Last week at the New York Giants, the Vikings offense accomplished something it hadn’t done in 11 years: engineer a 98-yard-or-longer touchdown drive.
Sunday versus Philadelphia they updated another milestone that went even further back in the record books.
Stefon Diggs hauled in two touchdown passes of 50-plus yards in the first half, becoming the first Vikings player to do that since Randy Moss back on Oct. 1, 2000 against the Detroit Lions.
The Vikings carved the banged-up Eagles secondary for 250 first-half yards, including strikes of 62 and 51 yards to Diggs on consecutive offensive plays.
“Yeah, when they get in quarters and play flat-footed, then you go over the top,” Cousins said, referring to Philadelphia’s zone coverage. “When they play single-high and the safety is flat-footed, you go over the top. You just go where your reads take you, and a couple of times they got flat-footed and it gave Diggs a chance to get behind them. Like I said, they weren’t wanting to, it was just a miscommunication or bust and the other time, they were in quarters so you’re kind of excited before the ball is snapped because you know this is the kind of coverage you want for this route.”
The first strike came early in the second quarter with the score 10-3. On the first play of the drive, rookie Alexander Mattison ripped off a 13-yard run, beating outside linebacker Zach Brown to the edge. It was Brown who spoke out on Friday about Kirk Cousins’ deficiencies as a quarterback, but Cousins — despite claiming he had no knowledge of the comments — quieted Brown’s narrative with his next couple throws.
The Vikings got to the line quickly and snapped it with 14 seconds on the play clock. The Eagles were in base with the Vikings showing an I-formation, leaving them with two corners and two safeties against the Vikings’ three receivers — a Cover 4. Cousins took the snap and gave Mattison a subtle head fake — perhaps not strong enough to classify play-action — but it momentarily froze the linebackers. Meanwhile, Diggs blew past Rasul Douglas on a post, catching Rodney McLeod flat-footed. The safety didn’t offer help to Douglas, and Diggs was left alone in the middle of the field.
“It’s all Coach ‘Ski (Kevin Stefanski) and the coaching staff as far as them putting those plays together and having those opportunities come up at the right time,” said Diggs. “I feel like all the plays happened at the right time. It’s all kudos to them.”
“They tried to stop the run,” said Zimmer, “so they’re going to try and get the extra guy down in the box quite a bit.”
You really love to see it.#Skol pic.twitter.com/S4bPZRuDtX
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 13, 2019
Bomb No. 2 came immediately following a defensive stand. The Eagles missed a 4th and 2 from Minnesota’s 49-yard yard line, giving the Vikings a short field with which to work. On the first play of the drive the Eagles again showed a base with the Vikings in “21” personnel — C.J. Ham and Dalvin Cook in the backfield with Kyle Rudolph motioned out to the right. McLeod played up in the box for support in reaction to Rudolph’s motion, leaving the Eagles with just three in the secondary.
Bad idea.
Don’t want to defend Diggs?
You’re going to regret that decision. pic.twitter.com/lQ0zfOHOLt
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 13, 2019
The left corner opposite Bisi Johnson bit on Cousins’ play-action to Cook, letting Johnson wide open down the right side. McLeod, the safety, played up to cut off Rudolph’s crossing pattern instead of assisting Douglas with Diggs.
“I think they would probably tell you they busted the coverage,” Cousins said. “I don’t think they wanted to defend it that way. I think the corner (Douglas) was probably expecting help over the top on Diggs. I think the safety (McLeod) … if he’s flat-footed, [Douglas] is expecting somebody else to be backing him up, so I think they probably would tell you that something with the signals got crossed there. We looked at the picture and you could see you had Bisi on the far post and Diggsy on the takeoff and both of them were there.”
Diggs ended the day with seven grabs for 167 yards and three touchdowns. It was his third-highest yardage output as a Viking, just two weeks removed from his vocal frustration following a loss at Chicago. Reports indicated Diggs was upset about his role in the offense, and the receiver said things were “obviously not OK.” He later clarified his comments by saying the source of his frustration was losing.
Winning can cure that, and that’s the goal Cousins voiced after the game Sunday.
“I just want to win,” said Cousins, “and the way to win today, with the plays that were called was to give [Diggs] opportunities, but at the same time you go where coverage takes you. If that safety’s in a deep post on that [second] touchdown and if the corner is playing on top of Diggsy, the ball goes to Rudy or the ball goes to Hammer (Ham). Hammer said he’s thinking he’s going to get the ball underneath, so you go where your reads take you. When coach calls the play he’s not saying, ‘Hey, get it to Diggsy.’ He’s saying, ‘Read it out and if anything he’s saying don’t be afraid to take a checkdown. Don’t force it.'”
Remarkably, there was more meat on the bone for the Vikings’ passing game in addition to their 333 yards through the air. Cousins missed Diggs on a third deep shot late in the second quarter on a slight overthrow against an eight-man box, and he left too much air on a 21-yard shot to Thielen, who caught the ball for a potential touchdown but was shoved out of bounds.
“We missed a post at the end of the half,” said Cousins. “He probably could have had four. That was there for the taking and that ball was a little overthrown. Also Adam Thielen could have had a second one today and I thought the throw was what prevented it from happening. You could say he’s got to get two feet down, but he got pushed out, the ball hung up in the air too long and if that ball gets up and down he’s got a chance to score too, so I feel like we left some out there as well. But because we were able to keep going and be productive it didn’t come back to haunt us.”
