How the lights went out on the Vikings' season
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Vikings won 11 one-score games during the regular season. They did it in all sorts of ways, from throwing game-winning touchdowns to causing key turnovers to getting a bevy of red zone stops to kicking a 61-yard field goal. But on Sunday afternoon at US Bank Stadium, they did not have a final answer in a back-and-forth contest against the New York Giants and their season came to an end in their first one-score loss of the year.
How did they get upset in the opening round of the postseason? Let’s have a look at the takeaways from the postgame locker room…
Defense, gashed
The last time the Vikings faced the Giants in Week 16, they allowed quarterback Daniel Jones to post the fifth highest passing total of his career. This time he tied his eighth highest total with 301 yards through the air. They also let the Giants run for 142 total yards and the G-Men punted just twice en route to scoring 31 points.
This isn’t exactly a new result against the Vikings’ defense, which allowed 400-plus yards in nine games this season, but it came against an offense which ranked just 18th in total yardage.
“I think there were some issues with explosive, big plays,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “Tonight they schematically did some things to maybe take advantage of some things we were doing.”
The Vikings allowed Jones completions of 47 yards to Darius Slayton, 32 yards to Isaiah Hodgins and 24 yards to Saquon Barkley along with a 28-yard Barkley touchdown run. They did come up with a key stop to set up a potential tying drive but that came via a drop by a wide-open Slayton.
“Credit to them, they had some good scheme stuff,” linebacker Jordan Hicks said. “We made some solid adjustments at halftime, added some pressure, got after them…. and a couple drives, and we fell short, about one or two stops short.”
Jones also had one of his best career days on the ground, rushing 17 times for 78 yards. On one drive, he either ran or scrambled five times.
“We talked about it throughout the week, we wanted to try to keep him in the pocket,” O’Connell said. “We wanted to try to get a rush, change the game with some of our playmakers up there, but not let him get out and have an impact.. They just happened to make those plays.”
A defense that relied on turnovers and clutch plays caused zero turnovers and let the Giants go 9-for-15 between third and fourth downs and three-for-four with touchdowns in the red zone.
4th-and-8
The lasting image in many Vikings fans’ minds from this game will be a 3-yard pass from Kirk Cousins to TJ Hockenson on fourth-and-8 that brought the game to an end.
Cousins explained what he saw on the play:
“Just a shell read there, saw single high, tried to work Justin, didn't feel good about putting it up to Justin, and when I went to progress I just felt like I was about to get sacked and I felt like I've got to put the ball in play, and I can't go down with sack, so I thought I'd kick it out to T.J.,” Cousins said. “I had thrown short of the sticks on a few occasions in the game and even going back a few weeks and just felt like just throwing it short of the sticks isn't the end of the world. It's just obviously tight coverage, so didn't have the chance to pull away. But I just felt like I was going to go down and take a sack if I didn't put it out.”
Cousins said he most regretted the play before the fourth-down throw, a third-and-8 pass over the middle to KJ Osborn that he felt could have been better placed.
O’Connell said that the checkdown to Hockenson was not the idea of the play and that the “primary concept” was not to throw short of the sticks on fourth down. He took responsibility for not making it more clear to his QB where he thought the ball should be thrown.
“Looking back on it, I maybe could have just been a little bit more, ‘Hey, this is kind of where you want the ball to go,’” O’Connell said. “But I want Kirk to be able to play. I want him to be free out there to make good decisions. He did all night long. Moved our team. Stood in there, getting the ball out of his hand in rhythm. It just so happens that that down -- we just didn't get enough on the play regardless.”
“There's always a play that could be better for your guys out there, and that one will stick with me,” O’Connell added.
A replay from the NFL NextGEN tracking system shows Jefferson clearly double teamed with KJ Osborn over the middle in man-to-man coverage and Giants star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence creating pressure up the middle.
Thielen, Osborn, Jefferson. Left to right. On fourth-and-8 with the game on the line. The result was a 3 yard check down to Hockenson. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/OvVV4tdY3M
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) January 16, 2023
Jefferson held down
While Cousins finished the game with 273 yards, two touchdowns, zero picks and a 112.9 QB rating, the Vikings only produced a field goal on their final three drives and Jefferson was hardly involved, grabbing one pass for four yards during the entire second half.
