Justin Jefferson: “I wish we had adjusted faster throughout the game”

Jefferson didn’t hold back his frustrations about Sunday’s loss

The Minnesota Vikings had a rough go against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. The final score of 40-3 was both reminiscent of the performance of both teams but also reflected the lack of in-game adjustments made by the Vikings.

In speaking to the media on Monday afternoon, star wide receiver Justin Jefferson spoke about just that, saying that the offense needs to be quicker in getting the ball out of quarterback Kirk Cousins’ hands.

Everything that Jefferson says here is spot on. My biggest criticism of the Vikings’ on Sunday was the lack of adjustments. It’s going to happen every now and then that your offense gets stopped for whatever reason, but it’s on the coaching staff to make the adjustments to right the ship. The Vikings didn’t get it done on Sunday afternoon and that needs to be fixed.

The Vikings are in a prime position to fix these issues on Thursday night, but to see their best player speak so candidly is noteworthy.

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The Vikings allowed pressure at a historic rate vs. Cowboys

The game plan to beat the Vikings is a simple one that only two teams have been able to accomplish

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t just get pulverized by the Dallas Cowboys 40-3 on Sunday, they set records in allowing pressure.

During the season, there hasn’t been a more futile pass-protecting performance. Over the first 326 games this season, the Vikings allowed a league-high pressure rate of 57.6% on four-man rushes.

The Eagles were able to consistently get home with four pass rushers and played coverage on the back end. That resulted in the Vikings unable to get anything going on offense.

Not every team is able to do what the Eagles did due to their personnel, but the Cowboys had the horses to accomplish just that. With Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence and Dorrance Armstrong, they were successful in doing just that.

Along with the pass rush, Trevon Diggs traveled with Justin Jefferson and helped hold him to three catches for 33 yards.

The game plan to beat the Vikings is a relatively simple one, but it’s not the easiest to accomplish.

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Vikings vs. Cowboys: Best and worst PFF grades from Sunday’s pathetic loss

The PFF grades weren’t nearly as bad as the performance on Sunday

It was a brutal game to watch on Sunday, as the Minnesota Vikings got blown out by a score of 40-3 by the Dallas Cowboys.

Throughout the game, there weren’t a lot of bright spots. However, once you break down the tape and take a look at the grades, there were a few performances that were objectively good.

The PFF grades came out on Monday morning and they painted the Vikings in a better light than you would have thought. Here are the best and worst from Sunday’s game.

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Morning after reaction to the Vikings embarrassing 40-3 loss vs. Cowboys

The morning after doesn’t feel any better than it did yesterday

The next morning doesn’t feel any better after the Minnesota Vikings lost in pathetic fashion by a score of 40-3 to the Dallas Cowboys. They looked putrid and couldn’t move the ball at all.

The defense wasn’t any better, as they allowed over 450 yards and the Cowboys were dominant in the trenches.

As we reflect back on Sunday’s game, there are a lot of takeaways, including some that are less than favorable.

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Vikings studs and duds from embarrassing Week 11 loss vs. Cowboys

The game on Sunday had a lot of duds

It feels like every season the Minnesota Vikings find a way to lose a football game in an embarrassing fashion and they did so on Sunday with a 40-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

The performance of the team was just abysmal, as they amassed a paltry 185 yards on the day while allowing seven sacks to a dominant Cowboys pass rush.

The game itself only had a couple of good performances while the rest of the team played poor football. This week’s studs and duds are unfortunately loaded with duds.

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Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell: “There’s going to be a lot of narratives we can’t control”

The Vikings are trying to ignore the outside noise

The Minnesota Vikings got annihilated by the Dallas Cowboys 40-3 on Sunday and the narratives that the Vikings are frauds have already been circulating.

After the game, head coach Kevin O’Connell was asked about it and he didn’t seem concerned about the outside nose and narratives.

O’Connell is spot on in saying this. You can’t control what people say about you outside of how you perform. Problem is, it hits everyone to a certain point and impacts them. It’s impossible to not hear at least a little bit of the outside noise.

The nice part for the Vikings is that the narratives from this game will be mostly short-lived if they can get the job done on Thursday night against the New England Patriots.

This is arguably O’Connell’s toughest challenge to date and he looks to be up for it.

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Zulgad: Vikings’ pathetic, embarrassing loss will raise questions about team’s legitimacy

From @jzulgad: The Vikings’ pathetic display against the Cowboys will raise questions about the team’s legitimacy

There was a bit of surprise in the Twin Cities when the Vikings were made slight underdogs for Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. The Vikings were 8-1, coming off a thrilling overtime victory at Buffalo and returning home to play the first of three at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Were the oddsmakers serious? What did they know anyway? Turns out they knew plenty and were far too kind with the point spread.

A Vikings team that prided itself on its ability to compete, stage fourth-quarter comebacks and had exceeded anyone’s expectations, looked like a bottom-feeder in a 40-3 loss in which they were physically dominated on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Kirk Cousins was sacked seven times and spent the day looking flustered as pressure neared.

That started early.

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Cousins was stripped of the ball on a sack by Dallas linebacker Micah Parsons on the Vikings’ third play from scrimmage and things only got worse from there. The Vikings’ only previous defeat under coach Kevin O’Connell came in Week 2 — 24-7 on a Monday night in Philadelphia.

