Vikings Takeaways: Patience Paying Off For Minnesota
Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Vikings surprised everyone early on Sunday afternoon, including their own fans, when they put away the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers with a 23-17 victory. The Vikings came into the game as heavy underdogs despite being the home team, but they were able to take control early in almost every aspect of the game. While they did face some scares in the latter portions of the game, the 49ers could never quite catch up.
Though the Vikings did get a lucky break with Christian McCaffery’s injury and placement on the IR, they also had to battle injuries of their own with Jordan Addison ruled out before the game. Later in the game, Justin Jefferson went out and didn’t play the entirety of the fourth quarter (the star receiver sustained a quad contusion and is listed day-to-day).
In the end, it was Minnesota who made the most of their opportunities, with a strong showing on both sides of the ball, which kept them in a position where they never had to try doing more than they were capable of. It was truly a statement-making win in this young season.
Here are three important takeaways from the Vikings’ win.
More is More
Throughout Kirk Cousins‘ tenure, whenever people would bring up how constrictive his contract was when it came to bringing in free agents. At the time, many of his apologists argued that the value of having an established quarterback outweighed the hypothetical quantity of players Minnesota could bring in otherwise.
Through two games, it feels like we have learned the opposite of this is true. While nobody is going to say that Sam Darnold is a better quarterback than Kirk Cousins, Darnold is providing about 75% of what Cousins brings to the table while taking up about a quarter of the cap space.
This decrease in financial commitment at the quarterback position allowed the Vikings to be aggressive in free agency in ways they have not been able to before, bringing in impact players like Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Jonathan Greenard, and Aaron Jones, all of whom have already made their impact on this team felt.
Even in the long term, the Vikings will have around $76 million to play with at the start of free agency next season, which they can use to bring in even more proven quality players and add to this budding team. Instead of being forced to crush every single draft pick to make up an expensive player, they’re seeing the fruits of quantity over (supposed) quality.
Room To Improve
Sometimes when a team pulls off an upset win like this, the concern is that they played their best possible game, or the opposing team played down to a lower level than usual. That didn’t feel like the case at all on Sunday. While the Vikings were very efficient on both sides of the ball, the final score didn’t reflect just how dominant the Vikings were.
Minnesota was the better team by far today, despite playing with fire and letting the 49ers back into it at certain points. Two turnovers deep in Niners territory came back to turn into 14 points for San Francisco, while likely taking away (at minimum) six points from the Vikings. Had those turnovers not happened, this could’ve been a two-or-three-score victory instead of a one-score squeaker.
Perhaps the most impressive was how this team was able to stop near the end of the game and close it out. On their final drive, the Vikings offense was without Jefferson, Addison, T.J. Hockenson, and Jones (for all but two snaps of the drive). Despite that, they still chewed up nearly seven minutes of clock on 14 plays, punching in a field goal to extend a six-point lead to nine.
The ability for this team to outplay and put away a team that, on paper, is much better than them — all while being without important playmakers and struggling with turning the ball over — shows that this team has yet another gear it can hit.
Patience is Key
As football fans, we tend to want changes the moment things stop working. Sometimes it is justified, like when we see certain players getting more chances than they deserve, or head coaches who’ve outworn their welcome hang on far too long. However, being overreactive tends to backfire on us more often than not, and this year is showing Vikings fans exactly why sometimes waiting and staying patient is a virtue.
After the early struggles of last season and what looked like two less-than-ideal drafts, there were some questions surrounding Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and, to a lesser extent, Kevin O’Connell. When you look at the start of this season, we’re starting to see the groundwork they laid come to fruition.
On the defensive side of the ball, they have completely changed the identity of the team within two years. On offense, we’re seeing Ty Chandler and Jalen Nailor, two members of the disastrous 2022 draft class, starting to pan out and become impact players. Sometimes, you just gotta take a breath and let things play out.
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