Vikings winners and losers: week one
Deshawn
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The Vikings steam roll the Falcons and walk away with a 28-12 win. The Vikings only had 10 passing attempts, but rushed for 177 yards and three touchdowns. Most of the performances in this game were great, but a select few did not look so good.
Winners:
- Running back Dalvin Cook
Obviously Dalvin is the biggest winner in this game. He looked unstoppable at points, and displayed video game speed.Seeing him back, and running at full strength is a thing of beauty, he ended up running for more than a hundred yards and scored two touchdowns.
2. Right guard Josh Kline
the Vikings free agent acquisition came to play on Sunday. He had several key blocks and held up in pass protection when he was asked to. This was pleasing to see as the Vikings severely missed former right guard Joe Berger last season. Granted Kline didn’t face an elite talent , but it’s still better than what the Vikings had last seasons.
3. Safety Anthony Harris
Harris picked up where he left off last season, and that’s extremely important for him in a contract year. He seems to only make big plays, Two interceptions and a fumble recovery that all turned into touchdowns for the Vikings. This should be enough to grant him defensive player of the week honors.
Honorable mentions
- Offensive coaches Stefanski/Kubiak
- Head coach Mike Zimmer
- P Britton Colquitt
- C Garrett Bradbury
Losers:
- Left guard Pat Elflein
In a game where the team dominated in all three phases it’s hard to choose losers, but pat had some ugly moments in this game. It’s no secret he has been struggling for some time now at both center and guard positions, but he deserves some slack because it is week one and he was facing a pro bowl defensive tackle in Grady Jarrett. Next week is another star on the defense line, Kenny Clark. It will have to be a quick turn around if Elflein wants to keep away chatters of being benched.
2. Cornerback Trae Waynes
Waynes didn’t have a bad game, but it could have been much better. He had the force fumble on freeman that sparked a touchdown drive by the Vikings, but was lost in coverage a few times. He committed a long pass interference, and gave up a touchdown to Calvin Ridley. Luckily neither seems to matter much , but these are the type of games where you wanna see Waynes dominate the second and third string wide receivers. His matchup next week is much easier the Packers are ultra thin at wide receiver, so expect a better game out of Waynes.
3. Cornerback Kris Boyd
Boyd is a rookie and he played just like one. He came in and made a couple bone headed mistakes, but that’s to be expected. Unfortunately everyone else on the team was on point so he’s performance landed him on this list. Boyd could see extended time with Alexander set to miss about a month of playing time.