Vikings Trample Raiders Back At Home

Amazing what home field advantage can give a team! The Vikings came out like they did in week one and shut down the Raiders and moved the ball almost at will all game long. After last week’s near miss the Vikings looked cool, calm, and collectively better in all phases of the game. They started on offense and drove down the field and Kirk Cousins hit Adam Thielen for a touchdown and the game was essentially over.

The Raiders were starting to gain some interest around the NFL that maybe they weren’t as bad as first thought. Their disarray during the Antonio Brown ridiculousness was handled as best possible, but they probably could have used him today. The Raiders had some moments today, but nothing really threatening. They did become the first team in US Bank history to have ANY receiver go over 100 yards and it was their tight end, Darren Waller. The wide receivers barely got mentioned in this game and running back Josh Jacobs got shut down by the Vikings staunch run defense. Listening to Paul Allen call this game they rarely mentioned any positive plays by Oakland. They got their first touchdown on a flea flicker trick play by Derek Carr after the Vikings were already up 21-0. They got a late touchdown with a few minutes left in the game with all the Vikings backups in and no real threat to the outcome. Daniel Carlson (yes, that Daniel Carlson) had one field goal attempt and doinked it off the upright.

The Vikings – literally stumbled out of the gate at Kirk got tripped up on the first play. After that they got everything right and sprinted across the finish line with a 34-14 win. Kirk Cousins first hit Adam Theilen on a deep crossing route for the first touchdown of the game. This score was a two-fold good thing as it got the team off to a fast start and got the crowd back behind their quarterback. Dalvin Cook did what Dalvin Cook does by simply running the ball all over again for the third straight game. He also caught some screen passes and juked and ran for first downs as well. He had 110 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown and never got tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Kyle Rudolph got the ball down to the one yard line and Dalvin Cook finished it from there. On the next Raiders drive Harrison Smith decided he needed to flash a little and picked off Carr on an ill advised pass and returned it to the Raiders 30 yard line. The Vikings moved the ball to the 1 yard line and the next rushing touchdown was by ….. Adam Thielen! It was his first rushing touchdown of his career on an end around sweep and the Vikings were rolling. In the 3rd quarter the Vikings continued their dominance. They got to the 11 yard line and rookie Alexander Mattison got his first professional regular season touchdown by leaping from the 4 yard line. The Vikings defense stuffed running back Josh Jacobs on a 4th down play to get the ball back in their offense’s hands. The drive stalled a bit, but were in range for a Dan Bailey 50 yard field goal. After the Carlson missed kick the Vikings drove down for another Bailey 24 yard field goal. Everson Griffen, Danielle Hunter, and Eric Wilson – filling in for an injured Anthony Barr all had sacks in the game, and the 4th quarter touchdown given up by the Vikings defense was all backups against the Raiders starters.

The Vikings and Cousins needed this win to get momentum swinging back in their direction. They have it and need to use it going forward to stay competitive in this division. If the Vikings play like this every week they won’t swing back the other way the rest of the year. Next week the Vikings head to Soldier Field to take on the Bears at 3:30PM. SKOL!