Vikings - Eagles

Through two games, the Minnesota Vikings can’t get out of their own way. They gave the game to the Tampa Bay Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Four days later, the gave the game to the Philadelphia Eagles.  It’s a very generous way to play football and it has to stop. 

34-28 Eagles.

Three turnovers on Sunday. Four more last night. Despite the generosity with the football, the Vikings lost the two games by a total of nine points. 

Mass Momentum Plays.

The Eagles recent short-yardage strategy is a throwback to the very gory days of football. Days of maimings and even death. There’s nothing innovative about their formation or execution. The play is literally one of the oldest in football’s history. It tracks to the 1800s and it nearly got the sport banned. Mass momentum plays are plays involving running all eleven offensive players into a single point in the defensive front. These plays often resulted in broken necks, cracked skulls, broken bones, and even deaths. Removing the play from football saved the sport. The Eagles dusting off the play off and running it in short-yardage situations returns the league to those gory days and could jeopardize the sport again. It will injure players, perhaps permanently. The league’s decision-makers considered banning it again this past offseason but decided against it. It’ll probably take the crippling of a quarterback for the play to be banned from football for a second time. 

Last night, the Eagles scored two touchdowns and converted a key fourth down with their once-banned mass momentum play.

Most Ridiculous Rule In Football.

The most ridiculous rule in football awarded the Eagles possession of the football despite doing nothing to gain possession of it. Late in the first half, Kirk Cousins connected on a 30-yard pass to Justin Jefferson inside the Eagles 10-yard line. He headed for the end zone, lunged, and reached out with the football. When an offensive player loses possession of the football into and out of the end zone, an archaic and non-sensical rule awards the ball to the defense. If an offensive player fumbles the football out of bounds anywhere else on the football field, the ball is returned to the offense at the spot of the fumble. For some ridiculous reason, the rule changes for the end zone. The defense is awarded possession despite never possessing the football. Ridiculous.

The Eagles were awarded possession of the football for giving up a big play to Jefferson. The Eagles turned the gift they did nothing to earn into a long field goal before the half. The most ridiculous rule in football turned into a possible 10-point swing to the Eagles. Ridiculous.

34-28.

The Vikings generosity with the football was the biggest reason for the loss. Beyond that generosity, the Vikings run game and run defense was a problem. 

Look at these numbers:

Rush yards:

Vikings: 28

Eagles: 259

Rushing First Downs:

Vikings: 0

Eagles: 19

Time of Possession:

Vikings: 20:32

Eagles: 39:28

Those are silly differentials.

That time of possession was huge. The Vikings defense was probably gassed with all of the time that they  spent battling the Eagles terrific offensive line. The rush yards surely got easier to come by. Giving the ball back prematurely to the Eagles offense with those four fumbles didn’t help. 

The Vikings could so easily be 2-0. Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, and Jordan Addison, and the defense as a whole are playing well enough to be 2-0. Reality has them at 0-2. 

The Vikings now have a mini-bye to hopefully figure out how to get out of their own way.