The Minnesota Vikings suffered their first “letdown” loss of the year to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night. Let’s take a closer look at what the numbers said about the game and what direction some of the trends are pointing…
At the end of Thursday night’s game, Justin Jefferson was the NFL leader in receiving yards and Sam Darnold had a QB rating of 122.7 when targeting Jefferson for the year . Darnold threw to Jefferson nine times against the Rams, completed eight for 115 yards, including one of the best catches of Jefferson’s career.
One area where they still could have added more to the short passing game was in screens. The Vikings only ran two for 18 yards vs. Los Angeles.Pressure coming directly up the middle and from the right guard spot has been problematic for the Vikings. On Thursday night, it was not an issue. Garrett Bradbury posted a 77.8 PFF grade and Ed Ingram a 75.9. They only gave up three QB pressures between them.
There is no easy solution to replacing Darrisaw. It will take schematic adjustments along with someone stepping up for the offense to survive his loss.The Vikings rank fifth in the NFL in total penalties and several against the Rams were crushing. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Rams were stopped on third-and-7 at their own 49-yard line but Byron Murphy Jr. was called for holding.
The Vikings have to assess why the Lions and Rams were both able to expose the secondary after opponents struggled so much over the first five weeks.One player doesn’t make an entire defense but Cashman’s absence has been felt on multiple levels. First, the adjustments at the line of scrimmage did not appear to be the same as in previous weeks. Part of that could have been the Rams playing with tempo but Cashman’s ability to make checks prior to the snap was causing havoc for opposing QBs.
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