into the offseason
Olisaemeka Udoh Minnesota Vikings Jerseys , the Minnesota Vikings had three quarterbacks on their roster that many considered to be, at the very least,
solid options. They had Case Keenum, who was coming off of the best season of
his career in leading the Vikings to the 2017 NFC Championship Game. They had
Sam Bradford, who looked amazing in the 2017 opener before getting injured and
giving way to Keenum. And they had Teddy Bridgewater, who fought back from a
gruesome knee injury to get back on the field and had endeared himself to many
of the Vikings’ faithful despite not putting up huge statistical numbers.Yet,
when the time came to give out a big quarterback contract in March of 2018,
Vikings’ GM Rick Spielman, head coach Mike Zimmer, and offensive coordinator
John DeFilippo decided that the answer to that question was “none of the above.”
Instead, they wined, dined, and eventually gave the first fully-guaranteed
contract in the NFL’s free agency era to Kirk Cousins. Cousins had bided his
time in Washington, playing under the franchise tag for two consecutive years,
but was never really embraced by the coaching staff in the nation’s capital. .
.or the majority of the fan base
Youth Alexander Mattison Jersey , for that matter.It’s still early in the season, but to this point it appears that the people that run the Vikings might kind of
sort of have an idea about what they’re doing.We’ll skip Bridgewater, who hasn’t
seen the field in 2018 because he’s backing up Drew Brees in New Orleans.In
Arizona, Bradford started the first three games of the season for the Cardinals
(who the Vikings will see this coming Sunday). In those three games, he threw
for a total of 400 yards, including a 90-yard performance in a shutout loss
against the Rams. He was pulled late in the team’s Week 3 loss to Chicago in
favor of rookie Josh Rosen. In each of the last two games, not only has Bradford
not played, he hasn’t even been active. That means that not only was he behind
Rosen on the depth chart, he’s now behind Mike Glennon.Yes, Mike Glennon. But at
least he’s getting about $20 million this year to not dress on game day.In
Denver, things haven’t been much better for Keenum. He got off to a decent
enough start, throwing three touchdown passes (and three interceptions) in a
season-opening victory over Seattle. Then, he had no touchdown passes in Week
2.Or Week 3.Or Week 4.He finally got back on track against the Jets on Sunday
with two more scoring throws, but the Broncos are now riding a three-game losing
streak after winning their first two games.Cousins, on the other hand
Super Bowl Alexander Mattison Jersey , has been pretty good.With Brees yet to play in Week 5 action, Cousins is currently second in the NFL in passing yardage
(behind Jared Goff), and is currently completing over 71% of his passes, despite
being one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the National Football League so
far this season. He’s thrown 11 touchdown passes through the team’s first five
games, and has thrown only two interceptions, both of which came on passes that
really should have been caught by their intended receiver. He’s on pace to
shatter just about every Vikings’ single-season passing record.I understand that
Cousins gets the benefit of an incredibly talented supporting case, with Adam
Thielen and Stefon Diggs comprising the best receiving duo in the NFL and Kyle
Rudolph continuing to do his thing as well. Keenum and Bradford undoubtedly
benefited from having those players to work with as well. However, Cousins was
good before he got the opportunity to work with this group of skill position
players. The Vikings knew that Cousins’ skills would be even more enhanced by
getting to work with those guys. Keenum and Bradford, on the other hand, got the
benefit of playing with those players as well but couldn’t get the Vikings to
the promised land.I can’t imagine that there are a lot of holdouts left in the
pro-Keenum or pro-Bradford or pro-Bridgewater camps after the first five weeks
of this season. However, at this early juncture, it sure does look like the
Vikings have made the right decision. After several years of Minnesota
domination in the Vikings and Lions divisional rivalry that has spanned 57
seasons, Detroit has started to claw back in recent years. The Lions have
actually had a winning record in the rivalry over the past five years. They’re
5-3 against Mike Zimmer; they’re the only NFC North team that can boast a
winning record over the Vikings Head Coach.Let’s take our weekly look at some of
the history between the Vikings and their upcoming opponents. As always, all of
the numbers used in this post come from the good folks at Pro Football
Reference.Total regular season games between the Lions and the Vikings:
113All-time record: Vikings, 72-39-2Total Vikings points scored
Discount Alexander Mattison Jersey , head-to-head: 2432 (21.5 points/game)Total Lions points scored, head-to-head: 2099 (18.6
points/game)Longest Vikings winning streak vs Lions: 13 (6 October 1968 - 22
September 1974)Longest Lions winning streak vs Vikings: 5 (19 November 1961 - 27
October 1963, first five games between these two teams)Most recent Vikings home
win in series: 20 September 2015 (final score 26-16)Most recent Lions road win
in series: 1 October 2017 (final score 14-7)Biggest Vikings home win in series:
34 points, 9 November 1980 (final score 34-0)Biggest Lions road win in series:
27 points, 19 November 1961 (final score 37-10, first game between the two
teams)Current streak: Vikings, 1 winThe Lions are actually undefeated at U.S.
Bank Stadium, winning both of their games there so far. After winning in 2016
thanks to an overtime touchdown from the recently departed Golden Tate, they
came back last year and won a 14-7 battle that seemingly put the Vikings’ season
on the brink after just four games. Dalvin Cook tore his ACL in that game, the
Vikings dropped to 2-2, and seemed to be going nowhere with Case Keenum at
quarterback. Of course, the Vikings lost just one other time the rest of the
regular season.Fortunately, the Vikings were able to exact revenge at Ford Field
last Thanksgiving. They jumped out to a 20-3 lead in the second quarter and held
on down the stretch to win by a score of 30-23. Keenum had 282 yards and three
total touchdowns while Latavius Murray had 84 yards and a score on the ground.
Danielle Hunter recovered a fumble and Xavier Rhodes had the game-clinching
interception on fourth down late in the game.That’s a quick look back at the
history between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings. Hopefully the
purple can get their first home win against the Lions in three seasons this
weekend at U.S. Bank Stadium.
