For the first time this season, the Minnesota Vikings defense had to seal the game on a go-ahead drive. On a day when the offense couldn’t pour it on to put the game away, the defense delivered. Great teams can win any kind of game, and while they never trailed in this game (for the fourth straight week), the Vikings showed that they can win ugly. The New York Jets also have one of the league’s best defenses, the conditions in London weren’t ideal, and the offense and special teams made mistakes. None of it mattered in the end. Despite some setbacks in the other two phases, the Vikings defense allowed just 17 points on 71 (seventy-one!) plays.
The poise and marksmanship of rookie kicker Will Reichard also held the offense up throughout this game. Kevin O’Connell passionately told his team in the locker room after the game, “When it’s a sloppy game, points ain’t ringing up for your offense all day, you’ve got to rely on a couple of things. First and foremost, you’ve got to rely on a [expletive] cold-blooded dude [who is] going to walk out there and hit three points from wherever I ask him to.”
Reichard hit from 54 yards, 53 yards, and 41 yards in abysmal conditions.
“There are definitely some play calls,” O’Connell added in his post-game presser, “I’d like to have back.”
Many fans and analysts have acknowledged the frequency with which Minnesota’s offense tried to push the ball down the field, even with a three-score lead. Justin Jefferson affected the game outside of the box score, forcing several pass-interference penalties and commanding a ton of defensive attention.
Sam Darnold refused to leverage Jefferson’s gravity into easy completions. Jefferson had six catches on 14 targets, many heavily contested. Jets defensive backs were sticky in coverage, and the passing game struggled. But when KOC (or Darnold) saw something favorable based on the defense’s alignment, they were trying to get big chunk plays. That is O’Connell’s tendency, and we will elaborate further over the bye week. Fortunately, it did not come back to bite him this time.
Once Aaron Jones went down after reeling in an underthrown hospital ball from Nick Mullens, Minnesota’s running game stalled. Ty Chandler fumbled a toss from Darnold, who may have saved a touchdown once Quincy Williams recovered it. Jones averaged over four yards per carry, while Chandler and Myles Gaskin combined to average two yards per carry in his stead. It’s difficult to chew the clock and maintain a lead when you can’t get anything going on the ground.
On the special teams, things were bad but could have been much worse. Ivan Pace Jr. was called for roughing the kicker on a Jets punt from their own 14. The drive went on to end in a field goal to trim the lead to seven. There was a holding called on Dallas Turner on punt team. Jay Ward was called for an illegal block on punt team. Akayleb Evans contributed a fair-catch interference that was called and a near-disaster play to boot. If Evans didn’t get thrown into Brandon Powell, the ball probably would have hit his shoulder first, and the play would have resulted in the Jets taking possession in plus territory.
Through it all, Minnesota’s defense made enough plays to win. As it has all season, the run defense set the tone. Jets running backs combined for 14 carries for 36 yards. The wet Tottenham Hotspur turf was unforgiving for both teams, as the Vikings averaged just 2.7 yards per carry on 30 attempts. As we thought it might, the game came down to Aaron Rodgers and New York’s passing game against Brian Flores’ pass defense. And boy, did it.
The Vikings lose this game by one if not for Andrew Van Ginkel’s second pick-six of the season. This particular play was a huge win for the Vikings on the whiteboard. Rodgers surveyed as seven Vikings defenders mugged the line of scrimmage. Van Ginkel lined up over the right guard as one of those seven. Because Rodgers only had six potential players in protection, he anticipated being “hot” (having an unblocked blitzer). With three wide receivers to his right (Van Ginkel’s side), it looked like Rodgers checked into a quick-slant combination from the passing strength. AVG knew exactly what was coming. He feigned the blitz just long enough before dropping right into Rodgers’ passing window to pick the ball off and even broke a tackle on his 63-yard path to the end zone.
On the following drive, the Vikings pressured Rodgers into an overthrow that fell right into Cam Bynum‘s arms. It was the first time in Rodgers’ illustrious career that he threw two interceptions in the first quarter of a game. Rodgers continued to need to throw the ball to get back into contention, and he tightened up for much of the rest of the afternoon. After the Jets cut it to a three-point game, Darnold put together a strong drive to get three more points on the board, much like he did against the San Francisco 49ers. The difference in this game was that it remained a one-score affair following Reichard’s field goal. With just over three minutes to go in the game, Rodgers and the Jets had an opportunity to drive down the field and win.
After matriculating down the field and into the high red zone, Rodgers had a chance to rip every Vikings player and coach’s hearts out. On the final meaningful play of the game, Flores went to man coverage, a rarity during his Vikings tenure. With contested-catch maven Mike Williams isolated on the back side of the formation against Stephon Gilmore, Rodgers dropped back. The coverage was tight, and Rodgers tried to throw it low and inside, hoping Williams would undercut it. However, they don’t have the chemistry he had with Davante Adams or Jordy Nelson. Gilmore trust fell into a game-sealing interception, and the Vikings stayed undefeated in London. It was an unbelievable outing from Flores and his group.
