Vikings stunned by Cowboys 31-28

  |  
Nov 22, 2020

Vikings stunned by Cowboys 28-24

The Minnesota Vikings came into Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys heavily favored against the 2-7 Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys, while in the midst of an awful season, still have a lot of talent and to play for as they came into Sunday only a game out of first-place in the NFC East.

For some reason I had a bad feeling about today’s game, despite picking the Vikings to win 24-13 this morning.

Dallas Cowboys @ Minnesota Vikings Score Prediction

But I also wrote about the potential of a trap game.

Some see a trap game for the surging Vikings in Dallas

That fear seemed to be founded in reality as the Cowboys clearly came to play Sunday. The Vikings didn’t do themselves a lot of favors in the first half, with turnovers by quarterback Kirk Cousins (fumble) and Dalvin Cook (fumble).

Both turnovers came on monster hits by the Cowboys’ defenders, with the Cousins turnover coming on a clear helmet-to-helmet hit in the first quarter. Cook’s came on the final first-half drive by the Vikings, stopping what looked like a scoring drive before half-time.

The Vikings trailed the Cowboys 16-7, but came out of the gate firing in the second-half. After going ahead 21-16, the Cowboys pulled ahead thanks to a 40-yard touchdown by Cowboys running back Tony Pollard. After a successful two-point conversion, the Cowboys lead 23-21.

Despite Cousins makes throws that we haven’t seen since Favre in 2009, and despite the fact that Dalvin Cook is the MVP of this team and offense, Cousins has now shown in back-to-back games that he isn’t far behind (especially when the team needs him most), even in a loss that has tremendous impact.

After the gorgeous touchdown by Justin Jefferson, Cousins had a streak of 12 completed passes. Something that should silence any naysayer of his, especially considering that he orchestrated three touchdown drives coming out of the half. If not for a drop by Jefferson on second down on the Vikings’ final drive, we may have had a different story.

I’m sure that Cousins naysayers will point to the bad final drive, which only needed to get into field goal range to push the game to OT, there was a lot of good in this game offensively.

The defense?

A different story. Cameron Dantzler is awful, and Kris Boyd dropped a game ending interception before the Cowboys’ game winning touchdown which came via blown coverage by the needle.

Highlights:

Adam Thielen’s first TD

Another TD by Thielen

51-yard grab and run by Thielen

https://twitter.com/SeanBormanNFL/status/1330650551147765761

Kendricks’ gorgeous pick

Dalvin’s 13th TD of the year

Angry run by Cook

Cousins the scrambler

Jefferson can’t be contained

Stats: