Vikings PFF grades: Josh Metellus passes, Justin Jefferson fails
Give Christian Darrisaw the trophy for highest-graded offensive lineman in Minnesota's 28-24 comeback win over the Lions on Sunday. Pro Football Focus gave him an 89.4 grade, the highest on the team outside of tight end Ben Ellefson's 93.1, though Ellefson played only 13 snaps.
Darrisaw was on the field for all 72 offensive snaps and posted 88.4 pass blocking and 86.7 run blocking grades.
Garrett Bradbury, anchoring the line at center, had a 77.8 grade and left guard Ezra Cleveland scored a 72.0. Rookie Ed Ingram had a terrible day, per PFF, with a 40.8 grade. And right tackle Brian O'Neill's 62.3 score was the result of a 53.6 run-blocking grade compared to a 70.9 mark on passing plays.
How'd Kirk Cousins do? PFF gave him a 76.6 score, a massive improvement from the egg he laid in Philadelphia in Week 2. Cousins was 24-of-41 for 260 yards and two touchdowns. Of that, he was 21-of-28 in a clean pocket compared to 3-of-13 under pressure.
His go-to receiver on Sunday, KJ Osborn, hauled in back-to-back 28-yard receptions including the game-winning touchdown en route to a 78.3 grade. Adam Thielen graded at 77.0 after his six-catch, one-touchdown game.
Justin Jefferson is not going to want to see his score: 43.9, the lowest of his career. Jefferson had three catches for 14 yards. He also had a drop and drew a pair of penalties on Lions defensive backs.
League wide, Jefferson is ranked 37th among pass-catchers with a 68.5 grade through three games. Cooper Kupp is No. 1 with an 89.4 grade. Stefon Diggs, who leads the NFL in receiving yards (344) and receiving touchdowns (4) is third at 88.1.
Here's how the defense graded:
- Danielle Hunter - 83.9
- Josh Metellus - 82.7
- Za'Darius Smith - 82.7
- Dalvin Tomlinson - 76.7
- Jordan Hicks - 74.3
- D.J. Wonnum - 66.5
- Harrison Phillips - 66.2
- Patrick Peterson - 63.8
- Cam Bynum - 63.4
- Jonathan Bullard - 60.1
- Eric Kendricks - 55.8
- Patrick Jones II - 50.8
- Chandon Sullivan - 48.7
- Ross Blacklock - 47.6
- Cam Dantzler - 46.4
- James Lynch - 41.5
The most glaring is Cam Dantzler, who was targeted seven times and gave up seven receptions for 94 yards and a 118.8 passer rating. Chandon Sullivan was targeted five times by Jared Goff and those passes resulted in four completions for 50 yards.
Patrick Peterson allowed just one reception on seven targets, but it was Josh Metellus, starting in place of a concussed Harrison Smith, who had a 78.1 coverage grade – more than 30 points higher than Sullivan and Dantzler.
For comparison, Smith posted a dynamite 87.5 score against the Packers in Week 1 and then fell off the face of the Earth with the rest of the defense in Week 2 at Philly, where he posted a 41.1 grade.
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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.