Vikings Film Room: Christian Darrisaw is an elite left tackle

The Vikings’ left tackle is emerging into a star

After trading down nine spots in the 2021 NFL draft, there wasn’t a lot of hope for the Vikings to land Darrisaw. He was projected to go in the teens and the league let him slide down to 23.

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Coming out of Virginia Tech, Darrisaw had a lot of potential but needed some grooming. It didn’t help that he had to have multiple core muscle surgeries that caused him to miss the start of the season.

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He had a solid rookie season and even had some in the media comparing him to All-Pro tackle Trent Williams. Those comparisons felt somewhat absurd at the time but they are proving to be more and more correct each week.

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This past week, Darrisaw had a tremendous game that shot him up to being PFF’s second-best tackle. There were multiple examples of his dominance and we highlighted eight of them.

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Vikings Film Room: T.J. Hockenson is going to thrive in Minnesota

The Vikings’ big acquisition at the trade deadline made an impact on Sunday

The Minnesota Vikings made a bold acquisition at the trade deadline when they acquired tight end T.J. Hockenson from the Detroit Lions.

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They were in need of a tight end with Irv Smith Jr. set to miss 8-10 weeks and with Smith Jr. set to hit free agency this offseason, the Vikings would need to make a decision on his future.

Hockenson was exactly what the Vikings needed and is the perfect archetype for Kevin O’Connell’s offense. He has the perfect frame and has a mostly untapped receiving ability.

Against the Commanders, Hockenson played in 90% of the snaps after getting up to speed really quickly over the course of the week. The two plays below are perfect examples of what Hockenson can do to take this offense to a new level.

While both plays are dig routes, they come in different packages.

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Kirk Cousins on 8-pack: “I have always been absolutely strapped”

Kirk Cousins looks like he is having the time of his life

The Minnesota Vikings have some incredible vibes surrounding them this season. They are winning, players are having fun on the field and in the locker room, and starting quarterback Kirk Cousins is having a great time.

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It isn’t just him being loose and relaxed, his teammates are feeding off of it. Week after week, Cousins is rocking his teammates’ icy chains, including wearing five plus on the flight home from Washington.

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Cousins appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday morning and they asked him about the video, more specifically his eight-pack. His answer speaks volumes about how this team’s culture is changing.

“I have always been absolutely strapped. More so in college, you in college and you guys live this if you remember. In college, lifts are meant to make you look good at the beach and you better believe that by my senior year I looked good at the beach. I really couldn’t move very well but I looked good at the beach. So, in the pros, I kinda backed off the heavy lifting and tried to take it back and dial it down a notch and work more on movement, flexibility, tissue work and stuff like that but my best days were probably coming out of college.”

There is zero chance that Cousins is this open about himself last year under Mike Zimmer. The culture change with Kevin O’Connell is starkly different and better.

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PFF grades: Best and worst from Week 9 win vs. Commanders

The PFF grades look good for quite a few Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings beat the Washington Commanders by a score of 20-17 on Sunday afternoon.

Despite being down by 10 points less than a minute into the fourth quarter, quarterback Kirk Cousins led a come-from-behind victory by scoring the last 13 points.

The PFF grades are in and they view the Vikings favorably in some areas while being unfavorably in others.

Here are the best and worst of the Vikings PFF grades from Sunday.

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Vikings Week 9 snap counts: T.J. Hockenson plays 60 snaps

There were some interesting snap counts from Sunday’s game

The Minnesota Vikings found another way to come from behind against the Washington Commanders after being down 10 in the fourth quarter to move to 7-1 with a 20-17 win.

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The game itself saw some interesting surprises, including the back judge preventing an interception that turned into a 49-yard Curtis Samuel deep post touchdown.

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The game itself saw some interesting numbers, including the snap counts. Let’s take a look at what stood out.

Vikings Film Room: Harrison Smith’s interception sets up game-tying touchdown

The Vikings are a resilient team

The Minnesota Vikings found themselves down 17-7 just 50 seconds into the fourth quarter after a six-yard touchdown reception by Dax Milne.

