Week 7 Thoughts

After their 24-16 defeat of the Baltimore Ravens, the Minnesota Vikings are alone at the top of the NFC North with a 5-2 record. It was a sound win, a convincing win. It was a defensive win. The Ravens didn't score a touchdown until the final play of the game. They didn't even venture into the red zone until a few plays before that final play. The Vikings offense did enough. The defense did much more than that. It was a win and that's really all that matters.

"As an offense, we feel like we're trying harder to score to reward them for how well they're playing."

-Vikings receiver Adam Thielen said of his team's defense.

Some defensive numbers:
Ravens gained 208 total yards
Rushing: 64
Passing: 144
Yards/play: 3.2
Sacked: 5

68 of the Ravens yards were gained on the final scoring drive during which the Vikings defense was more concerned with consuming the final three minutes of the game than slowing the Ravens progress. I've always found that a strange way to play but the "prevent" defense has long been an NFL staple.

The only thing missing from the defensive effort was turnovers. It'd be nice if they could get a few of those. They thought that they had a fumble early in the game but a penalty took it away and gave the Ravens a fresh set of downs.

The Vikings offense wasn't terrible.
357 total yards
Rushing: 169
Passing: 188
Yards/play: 5.6
No sacks

The rushing totals are great. Latavius Murray had his breakout game in Minnesota. 18 carries for 113 yards and a 29-yard TD. Since rookie running back Dalvin Cook was lost for the season in Week 4, Jerick McKinnon has been getting most of the attention and opportunities. Murray made the most of his opportunities against the Ravens.

The passing numbers are slight. Quarterback Case Keenum didn't make any careless mistakes but some of his throws didn't do his receivers any favors. Jarius Wright bailed him out on a couple of occasions with great, clutch catches. Other receivers had to do the same in less spectacular fashion. Keenum's first throw of the game was intercepted. The turnover was hardly on him as the officials made their first skip away from reality on the play. After a terrific punt return from Marcus Sherels, the Vikings took advantage of the field position by throwing deep. Laquon Treadwell tried to make the catch with one hand because his other hand was being pinned by corner Brandon Carr. The ball bounced back and forth between receiver and defender and ended in Carr's hands. The officials were oblivious to pass interference/holding throughout the game. The lack of flags on such infractions went both ways so it balanced out in the long run.

With that one turnover out of the way early, the Vikings offense moved the ball fairly well the rest of the game. They just couldn't finish drives. 6 damn field goals! 6! It's always good to get scores at the end of drives but field goals won't always cut it. They were fortunate that it did cut it yesterday. Seven scoring drives typically results in a team putting about 40 points on the board. It generated 24 points yesterday.

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker kicked three field goals. The nine combined field goals in the game tied an NFL record. Yay!

Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen had two of his team's five sacks. Following the game, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was asked about Griffen's strong play this season.

"He's a good player. He's got power. He's got strength. He's got get-off. He jumps offsides a lot. He's got a great spin move. He's good with his hands. You know, he's just an all-day work for whoever he's playing against."

Zimmer did add that he'd like to see that offsides stuff taken care of.

Vikings left tackle Riley Reiff and left guard Jeremiah Sirles left the field in the second half with knee injuries. Sirles was already replacing starter Nick Easton. Rookie guard Danny Isidora and tackle Rashod Hill closed the game for Sirles and Reiff respectively. Keenum said that he barely noticed a difference. That's more compliment for the replacements than knock on the starters. Keenum wasn't sacked and hardly harassed the entire game. Isidora controlled Ravens giant defensive lineman Brandon Williams on Murray's touchdown run. The offensive line has played well all season and that continued with a couple of backups on the field yesterday. Easton is expected back next week. Hopefully the injuries to Reiff and Sirles aren't serious. Zimmer didn't think that they were.

***

Unless you're a dedicated fan of the winning teams, yesterday's slate of NFL games left a lot to be decided. If you wanted entertaining football you didn't get that. Three were shutouts. Few were competitive. 

Shutouts:

Jacksonville Jaguars  27

Indianapolis Colts  0

Arizona Cardinals  0

Los Angeles Rams  33

-This gem was exported to London

Denver Broncos  0

Los Angeles Chargers  21

Good stuff.

Then we had these classics.

Carolina Panthers  3

Chicago Bears 17

Dallas Cowboys  40

San Francisco 49ers  10

Seattle Seahawks  24

New York Giants  7

Cincinnati Bengals  14

Pittsburgh Steelers  29

The Seahawks-Giants game was a little closer than the score indicates. The Bengals-Steelers game wasn't.

Bears rookie safety Eddie Jackson returned a fumble 75 yards for a score and an interception 76 yards for a score. Ball game. Those scores made up for a Bears offense, led by fellow rookie Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback, that did little.

Daniel Jeremiah of the Move the Sticks podcast and NFL Network noted this little nugget.
Last two weeks for Trubisky
12 total completions
2 wins

The Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns played a scorcher. Titans won 12-9 in overtime. All 21 combined points came from seven field goals. Two short of that NFL record that the Ravens and Vikings tied. This game was unfortunately highlighted by the end of Browns tackle Joe Thomas' ridiculous Iron Man streak. He had played every single snap of his 11-year, seven-game career. That's an incredible 10,363 snaps. He injured his triceps. It's wrong to speculate on his availability for the remainder of the season until the MRI is done tomorrow. 

I don't know what was up with the uniforms that the Seahawks sported. It looked like something had gone awry with their laundry. A dirty sort of grey was the result. 

One of the few competitive games of Week 7 was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Buffalo Bills affair. It wasn't decided until damn near every Buccaneers player touched the ball on the final play. Here's how ESPN recorded the fun of that play in their play-by-play.

2nd and 4 at TB 31

(0:08 - 4th) (Shotgun) J.Winston pass short left to A.Humphries to TB 36 for 5 yards. Lateral to C.Sims III to TB 33 for -3 yards. Lateral to M.Evans to TB 25 for -8 yards. FUMBLES, recovered by TB-D.Smith at TB 25. D.Smith to TB 30 for 5 yards. Lateral to C.Brate to TB 23 for -7 yards. FUMBLES, recovered by TB-M.Evans at TB 23. M.Evans to TB 23 for no gain. Lateral to A.Humphries to TB 20 for -3 yards. Lateral to C.Sims III to TB 14 for -6 yards. Lateral to D.Jackson to TB 6 for -8 yards. Lateral to M.Evans to TB 14 for 8 yards. Lateral to D.Jackson to TB 29 for 15 yards (M.Dareus).

The play seemed to last as long as all four quarters of the Ravens-Vikings game. The Bucs and Bills tried their best to redeem the day's games. They combined for 27 points in the final quarter. Fun times. 

Sunday Night Football was supposed to provide the great football game to save the day. Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots. Super Bowl LI rematch. It wasn't a great game. 23-7 Patriots. The Falcons offense played in a fog. The second half was literally played in a fog.

The Falcons offense has too many playmakers to play like they did. Playcalling? Execution? Who knows? The coach that called the offensive shots last year is calling all of the shots in San Francisco this year. Steve Sarkisian replaced Kyle Shanahan as the team's offensive coordinator and the offense has been more splishy than splashy. The Falcons didn't score against the Patriots until four minutes remained and the game was essentially decided. Atlanta left at least 13 points and as many as 21 points on the field. They ran two plays from inside the one-yard line and scored 0 points. That sounds like execution problems but the plays called didn't look too hot from my comfy seat.

Despite their offensive woes, the Falcons, at 3-3, are only a game back of the Saints in the NFC South but they need to figure out some things.

It's fun to watch Tom Brady play football. 

The Vikings travel across the pond this week to play the Cleveland Browns at Twickenham Stadium in London. Zimmer said that they are going to do something a little different this year. They will do their usual stuff tomorrow and throw in a little walk-thru to start the Browns preparations. The players will have their usual off day on Tuesday, practice in the morning on Wednesday and fly to London afterwards. I'm not sure how that differs from other teams but the Vikings are trying to keep their routine as close to the norm as possible. At least as close as it can be with a flight to London in the middle of it.