Casey Johnson
Sometimes a team wins a big game, and then, in their next game, they suffer what’s often referred to as an emotional letdown. Minnesota’s position was quite the opposite coming into Sunday’s game at home against Detroit, as they should have been poised for an emotional bounce back after having their braided behinds handed to them in Green Bay last Thursday (Oct. 2).
However, someone forgot to tell the Vikings that, after 10 days between games, they had no reason not to show up to TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday prepared to competitively challenge a Lions team missing the NFL’s best receiver in Calvin Johnson, as well as running back Reggie Bush. Instead, Minnesota came out like the slow wildebeest in the herd. You know, the one that previously had a leg torn up by a crocodile down at the watering hole. And as a result, the Lions devoured the Vikings 17-3.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the Lions won just because Minnesota played poorly. That would definitely be an inaccurate synopsis. It is far more accurate to say that Minnesota played poorly and much of that was a result of how well the Lions played (in addition to the Vikings seeming ill-prepared).
It’s safe to say that Teddy Bridgewater and the Minnesota offensive line received an on-field education on Sunday from the Detroit defense. I think that some important takeaways from the class that Detroit was teaching in Modern Day NFL Strategies for Mentally and Physically Dominating an Opponent at the Line of Scrimmage should be #1. block people and #2. make quicker decisions.
Clearly the first takeaway/teaching point is for the offensive line. They should be immeasurably embarrassed by the way that they let their quarterback get hit time and time again like he was a slab of meat in a Rocky movie. Teddy Bridgewater was sacked a grotesque 8 times on Sunday, and he’s a mobile quarterback! Can you imagine how many times an immobile quarterback like, say, Matt Cassel would’ve been sacked? I’m not going to venture to guess the exact number, but I’m confident in saying there’s a good chance that we would have been reading Cassel’s obituary in the newspaper tomorrow morning.
The second takeaway is directed at Teddy B. He is a young quarterback and will continue to learn, but he will also experience some growing pains from week to week. When he goes back and watches this film, I think that he will try to find ways to get the ball out of his hand quicker when it is obvious that the pocket is collapsing around him faster than a member of One Direction gets swarmed by a mob of teenage girls. And I don’t mean to say that there is an open receiver on every play if he were to just throw the ball quicker because that’s not the case. I mean that he needs to learn to throw the ball away when the situation calls for it. He certainly isn’t going to see many defensive lines as strong as Detroit’s, especially up the middle with Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley, but he can still take some valuable lessons away from the beat down that he received on Sunday to minimize the hits he takes in the future.
Teddy probably also learned not to try to force passes into the end zone on receivers being blanketed like me on a couch. His opening drive decision to throw the post to Cordarrelle Patterson who was being covered better than “Don’t Stop Believin’” at a Johnny Holm concert was a bad one to say the least. Even if Cordarrelle had been single covered, Teddy still wouldn’t have been able to complete that pass, and the safety covering that area of the field should have been the 2nd indicator that throwing the ball to Patterson on that play was as foolish as running a couple of red lights to get to your ultimate destination. The end zone still would have been waiting for the Vikings had Bridgewater just thrown an incomplete pass or tucked the ball away. Unfortunately, the pick killed the Minnesota drive that ended up being their best chance on the day to score a touchdown.
And yeah, I know that Teddy threw 2 other interceptions that I could discuss at greater length, but in short, neither of those was nearly as egregious as his interception in the end zone and neither of the other interceptions were totally his fault.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Minnesota offense as a whole put on one of the most boring, incompetent, pathetic performances that I’ve ever witnessed. Minnesota was held to just 3 points and 212 yards of total offense, had no big plays (21 yards was the longest), turned the ball over 3 times, allowed the previously mentioned 8 sacks, rushed for just 69 yards on 18 carries (just 35 yards on 13 carries by running backs), and the list could continue. No matter how you try to dissect it or cut up the numbers, Minnesota’s offensive output was more awful than a skunk flavored Jelly Belly.
Perhaps most disappointingly, though, Minnesota’s offense squandered a very nice outing by their defense, which put the Vikings in a position to come away with a victory. You should win about 95% of games in the NFL when your defense allows 17 points or less (that stat is what is often referred to as a guesstimation). The defense wasn’t able to turn over the Lions offense, but they still sacked Matthew Stafford 4 times and held the Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush-less Lions offense to just 255 total yards, which is extremely good.
Yes, indeed, although last week’s loss to Green Bay was embarrassing and disappointing as a Vikings fan, this loss hurts far worse given the circumstances of the two games. Last week, to everyone’s dismay, the Vikings had to play Christian Ponder and a loss was expected. But this week, with a healthy Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota had an opportunity at home to rebound from the horrendous Green Bay loss by beating a Lions team missing two of their best offensive players. The win would have brought the Vikings to 3-3 overall and put them in a far better position in the division hunt.
Sadly, a Vikings victory wasn’t in the cards on Sunday, though, so we’re left to just be thankful that the game didn’t end in a tie. Because if there’s anything worse than losing a game, it’s tying one.
Right Panthers and Bengals fans?
common knowledge 