Vikings’ performance?
Cook is the best running back in the NFL
Right before the start of the 2020 season, the Vikings made the decision to extend their talented running back, Dalvin Cook.
Some didn’t agree with Minnesota’s choice to give Cook an extension because they don’t believe running backs aren’t worth the money or they think he’s too injury prone. But the Vikings knew they had a special running back on their roster and the rest of the league figuring that out this year too.
Heading into the 2020 season, Cook was regarded by most as a top-five running back. But after the first four games this year, he should now be regarded as the league’s No. 1 back.
Cook had another masterful performance on Sunday that saw him carry the ball for 130 yards and two touchdowns in addition to catching a pair of passes for 16 more yards. With his totals against the Texans, the Minnesota running back now leads the NFL in rushing yards (424) and rushing touchdowns (six).
Cook just couldn’t be stopped on Sunday. Even when everyone in the stadium knew he was getting the ball, he still found a way to make Houston’s defense look silly on every play and average 4.8 yards per carry. If the Vikings can figure out a way to involve him more in their passing attack, it could take the team’s offense to an even higher level.
Based on his numbers after four matchups, Cook is on pace to finish with 1,696 rushing yards this year. That total would not only be a new single-season career-high for the talented playmaker, but it would also be the most rushing yards in a season by a Minnesota running back not named Adrian Peterson.
Minnesota’s defense is lost without Smith
After the first three weeks of the season, it has been pretty obvious that the Vikings defense hasn’t been performing at a high level like they typically have ever since Mike Zimmer became the team’s head coach in 2014.
Still, it seemed like they were making some good progress on Sunday against the Texans. During the first half, Minnesota was able to hold Houston to just 112 total yards and six points. It was the fewest points allowed by the Vikings in the first two quarters of a game since last season in Week 14 during a win over the Detroit Lions.
But then Minnesota had to play the entire second half against the Texans without the services of All-Pro safety Harrison Smith. Luckily he wasn’t lost to an injury, but Smith was unable to play in the third and fourth quarter on Sunday after he was ejected late in the second quarter because of an unintentional helmet-to-helmet hit.
Both the Vikings and Texans quickly realized how important the safety was to the success of Minnesota’s defense. Smith missing the second half almost cost the Vikings the game on Sunday.
In place of Minnesota’s top safety in the third and fourth quarter was George Iloka, who was signed just a few weeks ago. Houston ended up being able to score two touchdowns after Iloka didn’t know where he was supposed to be and who he was supposed to be covering.
Zimmer said after the game that Iloka had practiced all week as the Vikings nickel corner. But Minnesota didn’t have much of a choice other than to put him out there at safety on Sunday since the depth of their defensive backfield seems to shrink each week.
In the end, Iloka’s mistakes didn’t cost the Vikings the win. But Minnesota should take this as a lesson to be better at preparing someone to replace Smith in the future in case he has to miss time again.
Cousins is heating up
Back in Week 2, Kirk Cousins had arguably his worst game as a starting quarterback in the NFL. During the Vikings’ 28-11 loss to the Indianapolis Colts (who have now won three-straight games), Cousins completed just 42.3 percent of his passes for 113 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, and an embarrassing 15.9 rating.
Since then, the Minnesota quarterback has completed 65.3 percent of his throws for 511 yards (255.5 average), four touchdowns, two interceptions, and a 110.2 rating.
Cousins got off to a bit of a slow start last year and it’s starting to seem like this is the case again this season. The Vikings saw their quarterback find his groove in October of last year and it resulted in him being named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month.
Will Cousins continue to improve during Minnesota’s next few games and earn himself another Player of the Month award? The Vikings are certainly hoping for a second season of “Kirktober”.
Enraged Zimmer is the best Zimmer
When Mike Zimmer became the head coach of the Vikings back in 2014, there were a number of people who were familiar with him due to his appearance on the HBO television show “Hard Knocks” when he was the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Zimmer’s most notable clip from his time on the show has him talking to members of the Bengals defense on the sideline during the middle of a game with language that featured a number of four-letter words that wouldn’t be found on an episode of “Sesame Street”.
Then during his first few seasons with Minnesota, fans had the opportunity to watch Zimmer go ballistic on the sidelines when a bad call was made or not made. It was never too difficult to read his lips whenever the slow-motion replays of his tirades would be shown.
Zimmer is getting older now though and it’s felt like his sideline rage has toned down a bit during the last few years with the Vikings. But when he needs it to make an appearance, it comes out and it certainly did on Sunday in Houston.
Following the ejection of Minnesota safety Harrison Smith, Zimmer did his best Lou Pinella impression and gave an earful the official closest to him. This was one of Zimmer’s more entertaining episodes of rage since it featured the Vikings head coach wearing a face shield.
It was nice to see the fire in Zimmer’s eyes return on Sunday and it’s one of the many reasons why the guys on his roster love playing for him.
Last week was no fluke for Jefferson
Week 3 was the coming-out party for Vikings rookie receiver Justin Jefferson and all eyes were on the young pass-catcher on Sunday to see what he would do as a follow up to his breakout performance.
Well, he didn’t disappoint. Jefferson solidified his role as a true weapon for Minnesota’s passing attack with another impressive outing during the team’s win over the Texans.
Minnesota’s rookie receiver was targeted five times on Sunday and he finished with four catches for 103 yards. All four of the passes Jefferson caught against Houston resulted in gains of at least 20 yards
The rookie is also earning more of Kirk Cousins’ trust as three of his five targets on Sunday came when the Vikings were in a third-down situation. Cousins is realizing that just throwing it anywhere in the general direction of Jefferson is likely going to result in him catching it.
It took a little bit for the rookie receiver to find his role in Minnesota’s offense, but that is something that many should have seen coming due to the absence of a preseason this year. Now he’s doing what a number of people thought he was capable of and making the Vikings forget about Stefon Diggs.
A win next week gets Minnesota’s season back on track
While a victory over the Texans was nice and it was something that was needed for the Vikings, it was also a game that Minnesota should have won. Houston was also looking for their first victory heading into Sunday’s matchup and it wasn’t too hard to figure out why when they took on the Vikings.
So the Vikings are now 1-3 and despite their win on Sunday, they still don’t have a lot of room for error during the rest of the season if they actually want to earn a spot in the playoffs.
During their last two games, Minnesota has performed closer to what many felt they were capable of prior to the start of the season. The Vikings’ next matchup will be a great way to see if they can actually make a run to the postseason this year.
For Week 5, Minnesota has to travel out to the Northwest to take on the unbeaten Seattle Seahawks. A road matchup is already difficult, but getting a win in Seattle has proven to be extremely hard for the Vikings in the recent past.
Minnesota hasn’t left the Seahawks’ home stadium with a win since 2006 and the Vikings lost six of their last seven games in Seattle dating back to 1996.
However, all of those contests featured thousands of rowdy Seahawks fans in the stands making life difficult for Minnesota’s offensive players to hear anything. For this season’s matchup, there will be no fans in attendance and this should help out the Vikings a lot, especially Kirk Cousins.
And even though Seattle hasn’t lost a game yet this year, they still have plenty of weaknesses that Minnesota can exploit. Just look at their win on Sunday over the Miami Dolphins when they let Ryan Fitzpatrick throw for 315 yards.
The Seahawks are undefeated, but they are not unbeatable. If the Vikings can pull off the upset next week, the rest of the NFL is going to notice and realize that the guys in purple and gold are fully capable of capturing one of the seven NFC playoff spots this season.