The Minnesota Vikings (1-2-1) lose for the second time in a row – after their bankruptcy against the Bills they lost 31:38 against the Los Angeles Rams (4-0) for the first time in Week 4. Both offenses played a great game at the highest level, and while the rams defense made some critical stops, Minnesota’s defense simply didn’t find any answers.
Thursday Night Games are due to the short week for both teams often rather weaker games – in the duel of the Rams against the Vikings was nothing at all to see. From the first drive on it was a real heavyweight fight, both offenses delivered one big play after the other and the defenses didn’t know where their heads were in the middle of the second quarter. At first it didn’t help the Rams that Marcus Peters had surprisingly got fit; on the contrary, Minnesota attacked him several times in a targeted and successful way.
In fact, Kirk Cousins (36/50, 422 YDS, 3 TD) found Aldrick Robinson, who had just committed himself to touchdown against Peters a good week ago, an absolutely spectacular shootout with great looks developed. Jared Goff (26/33, 465 YDS, 5 TD) played outstandingly, distributed the ball well and found Cooper Kupp in good matchups again and again, twice to Touchdowns. Once Kupp and once Todd Gurley caught touchdowns against linebacker Anthony Barr, while for the Vikings Robinson added a touchdown.
It took until deep into the second quarter before both defenses got some access with more pressure and lightning packages. And although the explosive Rams-Offense brought on board several huge Big Plays, including a 70-yard touchdown by Kupp and a 47-yard touchdown by Cooks, Minnesota remained within striking distance. In particular Adam Thielen kept several Drives alive.
The second half started a bit slower for both offenses. The Rams had to punt quickly and tried to keep their foot on the gas pedal with a fake punt – but Johnny Hekker’s pass didn’t find a receiver. It took a while, then Minnesota struck back: The Vikes attacked with Thielen the Zone Coverage of the Rams to the Touchdown, then L.A. woke up again – and Goff fired a perfect Touchdown-Pass into the Seam-Route to Robert Woods, again between the Zones and against Barr.
But again it was the same topic, Minnesota remained in the game and after a field goal and a short Rams drive it was 38:31, with 2:20 on the clock, 66 yards to the end zone. However, the Rams’ pass rush was most present when L.A. needed it: Donald managed the sack at First Down and after Cousins had managed a new First Down, Franklin knocked the ball out of his hand. Fumble, Game Over.
Absolutely spectacular game by Goff, who put a scoop on his strong performance last week – maybe his best NFL game ever – again. Extremely precise downfield into narrowest windows, several “wow” throws and it was probably his best game ever in terms of downfield passing. Goff, who benefited from very good protection to a large extent, already had several games with few mistakes last year, in which he implemented the structure and play calling of the Offense well. This year, which can be recorded after four weeks, he is an additional strength of the Offense.
One could also call it play calling, or to a certain extent accept that the Rams open was simply too good at attacking Minnesota’s defense. But the goal was extremely often Minnesota’s linebacker: Barr was attacked again and again in coverage, even Kendricks didn’t look good in Zone Coverage. Minnesota’s defense was taken apart by McVay in phases, and the linebackers were the center of attention.