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5 things that stood out in the Vikings' win over Buffalo

This may come across as a negative post even though the Vikings won to improve to 8-1.

Joe Nelson

5 things that stood out in the Vikings' win over Buffalo
5 things that stood out in the Vikings' win over Buffalo /

The game of the year between the Vikings and Bills ended in a 33-30 overtime thriller in favor of the Purple and Gold, and beyond the handful of spectacular and unthinkable moments at the end of the fourth quarter and overtime there were a bunch of things that stood. Here are five of them... 

1. Kirk Cousins struggles

Justin Jefferson was the only reason Kirk Cousins had a chance to lead the Vikings back from the dead in their 17-point comeback win over the Bills. If not for numerous spectacular plays by Jefferson, the Vikings would've lost in Buffalo and Cousins would be facing criticism for struggling in another big game.

Cousins threw what might've been his worst pass of the season when in the third quarter chucked the ball directly to Dane Jackson, who oh by the way plays for the Bills.

Cousins was intercepted when overthrew K.J. Osborn and was intercepted in the second quarter. He avoided another interception when T.J.Hockenson intentionally committed pass interference in the end zone, and he was nearly picked off when he fired into double coverage looking for Adam Thielen late in the second quarter. 

2. Justin Jefferson vs. Stefon Diggs

Both superstar receivers had incredible one-handed catches and huge games. We'll let their numbers and highlights do the talking. 

Jefferson: 10 catches, 193 yards, 1 touchdown

Diggs: 12 catches, 128 yards

3. Vikings issues in the red zone

Minnesota was in the red zone four times and converted just one of those trips into a touchdown.

They had a first-and-goal at the Buffalo two but had to settle for a field goal after Hockenson was flagged for pass interference, which he quite obviously did intentionally to help Cousins avoid being intercepted.

The lone touchdown in the red zone was a two-yard rushing score by C.J. Ham with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter.

The next failure deep in the red zone ended when Cousins was stuffed on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line. And the offense again sputtered after Cousins threw a dime to Jefferson to give Minnesota a first-and-goal from the Buffalo 3-yard line in overtime. Dalvin Cook lost two yards on first down, Cousins was sacked for a 10-yard loss on second down and Cousins threw incomplete on third down. 

4. Trouble with big, mobile quarterbacks

Stopping Josh Allen looked eerily similar to the Vikings trying to stop Jalen Hurts in Week 2. Hurts not only threw for 333 yards but he also ran for two touchdowns.  yards. Allen was just as, if not more, difficult to handle. He threw for 330 yards and had 84 yards on the ground and routinely escaped danger inside and outside the pocket. 

In the Vikings' defense (pun intended), almost every defense has had a hard time against Hurts and Allen. The thing Allen did that Hurts did not was throw two interceptions in the end zone, both of them picked off by Patrick Peterson. 

If Allen doesn't throw those interceptions, the Bills might've beaten the Vikings by three touchdowns. 

5. Greg Joseph is cause for concern

Joseph missed an extra point that would've cut Buffalo's lead to 27-24 in the fourth quarter. The miss kept it 27-23 and put the Vikings in a position where their only hope was to score a touchdown, and 99 times out of 100 it would've killed the Vikings because Kirk Cousins got stuffed on 4th-and-goal from the one with 57 seconds to go. 

Luckily, Josh Allen fumbled the snap and Eric Kendricks recovered it in the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown. But had Joseph not missed that extra point, the Vikings would've at least had the option to kick a short field goal to tie the game at 27. 

Related: Coller: Confidence, trust and the art of a spectacular catch

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Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen.  His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011.  Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play.  Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers.  Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17. 

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