The Minnesota Vikings are heading into the holiday season with an 8-3 record and some tough tasks up ahead. Their next game, a Monday Night Football showdown against the Seattle Seahawks, seems to be the most difficult game left on the schedule.
The Seahawks are ahead of the Vikings in the Wild Card race with a 9-2 record, and also control their own destiny within their respected division. The most impressive aspect to Seattle has been the MVP worthy play of quarterback Russell Wilson.
Wilson is completing over 67 percent of his passes for 2,937 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also has a passer rating of 112.1, a stat that is second only to Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.
The Vikings are in complete control of their own destiny, and they have a couple hard games left with Seattle and Green Bay. With a two-game lead in the Wild Card race, and a chance to win out and win the division, Vikings fans have plenty to be thankful for as the holidays are approaching.
Here are five things Vikings fans should be thankful for heading into the holiday season.
QB Kirk Cousins
The Vikings quarterback has been playing just as good as any in the NFL, but for some reason still has many doubters left. Lamar Jackson is the clear frontrunner for the MVP hardware, but that shouldn’t negate the fact that Cousins should be in the conversation.
Cousins is completing 70.6 percent of his passes for 2,756 yards and 21 touchdowns. Those numbers are impressive alone, but he also leads the league with a passer rating of 114.8.
The turnovers have still been somewhat of an issue because of his fumbles, but he has only thrown three interceptions (with one of those bouncing off the hands of Stefon Diggs). His touchdown to interception rate is 7:1, which is an elite statistic.
For some reason, Cousins still gets treated like the plate of vegetables that gets passed around the table on Thanksgiving. Instead, he should be looked at like the pot of gravy that completes the meal. He is underrated, and without him the team isn’t quite there.
RB Dalvin Cook
Without the resurgence of Dalvin Cook, the performance of Cousins wouldn’t be as good. Cook has opened up the play action game for the Vikings, showing how good Cousins can be outside of the pocket.
Cook is averaging 4.8 yards per carry, with 1,017 yards on the ground and 11 touchdowns. Through 11 games of the season, those numbers put Cook on pace to finish the season with just under 1,500 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Any running back would dream of having numbers on the ground similar to what Cook has done in 2019, but the stats don’t stop there. He has also caught the ball 45 times, and added an additional 455 yards.
Cook is on pace to have over 2,000 all purpose yards and 16 touchdowns. He has proven that he is the key to the offense, and if it wasn’t for the MVP award only considering quarterbacks, Cook’s name would also be in the conversation.
LB Eric Kendricks
Eric Kendricks is on pace to have his best season yet as a Vikings. The always underrated linebacker is leading the team with a total of 86 tackles, but his name always comes up when discussing who has lead the team in tackles since he arrived in Minnesota.
Being able to find the right gaps to hit and get to the running back is crucial as a linebacker. Kendricks has continued to dominate in that aspect of his game, but that isn’t the most impressive thing he has done this season.
Prior to this year, the most pass breakups in a single season by a linebacker since 2006 (when PFF first started charting) was 11.
Eric Kendricks has 12 this year, with five games to go.
— Nick Olson (@NickOlsonNFL) November 21, 2019
Not only has Kendricks already surpassed the previous mark of pass breakups by a linebacker, but he is also towards the top of the NFL regardless of position. With 12 total pass break ups, Kendricks is only behind Titans cornerback Logan Ryan who has 16, then a list of five players (that includes Stephon Gilmore and Jaire Alexander) who have 13.
Kendricks clearly made it a priority to get better in pass coverage in the offseason, and it has shown on game days. His pass breakup covering Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys may have shifted the entire 2019 season for the Vikings. It is time for Kendricks to get some national respect, and finally make a Pro Bowl.
The return of Adam Thielen
With the most crucial stretch of the schedule ahead, the Vikings are set to get their other star receiver back at the right time. Adam Thielen has been battling a hamstring injury for over a month, but he joins a team that has gone 3-0 in games he’s missed completely.
The offense has exploded while Thielen has been sidelined, meaning the rich are going to get richer with his return. In his absence, Irv Smith Jr., Kyle Rudolph and Bisi Johnson have all stepped up and proven they can be reliable pass catchers for the team. Stefon Diggs has continued to show off his elite route running ability, and Cook has emerged as a top three running back in the NFL.
Adding Thielen back into the mix is only going to make this offense better. With a quarterback playing at an MVP level, the addition of Thielen is going to make the offense much harder to defend.
Gary Kubiak
The most underrated offseason move in all of 2019 free agency didn’t come from the signing of a star player. Instead, it came from the addition of Gary Kubiak to the Vikings offensive coaching staff.
Without the addition of Kubiak, who knows where the Vikings offense would be. Kevin Stefanski showed flashes of being a great offensive mind in 2018, but it seems as if Kubiak has helped get Stefanski to the next level.
Bringing the outside zone scheme with him to the Vikings, Kubiak has turned the run game into a top five unit in the NFL. The Vikings are averaging over 142 rushing yards per game, forcing defenses to key in on the run game.
While making opposing defenses key in on Cook, Kubiak has opened up the play action pass game for Cousins. The Vikings quarterback has been the best in the league when utilizing play action.
The addition of Kubiak isn’t something that gets talked about frequently, but he has played a crucial role in getting the Vikings to 8-3.
The Vikings are coming out of the bye in complete control of their own destiny. The team has played very good football as of late, with a lot of things to look forward to heading into the holidays.