I’m glad to see that someone saw the same thing I did.StumpHunter wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:50 am Interesting to read that a defense that essentially scored 10 of our 23 points, and held the #1 scoring offense in the NFL to 23 points was part of the issue yesterday.
To put what the D did in perspective, the Rams, prior to this game averaged 2.78 points per drive. The Vikings D gave up 2.09 points per drive, almost a full point less than they typically give up. For those of you who struggle with per drive stats, if the Vikings had given up per drive what the Rams average, not at their best, but on their average day score, they would have given up 31 points.
It was an outstanding day for the D, and a running back picking up 131 yards in a game where the O struggled to move the football for most of the game doesn't change that.
Offensively, the Vikings O scored 13 points that weren't because of the D. That is 1.3 points per drive on the 10 other drives where they weren't gifted scores, .6 less than the LAR give up per drive on average.
Our offense sucked yesterday despite the D doing its job. The D came to play, the O did not.
When was the last time the Minnesota Vikings lost a game to a team whose quarterback had a 46 passer rating? Sure, that could’ve been awfulness by Stafford, or crappy playcalling by Sean McVea, but the fact remains that the defense gave up 23 points, plenty good enough to win, and the Vikings’ offense went 2-5 in the red zone despite getting two takeaways inside the 10.
Nobody is mistaking yesterday’s defense for the 2017 Vikings. But they played well enough to win. The offense did not.