After the Vikings responded with a field goal, they still needed a big play. Washington Commanders quarterback Taylor Heinicke has been known to make an incredibly ill-advised throw or two in each game. He only had one of those on Sunday but the Vikings took advantage.

Harrison Smith was in perfect position to make a play and he capitalized.

After the interception by Smith, the Vikings needed just two plays for Kirk Cousins to hit Dalvin Cook on a wheel route in the back corner of the end zone.

The route is a modified switch concept with T.J. Hockenson running a post and Cook running the wheel route to perfection. The throw was just as good as the route and the crowd in Landover, MD exploded with joy.

The route concept is a common one in this offense. The idea is to create movement with the two receivers to force the defensive backs to think and potentially create confusion and spark a big play.

The Vikings did a great job capitalizing on Smith’s interception.

Vikings magic number to win the NFC North is at 5

The magic number is incredibly low heading into week 10

In baseball, they use the magic number to determine how many wins by first place and losses by second place it would take for the first-place team to win the division. That number for the Minnesota Vikings currently sits at 5 after they beat the Commanders 20-17 and the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears both suffered losses.

The Vikings do have a path to win the NFC North on Thanksgiving night against the New England Patriots, but both the Packers and Bears would have to lose their next two games while the Vikings win their next three including over the Patriots.

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That will prove difficult for the Vikings, as they head to Buffalo next Sunday and host the Dallas Cowboys the week after. Two consensus top-five teams back-to-back will prove to be their toughest stretch of the season.

The magic number being this low is a good thing for the Vikings. The earliest a team has ever clinched is in week nine when the Vikings did so in 1973. That season, however, only had 14 games.

In the modern days of the game (16+ games), the 2007 New England Patriots clinched the AFC East in week 11.

The Vikings are in great shape to host their first playoff game since 2017.

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Zulgad: Kirk Cousins is having fun and leading comebacks, something the Vikings definitely like

From @jzulgad: Kirk Cousins is playing well and having more fun than ever

The shining example of how much different things are this season for Kirk Cousins occurred Sunday, but it wasn’t on the turf at FedEx Field or in the visiting locker room following the Vikings’ come-from-behind 20-17 victory over the Washington Commanders.

Instead, it happened approximately 35,000 feet in the air as the Vikings’ charter flight made its way home. There it was, captured by teammates on their cell phones: A shirtless Cousins, glasses on, pumping his arms up and down with a plethora of bling hanging around his neck as several Vikings danced with him in the aisle of the airplane. The joy on Cousins’ face was obvious as he looked into one of the cameras and cracked a wide smile.

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There were times during Cousins’ first four seasons in Minnesota in which players would make it clear they liked Cousins and that only getting to the playoffs once in that time wasn’t held against him. But, more often than not, what the public and media saw was a guy who had little interest in sharing much of his personality. He seemed to be playing the role of what he thought a highly-paid quarterback should be, thus leading to this label: The Corporate Quarterback.

That has changed this season and Cousins, who has done several postgame photoshoots while sporting expensive jewelry that belongs to his teammates, seems to be having as much fun as anyone during the Vikings’ 7-1 start.

The latest victory featured a comeback from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit as the Vikings tied it in a 3-minute period on Greg Joseph’s 25-yard field goal, and Cousins’ beautiful 12-yard pass to Dalvin Cook that came after safety Harrison Smith returned an interception of a Taylor Heinicke pass 35 yards to the Commanders 12-yard line. Joseph’s 28-yard field goal with 12 seconds left was the game-winner.

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Cousins, no surprise, revived his “You like that?!” catchphrase in the postgame locker room. That was a phrase the public first heard in 2015 after Cousins directed a comeback victory over Tampa Bay while he was playing for Washington. This was Cousins’ first game back in Washington since signing a rich free-agent contract with the Vikings in 2018.

