Vikings Territory Breakdown: S4E7 – Joe Oberle and Mark Craig Talk Win over Panthers
Joe Oberle
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Joe Oberle and the Star Tribune’s Mark Craig talk Vikings this week on The Vikings Territory Breakdown Podcast about Vikings crazy win over the Panthers.
The Vikings have their first winning streak of the season. They went on the road and beat the Carolina Panthers to bring their record to .500 as they head into their bye week. But like last week, we have to declare that they just barely won—with a Kirk Cousins to K.J. Osborne touchdown in overtime. And Kirk Cousins is the reason why
For the fourth time this season, Cousins led his charges into position for a final, breath-taking chance at victory, and on the past Sundays, the Vikings were able to secure that victory. One of the knocks on the Vikings signal-caller has been that he is anything but Clutch Kirk. He can’t bring the squad back when they’re down, and he can’t put the team on his back led them to a last-second win.
Well, Cousins has done it in spades. And the only reason there weren’t four comeback wins is a Dalvin Cook fumble, and a Greg Joseph missed field goal. We don’t ignore the fact that the two wins came against teams who were either are without a win or their top-line players. Nor do we ignore just how close the Vikings, who gave up a 96-yard drive to a team whose offense was dead in the water that put the game into overtime and had the Purple Faithful crafting their “Clean House” tweets.
Some fans are crafting them, regardless, and they will continue to come during the Vikings long bye week of concern about just where this team is at. But before we clean off the clubs for one last round of golf before the temperatures drop, let’s take a look back at 3-3 Vikings coming off their latest win and look ahead to Halloween Night at home against the Dallas Cowboys. Joe Oberle and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune are on hand to analyze it all on Vikings Territory Breakdown. Very scary! Here’s what we talked about:
Vikings Territory Breakdown Joe and Mark breakdown Offense, Defense, and next game after the bye against Cowboys.
OFFENSE
Kirk Cousins was 33 of 48 for 373 Yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 112.6 QB Rating. He has been lights out for two consecutive weeks with the game on the line and the clock ticking. I think now the haters have to start looking for a different punching bag.
How did Christian Darrisaw do in his first start?
No sacks allowed and only three QB hits. Plus, the running game went well against a good defense. Are we back to a good offensive line?
Penalties—11 for 98 yards. Two holding penalties kept the Panthers in the game by extending drives. This happened in the first game and then got better. What happened? Is that coaching?
Oli Udoh had the lion’s share of them. Did he get too much of a big head reading the story Mark did on him?
Dalvin Cook coming off injury quietly, had the third-best rushing numbers in the league yesterday.
The Panthers took away JJ (who also had some drops), and the Vikings didn’t forget about Thielen this week. Adam Thielen was back to himself (He made a ridiculous touchdown catch.) But KJ Osborn did him one better with the game-winner. Let’s Talk about the No. 3 WR.
What do we think of all the “going for two-point conversions” in the game? Shouldn’t they take those kicking points that early in the game? I am sure Zim thought it would be a low-scoring game.
DEFENSE
Vikes played great defense, but it was really against a weak and wounded offense. How much credit do they deserve for this win?
I don’t get giving up the 96-yarder at the end of regulation. How does this happen?
Patrick Peterson with a great game and then a hamstring pull. That is a huge loss. Vikings secondary will be in trouble without him against the Cowboys, Ravens, Chargers, and Packers just ahead.
So it is the bye week. Should we be thinking about the playoffs with this team?
People who say they should be 5-1 don’t so quickly recognize that we could have very easily lost the last two. They are 3-3 and don’t deserve anything better. Do you agree?
Looking ahead to the Cowboys
The Cowboys did not show much against the Patriots. They are 5-1, and people call them Super Bowl contenders, but I don’t know if they are every bit of that record. It may be the weakest 5-1 team, I think. They did beat the Chargers, but the rest of their games have come against teams with a records total of 8-16. Is it all hype for the Boys like it is every year, or are they for real this year?
Catch Joe Oberle and Mark Craig on the Vikings Territory Breakdown on VikingsTerritory or any of your favorite podcasting platforms.
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