What Does Minnesota Need To Do To Take Down The Cowboys?
Henrique Gucciardi
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Sunday night starts a series of tough games for Minnesota, with the Vikes playing four playoff teams in a row. It all begins with the Cowboys on SNF. Dallas is probably going to win their division, so we’ll probably have a difficult Halloween game. Dak is leading one of the best offenses in the NFL and Trevon Diggs is getting a lot of praise for his 7 interceptions. However, this is a game that the Vikings can win. Let’s start things with the offensive side of the ball.
Offense
The two most important things here for me are to not be afraid to target Diggs and embrace the possible shootout. As I said earlier, Diggs leads the NFL with 7 picks and managed to return two of those to the house, but he also is giving up a lot of yards. This means that he’s taking a lot of risks, and will now face the best QB-WR unit he has seen since Week 1 against the Bucs. With Kirk’s accuracy and both Thielen and Jefferson’s ability, we can use Diggs’ tendencies to our advantage. It’s unlikely that the defense will hold the Cowboys’ offense (kudos if they do, but still unlikely), so the offense needs to score early and often.
As always with the Vikings, we will need the offensive line to have a good day (or night). Christian Darrisaw gave us hope that the unit can be good. Luckily for us, the Cowboys’ D isn’t known for pressuring the QB. They are 28th in sacks, 23rd in hurries, and 18th in pressures, while blitzing 25% of the time. The biggest key is to always know where Micah Parsons is. The rookie LB aligns in a variety of spots, but usually at edge rusher or linebacker. Keeping Kirk Cousins upright can really give us the edge in this matchup.
Finally, let’s talk about Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison, and our rushing attack. If you only look to rush yards allowed, the Cowboys are the 3rd best in the league. But they faced the least amount of attempts, with only 121, giving them an average of 4.3 yards allowed. Dalvin Cook is one of the best backs in the league and Mattison one of the best backups. With the Cowboys playing a lot of man coverage, we can have an advantage by putting Osborn on the field to spread the defense and lighten the box.
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Defense
This is more important to me. I completely trust the offense to put points on the board, but not so sure if our defense can keep Dak and company from scoring. There is a chance that Dak won’t play Sunday night. The QB is dealing with a calf injury he sustained in the victory against the Patriots in Week 6. Two other big players that appeared in the injury report were the LT Tyron Smith and Trevon Diggs, both with ankle injuries. But the Cowboys will also have some people back. La’el Collins is back after a five-game suspension and Gallup returned to practice after a Week 1 calf injury. It’s unlikely Gallup will start, but if he has good practices Mike McCarthy can use him if needed.
One thing that we can’t do is blitz a lot. No one is facing more blitzes than Dak, and he’s been killing them. Our defensive line is good enough to put pressure on him with just the four. Especially with Peterson out, we need the safeties to help Breeland and Dantzler. If we can force Dak to rush his reads or move around a lot with his bad calf, maybe the defense can limit the damage and force some punts/turnovers. The defense also needs to keep an eye on Zeke Elliott out of the backfield. Kendricks and Barr will have a lot to do in this game.
Speaking of Elliott, Kendricks, and Barr, the Cowboys running game is again a force to be reckoned with. After some down seasons, Zeke is running the ball as good as ever, Tony Pollard is as good as you can have in an RB2, and Dak can pick up yards with his leg as well (though we’ll need to see how his calf is). The key defensively is how well we can stop them on the ground. If our defensive tackles (Pierce didn’t practice and looks like a longshot) can dominate the line of scrimmage, Kendricks can be freer to cover the pass, giving us the advantage of using two-deep safeties. But if they can be three-dimensional (run, pass, and play-action), we will give them the opportunity of taking shots down the field. Our defensive line will be very important, pressuring Dak and stopping this three-headed running monster.