While Cousins has since signed two extensions with the Vikings, and put up some impressive stats, his time in Minnesota has been anything but smooth sailing. He and former coach Mike Zimmer, who was fired after last season, never saw eye-to-eye and Zimmer expressed reservations about Cousins’ signing even before it happened.

But new coach Kevin O’Connell has empowered Cousins far more than Zimmer did and, even though Cousins’ stats have taken a step back this season, he has played an important role in the Vikings’ getting off to their best start since 2009.

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What’s clear is that O’Connell has no issue with Cousins being himself and that has been freeing for the veteran quarterback. Cousins isn’t a classic leader. He’s a quirky 34-year-old guy, who comes across as more of a dad than a quarterback. Cousins seemed to try to hide that during his first four years with the Vikings in part because he probably knew his words and actions would be dissected.

That’s no longer an issue.

Cousins led the Vikings on an impressive game-opening drive Sunday as they went 78 yards on nine plays before he found Justin Jefferson on a 9-yard pass for a touchdown that would give Minnesota its only points until the fourth quarter. Cousins completed 22 of 40 passes for 265 yards with two touchdowns, one interception and an 81.8 passer rating.

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Even the interception wasn’t a bad thing as it came near the end of the first half when Cousins took a shot to Jefferson in the back corner of the end zone. It’s the exact type of pass Cousins needs to throw more often because it will lead to points.

Cousins’ most impressive moment came on a third-and-7 play from the Vikings 41. He dropped back to pass and took a big hit as he launched the ball down field for Jefferson. Jefferson made the catch and took it to the Washington 12-yard line for a 47-yard gain. Cousins remained down on the field long enough that he had to leave for a play as Nick Mullens took over. Cousins quickly returned and three players later Joseph kicked a field goal.

Cousins’ toughness is nothing new but it is impressive. Since taking over as Washington’s starting quarterback in 2015, he has missed two games. One came at the end of the 2019 season, when Cousins sat out against the Bears because the Vikings had their playoff position locked up. The other was late last season when Cousins missed a game at Green Bay because he was in the COVID protocols.

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But Cousins never has missed a game because of injury, and even seeing him go out for a play is rare. Combine that with the fact that Cousins has become clutch the last two years and much of the criticisms directed his way start to disappear. Sunday marked the fourth game-winning drive Cousins has led in the fourth quarter this season and the eighth he has directed in the fourth quarter or overtime since the beginning of last season.

The job won’t get any easier now, although the Vikings’ six-game winning streak has given them a comfortable 4.5-game lead over the Packers and Bears in the NFC North. Minnesota will play at Buffalo (6-2) next Sunday before starting a three-game homestand against Dallas (6-2), New England (5-4, on a short week) and the Jets (6-3).

The old Cousins likely would have gone into this stretch nervous about messing up and worried about saying the wrong thing. This Cousins might not put up great stats and he might throw a few more picks, but he’s also delivering in the clutch and embracing that success like never before.

It’s clear that Cousins’ teammates, not to mention Vikings fans, would agree on this: They like that!

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

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Best photos from Kirk Cousins’ win in return to Washington

The photos from Sunday were excellent

The Minnesota Vikings are sitting with a lead of 4.5 games in the NFC North after a 20-17 win over the Washington Commanders. The vibes are immaculate with this team right now and the camaraderie is excellent.

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The game was an ugly one that was marred by miscues throughout. Despite the miscues, the pictures from the game came out fantastic. Here are the best of the best from Sunday’s game.

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3 Vikings set milestones in Sunday’s Week 9 win vs. Commanders

The Vikings saw some players hit milestones on Sunday

The Minnesota Vikings found a way to come back from being down 10 to the Washington Commanders on Sunday to win the game 20-17.

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The game itself was a weird one, as there were numerous plays that were unlucky for the Vikings but they found a way to get a win against a tough Commanders team.

Throughout the game, the Vikings had come impressive individual performances but specifically had three players set milestones on the day.

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