“They did what everybody else does,” said Jefferson, who was double teamed and followed by corner Adoree Jackson for most of the day. “It was not a shocker or something that was surprising.”
It might not have been different coverage from previous outings but O’Connell noted that the overall defensive approach from the Giants was changed up a bit. They came in as a blitz-crazed team that led the NFL in sending extra rushers but instead allowed their front-four to rush so they could provide extra coverage on Jefferson.
“They didn't bring as much pressure tonight, it was more so a story of coverage, double teams,” O’Connell said. “I think when you look at his stats, I don't think it's a coincidence.”
The Vikings also ended up with only 56 total plays because the Giants held the ball for nearly 34 minutes.
The trick play
Throughout the year, O’Connell has had a tendency to mix in trick plays, whether it be a fake punt, attempted pass by Dalvin Cook or jet sweep to CJ Ham. They have rarely been successful and Sunday’s throw from Jefferson to Cousins on third-and-1 on the second drive of the game was no different. That one will get added to the pile of this season’s failed trickeration as Cousins was tackled after catching the ball and taken down for a 2-yard loss.
“We had had that play up for a chance versus man coverage to try to see if we could generate an explosive, and they ended up leaving the cornerback side and didn't get the look that ultimately we were hunting,” O’Connell said. “And that's part of taking risks. No different than a fake punt. No different than some things in that situation. They defended the play well, and you've got to give them credit. Not a play call that I particularly loved, but it's easy to say that when it does not work.”
Hockenson’s big day
With the Giants focusing on Jefferson, Hockenson had another huge game against them. On Christmas Eve vs. New York he caught 13 passes. On Sunday, he grabbed 10 more for 129 yards including a fourth-and-2 reception that went for 18 yards.
“He's a really good football player, in this offense, in this system, the Y, the tight end will always, especially someone of T.J.'s ability, will always have a big role,” Cousins said. “We're grateful to have a guy who's that capable, and we're going to give him a lot of opportunities.”
The Vikings’ midseason trade for Hockenson turned out to be a home run, particularly since he is under contract through next year.
Tough decisions ahead
As the Vikings head into the offseason, the first matter of business will be to decide what they want to do with their coaching staff. Most teams that win 13 regular season games do not look for overhauls but their 28th ranked defense and Sunday’s letdown could result in a change at defensive coordinator.
“I think Ed (Donatell) tried to do the best he could this year across the board, installing the defense and the scheme that we had kind of manifested together and hoped that it would come to life,” O’Connell said. “He worked his absolute tail off and his commitment to trying to make some adjustments and improve was there each and every week all season long. I'm going to look at every aspect, special teams, offense, defense, personnel, with Kwesi, all across the board how we can improve schematically.”
Going into the game multiple players noted the fact that rosters usually change quite a bit from year to year and this group might not be together much longer. The front office has little cap space to work with and numerous expensive veterans and free agents to make decisions on.
“Thirteen wins is really -- haven't really sniffed that before, so just the fact that the group, the Garretts and the Alexes that are free agents that there's no guarantee they're going to be back, I think it's hard to walk off the field,” Cousins asid. “You want them all back, and you just don't know, and I think that unknown is always tough.”
Was it a success?
Hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2017 and pulling off some of the most exciting victories the NFL has ever seen will make the 2022 season memorable for a long time. But the way that it ended was not particularly fresh considering they have won only a single playoff game since the Minneapolis Miracle.
“It hurts. It hurts,” Cousins said. “I'm probably missing one, but this is probably the toughest loss I've had in my career. It hurts.”
O’Connell will likely have put his name toward the top of Coach of the Year voting for his role in getting the Vikings from eight to 13 wins and the way in which he galvanized a locker room that was looking for a culture change. After the game he wasn’t able to say how he will view the year considering its ending.
“It's a little too soon to kind of go into true evaluation mode,” he said. “It's going to sting us for a long time. This team was as competitive as any group as I've been around from the standpoint of each and every time they took the field with the expectation to win. It did not always go our way, but these guys battled for, like you said, 13 wins, and I think there's a lot of things that I'm very, very fortunate and excited about moving forward with this team currently and where we can take it from here.”
