VIKINGS DEFEAT MINNESOTA 23-7

No, that is not a typo. New York finally got its first win - but the Giants had little or nothing to do with it.

Vikings Receivers were open all night and the Giants Pass Rush was all but non existent. The only thing New York did accomplish was stopping the run. This is surprising as they are 24th in Rush Defense vs the 10th ranked Viking Rush Offense.  

The Vikings offensive performance qualifies as one of the the worst football games ever played by a professional team. 

Josh Freeman overthrew open receivers from the gate. He never adjusted his passes and continued to do so all night. He was praised for all the time he spent studying the playbook during the 13 days he had to prepare. Perhaps that detracted from the time he should have spent throwing footballs at receivers on the practice field. If so, not his fault. Fraiser was maybe asking for too much too soon from the rusty vet. 

Peterson was unable to establish any semblance of a run game. He was stonewalled on every play. 


The only Minnesota points came on a punt return. The offense failed to score a single point.  At least the system called that right.  The only stats they ranked high in - were Rush Offense and Field Position Offense.

The Vikings defense did play very well. But, a series of unending 3 and outs tired them enough to let the Giants score 23 points. Give them credit though - they never gave up and made stops up until the last few minutes. . 

The only explanation I have -  is the inability of the Viking offensive line to give Freeman time or open a hole for Peterson on the first few series. Before he could complete his first 3 step drop - Freeman was face to face with an unblocked def linemen. It is possible that rattled Freeman. The lack of blocking continued throughout the game and would explain the absolute absence of any run game for the Vikings. If you can't run you can't pass. If this was a poker game - Freeman's cards were face up all night. Don't credit the Giants - they had few if any sacks and were only able to hurry Freeman. Good offensive lines win games. Bad lines lose them. We knew going in - these were two of the worst.

I was reminded of a fact I will not forget after tonight's game. Every team wants to score as often as possible. So, what do bad teams do? Cover the UNDER. Only Two Stats were needed in order to predict the Under tonight. 1-4 and  0-6.

-Rick Jansen