What were the best and worst things from the Minnesota Vikings in Week 13?
The Minnesota Vikings entered Week 13 as heavy favorites to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars at U.S. Bank Stadium. While the purple and gold were looking to move closer to a playoff spot, the Jaguars were in the running for the number one overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
This game wasn’t nearly as lopsided as it should have been on paper. Minnesota turned the ball over twice, allowed a defensive touchdown, and was on the bad side of some fluke plays that kept Jacksonville in the game.
It took the entirety of regulation plus nearly all of the overtime period for the Vikings to put the Jaguars away. The final score ended up 27-24 thanks to a Dan Bailey chip shot field goal to put the nail in Jacksonville’s coffin.
But what were the best and worst things to happen to the Minnesota Vikings during their Week 13 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars? And what other positives and negatives were there? Let’s take a look starting with the best thing to come out of the game.
(Note: All stats via ESPN)
The Best
If you want to win a football game, a great way to do that is by taking away your opponent’s chances of scoring. The Minnesota Vikings did that on Sunday by forcing four turnovers against the Jaguars.
The most notable of these turnovers came with Jacksonville marching down the field and putting themselves in a scoring position. Rookie cornerback Cameron Dantzler got his hands on a Mike Glennon pass to keep the Jaguars from being able to cash in on the play. Plus, it was the first interception from a Vikings cornerback this season, with more hopefully to come.
A second interception came from veteran safety Harrison Smith, who made a big interception in overtime to give the Minnesota offense great field position to set up a game-winning drive. He was able to put himself in a position to make the play, which was no walk in the park considering where the ball was thrown.
Finally, Minnesota was able to recover two fumbles during the game. One was a Chris Connely reception where the ball was torn out of his hands by Minnesota and the other from a Mike Glennon mishandling.
More Good Stuff
It always feels good when the Minnesota Vikings can get a victory. Of course, it feels even better when that victory had a chance to move the team into the seventh seed of the NFC playoff picture if the Cardinals lost.
The highs outweighed the lows, but there were plenty of situations where that might not have been the case if things had gone a little differently. If not for some great plays from young players and veterans alike, this could have been an ugly game.
Other good things from Week 13
- The 2020 NFL Draft class stepping up. It’s amazing to see Justin Jefferson playing the way he considering he is just a rookie. He became a 1,000-yard receiver in this game and will build on that going forward. Ezra Cleveland, Jeff Gladney, and Cameron Dantzler all gained some great experience and looked solid this week. The potential for the future is great with this group.
- The big three. Kirk Cousins struggled this game to consistently complete passes, but he made it clear who his favorite targets were. 32 of his 43 passing attempts went to three targets, with 13 passes going toward Justin Jefferson, 11 in the direction of Adam Thielen, and nine going to Dalvin Cook. Those three are the playmakers that the quarterback seems to trust the most.
- Bend, but don’t break. The Minnesota defense actually played a really good game against Jacksonville. They only allowed two touchdowns and one was a fluke score that bounced off a Vikings defender and right into the hands of Laviska Shenault Jr. in the end zone and the second being a rushing touchdown near the very end of the regulation.
- Stepping up when needed. The Vikings’ defense was full of players who weren’t there last season. Eric Kendrick was a game-time scratch against the Jaguars and others are missing time, but players like Todd Davis, Jordan Brailford, Ryan Connelly, and others stepped into bigger roles and played well.
The Worst
It has been better the last few weeks, but the terrible monster of Minnesota Vikings special teams reared its ugly head again in Week 13 and did nearly everything it could to make sure the purple and gold didn’t get a win.
For starters, the kicking attempts in this game were very scary. Although Dan Bailey did -kind of- redeem himself with a short kick at the end of the game, he missed two extra-point tries as well as a field goal attempt, leaving five points on the field.
Then you have K.J. Osborn. He returned from being in Mike Zimmer’s doghouse this week only to fumble another punt return attempt. Thankfully, he was able to get back on the football before the defense could, but it was still a scary moment.
Finally, it was a solid punting day from Britton Colquitt but he couldn’t get much help from the unit to keep the ball from bouncing into the end zone for a touchback. Jacksonville used that field position to get into range for a field goal attempt that would have given them their win if it had been made.
What a mess!
More Bad Things
For a little while, it looked as though the Minnesota Vikings were going to go into halftime being held to zero points by the Jaguars. This was exceptionally frustrating since the purple and gold gave up a bit of a fluke touchdown on a deflected pass that should have been intercepted as well as a field goal to be trailing early.
It’s almost as if the Vikings like playing from behind and use that as motivation to play better. That’s odd though since their biggest strength is running the football and that can be taken out of a game when the opposing team can build a lead.
Other bad things from Week 13
- Give it away now. Possibly the most frustrating play of the entire game came just after halftime. Once again, the start of the third quarter of play signaled a turnover that was returned for a score. This time, it was Kirk Cousins who gave away a pick-six. Meanwhile, there was a miscue between Cousins and Dalvin Cook resulting in another giveaway.
- A lack of pressure. The Vikings shouldn’t have had nearly this much trouble with Mike Glennon in this game. His success was the result of a lack of pressure from the defensive line, who only registered two sacks but somehow got seven hits on the Jacksonville quarterback.
- Pass protection. Kirk Cousins was rushed on many of his pass attempts because the Jacksonville defense had him scrambling and uncomfortable in the pocket. He was sacked four times for a total loss of 30 yards and was Jacksonville was credited for FOURTEEN HITS by defenders.
- Held in check. Dalvin Cook may have ended the game with 120 rushing yards, but it was done on many small runs to add up to that number. The running back only averaged 3.8 yards per carry as Jacksonville forced the Vikings to beat them through the air rather than on the ground.
What do you think were the best and worst things to come from the game between the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars? And what else deserves to be mentioned from this game? Let us know in the comments.