Saints roll over (h)armless Vikings 52-33
Joe Johnson
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Recap
How many times did we hear Troy Aikman bring up Zimmer being unhappy with the “tackling” by the Vikings D today? How many times did they mention Cousins running for his life or “avoiding taking more of a beating”.
That kinda sums up this nightmare on Christmas. But it’s much, much worse.
With over seven minutes left in the Minnesota Vikings must win game against the hated New Orleans Saints, the Saints are driving for yet another (Alvin Kamara, I’m sure) touchdown while leading 38-27. The Saints have over 500 yards of offense, over 250 of which came on the ground (and nearly 100 of which came after contact).
The Vikings’ offense has, yet again, done enough to win most any other game. But as we saw these last two weeks, they simply can’t keep up when the opposing offenses are able to move the ball with with such ease that they were averaging 11.4 yards per PLAY in the first half.
People will talk a lot about Alvin Kamara, who had five touchdowns but wasn’t on the field for the above referenced soon-to-be touchdown that is now an actual touchdown by Taysom Hill.
Rather, people outside of Minnesota will talk about Kamara’s game. People in Minnesota? They’ll talk about the multitude of missed tackles by nearly everyone on the Vikings defense. That’s how teams put up 600 yards on you, which is what the Saints did today.
The Vikings may not have had a great chance to make the post-season even had they won this game, but instead of that they not only officially knocked themselves out of playoff contention but they also proved that they’re just not ready to be there.
The offense is. The defense isn’t, even with the improved play of some of the rookies. That is to be expected, as the Vikings via free agency loss or injuries, lost 13 players from their hyper talented 2019 roster.
But, it’s hard to feel excited about things when the defense regressed this badly in a game that could’ve at least shown how gutsy this young unit is.
Instead, they showed that they need more help, something that’ll come with time as guys like Barr, Kendricks, Hunter and Pierce will return next season. Another draft could help shore up the 3 tech spot, and add a nickel corner, etc. But, any good feelings we did have about this young defense will have to be deferred for 2021.
Cousins had his sixth 3 touchdown game of the season and improved his TD-to-INT ratio to 32:13. Considering the fact that he was nearly 10:10 at the bye? Look what a little extra time can do for a quarterback (although that protection has waned as of late because of injury).
Through a very efficient Cousins the Vikings passing offense played well, and distributed the ball to what may be the trio moving forward as Thielen/Jefferson/Smith Jr. had 7/6/6 grabs, with Thielen and Smith Jr. combining for three touchdowns.
Oh, and just so you know, Kamara just tied a 90-year-old record by scoring his sixth touchdown of the day. So, yet another film clip playing at Canton where the Vikings are on the wrong side of a record being broken.
This game was an embarrassment against the worst possible team. Sure, Kamara is obviously great, but this was a diminished Brees with Michael Thomas not playing, and we let them walk up and down the field all day.
I can’t even remember if they punted all day. Oh, because they didn’t.
But people are still pointing to COUSINS as the problem on nearly every article we post. Apparently Cousins plays middle linebacker? This was a game in which the Saints scored 52, the most in 57 years for the Vikings.
If the defense gets a pass because of injury but Cousins gets blamed for having a great game on offense?
That’s all I have to say about that.
Highlights
Irv Smith’s 2 TD Day
Harrison Hand’s first career TD
Jefferson is good alert
Dalvin’s league leading 16th TD
Stats:
Minnesota:
New Orleans:
