Territory Journey.. “THE DESERT”
Rick Sosa
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THE DESERT
After the big letdown in Cincinnati the Vikings traveled to Arizona to face a high flying Cardinals team and their high tempo offense led by third year QB Kyler Murray and WR DeAndre Hopkins. Not a must win yet but certainly a victory on the road would inject a high dose of confidence going into the rest of the season. Many Viking fans once again made the journey to the Phoenix area in an attempt to give the purple some support in the red sea.
The Vikings right out of the gate looked like the team we all thought they had the potential to be by delivering the first punch with a fantastic long pass from Kirk Cousins to second year WR KJ Osborn. The shootout was on in the wild west. Kyler Murray responded with a TD pass of his own to DeAndre Hopkins ruining CB Patrick Peterson’s Arizona homecoming who was in coverage. But Cousins wasn’t done and hit Adam Thielen for another touchdown pass. I still don’t understand how teams continue to disrespect Thielen with single coverage in the red zone but he makes them pay every time.
Also on offense Dalvin Cook was unstoppable with the Vikings OL moving people at will with a 6 on 4 men advantage in most plays including the TE. Cook’s mesmerizing elusiveness kept avoiding tackles and taking advantage of every opening. Cousins scrambled for a long run play himself and then scrambled again to find WR Justin Jefferson in the end zone. Play calling was unpredictable for the Cardinals defense and the Vikings were rolling.
On defense Danielle Hunter was back in better than ever form harassing Murray all over the backfield. Stephen Weatherly was also very active as Michael Pierce and Dalvin Tomlinson maintained a lot of people occupied dealing with them. Nick Vigil and Eric Kendricks making plays with Woods and Smith patrolling the backfield. But something was off again. It was the play of CB Bashaud Breeland who was torched for the second consecutive week in this case by WR AJ Green. Kris Boyd came onto the field after an apparent injury to Breeland that looked all to familiar to the former Viking CB Xavier Rhodes every time he struggled. Cam Dantzler waited for his turn on the bench.
On special teams everything looked fine with a little blemish. Greg Joseph missed an extra point attempt that seemed to be a problem given the shootout circumstances of the game. Although Joseph connected two 52 yard FG as well. Dede Westbrook did make a rookie mistake fielding a punt deep into Vikings territory that almost resulted in a safety.
In a crucial decision right before the half the Vikings decided to squib kick after the Joseph long FG and Arizona started their possession at the 34 yard line with Matt Prater NFL’s longest FG record holder on the sideline. You guessed it Prater hit a 62 last second FG to put the Cardinals on top at halftime.
The second half was a different story. Mike Zimmer went back to his old 1990s ways of playing conservative football when it was obvious the Cardinals defense had no answer to Minnesota’s passing attack in combination with Dalvin Cook’s run game. Arizona’s HC Kliff Kingsbury saw this and outsmarted Zimmer by simply bringing his LBs closer to the line of scrimmage to stop the Vikings run. The Vikings did not score another offensive TD in the second half.
With Bashaud Breeland still on the field the Vikings defense put up some heroics with Nick Vigil returning an interception for a touchdown, Xavier Woods with another pick and Danielle Hunter collecting his third sack of the game. But it all came down to the final drive of the game. Kirk Cousins again led the charge and brought his team within FG range. With 41 seconds left and a time out Mike Zimmer decided to let the clock run out for a 37 yard FG attempt to win the game. You guessed it Greg Joseph missed the kick and the Vikings lost their second game in 2021.
Any NFL kicker should make a 37 yard field goal under most circumstances but once again despite the Vikings looking much better in week 2 they came out empty handed. Lucky for them and their coaches this is the historic first 17 game NFL season and playing well minus the player and coaches mistakes should eventually result in a victory. Next is the home opener against QB Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks.