FANS FINALLY FILL US BANK STADIUM AS VIKINGS WIN HOME OPENER OVER SEAHAWKS
Written by Tony Schultz on September 26, 2021
The collective sigh of relief you hear is Vikings fans for two reasons. Number one: they were back in US Bank Stadium making it the raucous, ear shattering venue that opposing teams hate to come into. The Skol Chant was in full throat and you could tell the announcers had to raise their voice to be heard over the broadcasts when the defense was on the field. It was pivotal that the fans were back making things harder on the Seahawks. Number two: the Vikings won. After having 2 games to start the season that the Vikings should have won the team fought from behind in the first half to take a halftime lead and never looked back. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson has never lost to the Vikings in his career meaning that head coach Mike Zimmer has also never beaten the Seahawks in his coaching career.
Why did they win this game? Well, there was negative news at first as Dalvin Cook was held out of the contest due to an ankle injury from last week. No worries though as Alexander Mattison started in relief and had a great game. Last year the Vikings could have beaten the Seahawks if Mattison had run to an open hole after having a great night running against them that game as well. He got his redemption. Today Mattison had 112 yards rushing and added 6 catches for 59 yards. The offensive line was opening up holes all day and Maittson’s tough running style added several yards after the Seahawks made contact with him. When Mattison wasn’t shining it was tight end Tyler Conklin make some splashy plays with 7 catches for 70 yards and 1 touchdown. Jefferson led all receivers with 9 catches with 118 yards and a touchdown with Adam Thielen adding 6 catches for 50 yards and a touchdown. The best player on the offense today was definitely Kirk Cousins. Cousins has been on a tear this year and it actually goes back to last season. He has now had 17 straight games with a quarterback rating of over 90.0 in 17 straight games and is bracketed by Peyton Manning that had 15 games and 23 games with a rating over 90. Today Kirk was 30 for 38 for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns and no turnovers and seemed in complete control the entire game. The offensive line was giving him great protection so he could make clear reads and give the receivers more time to get open. Cousins is on pace to throw for 45 touchdowns this season and if the line keeps him in a clean pocket he could get very close to that number. Kirk even threw a pass with out a shoe as it came off on a tackle and he couldn’t get it back on in the huddle so he took it off and threw it behind him. The pass was incomplete, but it showed that Cousins wasn’t going to let that stop him.
Today’s game started out a little nerve wracking as Russel Wilson and DK Metcalf seemed to be unbeatable as they marched down the field and scored. The Vikings came right back with their own statement drive where Cousins hit Conklin for the score. Jason Meyers kicked his 37th straight field goal on the next drive as the Vikings defense stiffened. The Vikings went 3 and out on the next drive and the Seahawks drove for another touchdown with a run by Chris Carson. It’s at this point most Vikings fans get a little nervous as it looked like the game might be a shootout and the Vikings were falling behind. No worries though as “Captain Kirk” led the team down the field with a touchdown strike to Thielen. The defense stiffened again and held Seattle to a field goal, and the streak for Myers came to an end as missed it wide left and Vikings fans felt better that it happened to someone else. With 2 minutes left in the first half the Vikings drove the field once again and Kirk hit Justin Jefferson for his score. The Vikings obviously made some adjustments when they went in to the locker room and in the 2nd half had much better control over the Seattle defense. as they held them scoreless the rest of the game. The offense stayed aggressive and got embattled kicker Greg Joseph into position 3 times in the second half to add to the score. Joseph missed the game winning kick last week against the Cardinals, but was perfect today helping the fans feel a little better about him being out there. What was also really nice was seeing Everson Griffen getting pressure on Wilson late in the game and getting a sack as did Eric Kendricks later in the game. The only thing that marred the game was when the Seahawks were on a desperation drive and Everson Griffen touched Russell Wilson and the refs, who had been relatively quiet all game called a roughing the passer penalty. It was embarrassing that they called it, but it didn’t make much difference as the Vikings stopped the Seahawks on downs as Harrison Smith broke up a pass in the endzone and the Vikings got the ball back to run the clock out.
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So the Vikings have a great chance to get on a win streak with Cleveland and Detroit coming to town the next 2 weeks and then traveling to the Carolina Panthers before they have their bye week. Before they do get on that win streak they need to improve the defense in the pass game and get more stops when the ball goes into the air to stay away from the close games. The offensive line needs to stay cohesive and keep improving each week. Today they were playing great and were getting downfield on screen plays to for Mattison to get those long gains. If Darrisaw gets healthy enough to start it might get better with his addition alone. It sounds like he is close to being able to play and maybe start soon. Let’s just soak up this win today and keep hope alive that they can keep winning and make the type of run that the talent on the team should already be on.
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