I wanted to get a closer look at the Vikings and Lions. There were a few things I wanted to check out. Most notably, Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Ameer Abdullah, Matthew Stafford and Eric Ebron. So I popped this game on and re-watched it start to finish.
At the start of this game, the Vikings had Alan Page come out on blow their giant Viking horn (the one you always here after first downs). I hadn’t seen this before, and this kind of thing seems to be on the rise. Seattle has been doing the 12th Man flag raising for a few years. Now more teams seem to be incorporating similar types of things. The Raiders have somebody flip on an Al Davis torch. In the Carolina game, I saw Stephen Curry banging a huge drum with the Panthers logo on it. What other teams have similar game-day rituals?
But on to the game itself …
Adrian Peterson. Vikings are playing the Chargers on Sunday, and the last time these teams met in Minnesota, Peterson ran for an NFL-record 296 yards. But that was eight years ago. Peterson has definitely lost a step. He’s not breaking as many tackles, and when he gets in the open field, he’s not nearly as dynamic. In this game, Teddy Bridgewater made one nifty, Favre-like play when he dished the ball underhanded to Peterson just as he was being tackled. Peterson got into the open field and stared galloping downfield. Earlier in his career, Peterson would have scored on this play, easily. This time, the defenders were able to catch up, cut off the angle and get him out of bounds.
Peterson fumbled 3 times in the red zone in this game. He lost one, and would have lost a second had Detroit not been offsides. He has gone a career-worst 131 rushing attempts without a touchdown. Peterson is still one of the top half dozen running backs in the league (probably) but he doesn’t have that future Hall of Famer look anymore. Vikings are using him almost full-time. Jerick McKinnon spelled him for a few plays, but that was it.
Kyle Rudolph. Rudolph caught a short touchdown early. Later they were trying for him in the end zone, but he was covered, so Bridgewater threw high and out of bounds. When Bridgewater kept the ball for a 1-yard touchdown on a bootleg, that was a pass-run option. Rudolph was the pass option, but the defender stayed with him (allowing Bridgewater to trot in). If the defender had engaged Bridgewater, it would have been a 1-yard flip to Rudolph. Still in the mix, I think, to be a top-10 tight end.
Minnesota receivers. Charles Johnson and Mike Wallace have speed, but there weren’t many (any?) attempts to get them the ball downfield. Bridgewater doesn’t have a very strong arm, we know. So they’re just catching a few balls, not looking all that much better than their slot receiver, Jarius Wright.
Calvin Johnson. Like Adrian Peterson, he’s 30, and like AP, he just isn’t the same guy he’s been in the past. He’s lost speed. If you go back and look at him from a few years back, you see this big thoroughbred screaming down the sidelines and catching 30- and 40-yard bombs. He didn’t run any of those routes in this game. Now he’s just a big body, looking like another Anquan Boldin, posting up for 8-yard catches underneath. He caught 10 passes in this game, but for just 83 yards. He’s not impacting the game. My gut tells me he’s not one of the game’s 10 best wide receivers anymore. He’s not even in the same stratosphere as guys like Julio Jones and Antonio Brown. I’m not sure he’s even the best wide receiver on his own team. Golden Tate is pretty good, and is really nifty after the catch.
Matthew Stafford took a beating in this game. I was putting ticks down every time he took a hard shot, and finished with 9 of them. That’s two weeks in a row (he was also clobbered in San Diego). They’re at home this week, but they’re playing Denver, which has had the league’s best pass rush so far. Coaches must be scratching their heads and making adjustments to the game plan.
Vikings special teams. Cordarrelle Patterson is one of the league’s top 5 guys on kickoff returns, and he’ll bring them out of the end zone. He had 33- and 29-yard returns in this one. And the Vikings are also good on punt returns. Marcus Sherels had a 31-yarder against Detroit. I will be surprised if the Vikings don’t score on a kick return this year, and they might even do that multiple times. (I did not, by the way, see Patterson on the field as a wide receiver for a single play.)
Ameer Abdullah. The rookie is a big play waiting to happen. He had 3 chunk plays in Week 1. And that’s who he is. Shifty and quick. But he didn’t do anything in this game. Just 6 carries for 9 yards, and just 1 catch for 9 yards. I hardly saw him on the field in the second half. It seemed like Theo Riddick was playing a lot more. Riddick caught 5 passes for 41 yards. It’s possible that they think Riddick is a lot more reliable in pass protection. With Denver on the docket for this week, Riddick could play plenty again. Joique Bell is also here; he had 4 runs and 2 catches in this game. They also worked in Zach Zenner in Week 1, but I believe he played only special teams in this game – I didn’t see him out there.
Eric Ebron has scored two weeks in a row, so there’s that. But I don’t see special. Against San Diego, his touchdown came on a blown coverage, and all of his other catches came in a garbage-time drive in the final 3 minutes. He had a bad drop. This time around, he had two half drops (getting one hand on balls he might have caught). First play of the game, both he and Golden Tate showed up at the same spot for a ball (one of the half drop), which I’m guessing means one of those guys ran the wrong route. Probably Ebron. In this game, he caught 5 of the 10 passes thrown his way, with a touchdown in the final 2 minutes with the Lions down 26-10. I’m not a big Ebron fan.