What are some stats to know about the Minnesota Vikings matchup with the Dallas Cowboys in Week 11?
The Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys will square off in Minneapolis during Week 11. For Dallas, the game proceeds a bye week and will illustrate the Cowboys’ ambitions for changing the course of their season.
A 2-7 record plagues Dallas — in a year that the team was supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s team is peppered with talent on offense and defense, but thus far wins have not aligned with the pizazz of the roster.
At 4-5, the Vikings have already started an about-face. The franchise began the season with a stinky 1-5 record with especially frowzy performances against the Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons.
Indeed, the season felt pointless after six weeks while fans and pundits turned to 2021 plans and predictions for the team. The problem is — the Vikings players, coaches, and management explosively disagreed. Minnesota has since won three consecutive games, all versus divisional opponents.
Where the Vikings were one month ago, the Cowboys remain today. The last time Minnesota hosted a floundering team, their teeth were kicked in by the Falcons. Zimmer and his men hope to avoid a sequel to Falcons experience in Week 11.
Let’s have a look at a few things to know about this matchup between the Vikings and Cowboys matchup.
Minnesota has the seventh-best defense (points allowed) since their bye week
Who saw this one coming?
The Vikings enjoyed a much-needed bye week during Week 7. Many surmised that a flurry of trades would occur because the season had become fickle. Instead, Vikings brass stayed the course.
In three games against the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, and Chicago Bears, the Vikings defense has played significantly better. In doing so, Minnesota has logged the NFL’s seventh-best defense amid the last three weeks (18.3 points per game).
Minnesota allowed 22 points to the Packers, 20 to the Lions, and 13 to the Bears. In the previous six games, the points allowed were as follows: 43, 28, 31, 23, 27, and 40. That’s 32 points per game. A 32-to-18 dropoff is substantial and can be attributed to Mike Zimmer’s longstanding defensive prowess.
The Cowboys offense will provide a test, but most of the efficiency will be dictated by quarterback Andy Dalton, who has struggled to start the Cowboys segment of his career.
Dallas has the very worst defense in the business
The Cowboys defense is lousy. This is odd because the team has playmakers up front, in the middle of the field, and in the secondary. On paper, Dallas’ defense should be in the top half of the league. But the paper doesn’t play.
Eerily, the Cowboys defense through 10 weeks allows the same number of points per game that the Vikings did through six weeks — 32 points per game. If you want to have a vibe as to how poorly the Cowboys defense has played to date, have a look back at the tape of the Vikings’ first six contests. Bring a barf bag.
Minnesota cornerbacks are maturing on the job. Rookie Jeff Gladney is feisty and productive. Kris Boyd is the team’s highest-graded cornerback per Pro Football Focus. Zimmer is dialing up blitz packages. Harrison Smith and Eric Kendricks are playing like Pro Bowlers.
All of a sudden, Zimmer’s defense is looking like a Mike Zimmer defense.
Minnesota leads the NFL in Yards Per Play
Which NFL team leads the league in yards per play? Surely, it’s a squad led by Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray, or Russell Wilson, right? Incorrect.
The Dalvin Cook and Kirk Cousins-led Minnesota Vikings lead the NFL in this metric (6.5 yards per play). Wipe that smile off your face — the Vikings gain more yards per play than any other team. This can be chiefly ascribed to Dalvin Cook’s yards per carry. Yet, when the Vikings throw the football, they are also No. 1 in yards per pass.
You can giggle at it until you reach a laughing fit, but this Vikings offense is more than just efficient. It’s a big-play offense. The problem has been that losing makes explosive offensive plays feel irrelevant.
Now that the productivity of the defense is catching up to the offense, Minnesota is winning ballgames. And all of that is because of the offense consistently gains large chunks of yardage.
Tip your hat to offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak.
Dallas is still very much alive in the hunt for the NFC East
The four worst teams in the entire NFC play in the NFC East. The Detroit Lions would sit in first place if they were somehow transplanted into the NFC East division. So would the Vikings.
That’s how bad the NFC East really is. All four teams — Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and Dallas — are alive in the division. The Eagles “lead” the division with a 3-5-1 record. At 2-7, the Cowboys are about 1.5 games back of first place. A strange twist of events could put Dallas in first place by the end of the month.
Ergo, the temptation may be to perceive the Cowboys as dead or as a team with little to play for. This is false. The winner of the NFC East could possibly enter the playoffs with a 6-10 record. Dallas probably feels that they’re talented enough to reach six or seven wins. No Vikings loyalist should believe the Cowboys have mailed it in.
Harrison Smith will pass Adrian Peterson in games played as a Viking
When a placekicker puts his foot on the ball this Sunday, Harrison Smith will have played more games as a member of the Minnesota Vikings than future Hall of Famer, Adrian Peterson.
The legendary Vikings tailback participated in 123 games with the Vikings. At the moment, Harrison, too, has played in 123 Vikings games.
That will change barring a freak injury this weekend. Smith will make it 124 games and surpass Peterson’s hefty game total. If all goes according to plan for Smith health-wise, when the kickoff happens versus the Buccaneers in December, the longtime Vikings safety will then pass Ed McDaniel on this list.
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Smith was drafted by general manager Rick Spielman in 2012 and has been a stalwart with the Vikings since. He is the perfect player to lurk inside of a Mike Zimmer-coached defense. And, he’s likely the perfect player to lurk inside any NFL defense.