The Vikings responded with seven consecutive victories that were by one score or less. The Eagles’ loss was ugly but not nearly as ugly as what happened Sunday. The Vikings had talked about having to quickly turn the page on their 33-30 win over the Bills and not suffer the same fate the 2017 team did when it followed their Minneapolis Miracle win with an awful performance against the Eagles in the NFC title game.

Instead, the Vikings put on a performance that went from unsightly in the first half to ghastly in the second. It’s the type of defeat that will raise legitimate questions about how good these Vikings really are and whether they were more lucky than anything in the first half of the season? Anyone in the national media who dismissed the Vikings’ success was given even more reason to question them.

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It won’t take long to find out if the Vikings are really contenders to make a run in the postseason — their record means they are almost certainly going to win the NFC North — or if the latest Purple-tinged disappointment is right around the corner. The New England Patriots, who improved to 6-4 with a victory over the Jets on Sunday, will come to U.S. Bank Stadium for a prime-time game on Thanksgiving night.

That will put Cousins and his teammate on a national stage with many convinced their unraveling has only begun. Cousins’ struggles in prime time and later starts has been well documented and Sunday’s debacle will only enforce the belief that the brighter the lights get, the more he’s incapable of winning high-pressure games.

Cousins, who was sacked seven times by the Cowboys, was far from the Vikings’ only problem Sunday. Everyone associated with the team had a terrible day and that included O’Connell.

O’Connell is an NFL Coach of the Year candidate in his first season, but he and his coaching staff got taken to school by Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy and Co. The Cowboys dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, with Dallas’ running game carving up the Vikings’ defense and the Cowboys defense continually applying pressure on Cousins. A Vikings’ offensive line which has held its own this season was nothing more than a speed bump for Dallas’ pass rushers.

Vikings left tackle Christian Darrisaw, brilliant until Sunday, started after clearing concussion protocol coming out of Buffalo. Darrisaw had a rough day and was lost after having to go back into the concussion protocol. He is likely to be replaced by Blake Brandel on Thursday.

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O’Connell’s poor day didn’t end with being outcoached. He also, inexplicably, left Cousins and other regulars in the game to get pounded in the third quarter. Cousins was finally removed in favor of backup Nick Mullens early in the fourth quarter.

That meant Cousins wouldn’t have a chance to pad his stats on a terrible day — 12 of 23 for 105 yards with a 64.2 passer rating — but it also stopped him from possibly being injured.

Mullens’ entrance into the game with about 10 minutes left was met with near silence from a crowd that had either left or was checked out by that point. It was exactly what the Vikings deserved considering their complete no-show on Sunday.

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Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com

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Vikings forget to show up, get obliterated by the Cowboys

The game was ugly in more ways than one

The Minnesota Vikings played like a team that was emotionally drained from an incredible game against the Buffalo Bills last Sunday, as they lost to the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 40-3.

This was ugly from the start. On the third play from scrimmage, Micah Parsons beat Christian Darrisaw for a strip sack that ended in a field goal for the Cowboys. The pass rush for the Cowboys generated seven sacks, including two for both Parsons and Dorrance Armstrong.

With the Cowboys pass rush generating a lot of pressure, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins had his worst game of the season. He completed 12-23 for 105 yards. He was flustered consistently and the Vikings didn’t do nearly enough to adjust to the excellent pass rush. There weren’t enough short-route concepts or hot routes to counter what the Cowboys were doing to get home.

The Vikings were unable to get anything going on offense all day. The amassed just 183 yards while the defense allowed 458 to the Cowboys.

On the offensive side, the Cowboys were tremendous. Dak Prescott was dominant and calm under pressure. He only had three incompletions on 25 attempts for 276 yards and two touchdowns.

The real star of the game was Tony Pollard. The backup running back to Ezekiel Elliott is thought to be the best back for Dallas and he showed why some have that opinion by having a tremendous game. He caught six catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns, including a 68-yard catch on a wheel route early in the third quarter that essentially put the game away, giving the Cowboys a 27-point lead. He also ran for 80 yards on 15 carries.

You can’t beat around the bush here. The Cowboys came into U.S. Bank Stadium and absolutely destroyed the Vikings and were relentless in doing so. The best thing for the Vikings is that they get the New England Patriots in just four days so they can get the bitter taste out of their mouth quickly.

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Twitter reacts to the Vikings getting blown out by the Cowboys

Social media was not nice to the Vikings after this performance

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t show up against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, down 40-3 early in the fourth quarter.

Throughout the game, fans were getting restless and frustrated with a Vikings team that was getting obliterated on every level seemingly every play.

The Cowboys found the recipe to beat the Vikings and they were relentless, especially in the trenches.

Fans took to Twitter to express their frustration with this team and their abysmal performance.

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CBS cuts away from the Cowboys blowing out the Vikings

The game got so bad that CBS changed the game across the country

Every so often, either CBS or Fox will break away from a matchup and switch what game some areas of the country get due to the matchup being a blowout.

That happened to the Dallas Cowboys blowing out the Minnesota Vikings, as CBS moved the majority of the country to the Cincinnati Bengals taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is a one-point game as the thrid quarter winds down.

When the network changed the game over to the AFC North clash, the Cowboys were up 37-3 over the 8-1 Vikings

A really rough showing for the Vikings, but it’s something that they won’t have to sit on for long with the New England Patriots coming to town Thanksgiving night.

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