Tag: Justin Jefferson

3 causes for concern as the Bears face the Vikings in Week 5

As the Bears prepare for their Week 5 game against the Vikings, here are some reasons to be concerned.

After a tough loss to the New York Giants, the Chicago Bears (2-2) are heading to Minnesota to take on the NFC Division-leading Vikings (3-1) in Week 5.

The Vikings will provide the toughest challenge for the Bears’ secondary this week. Minnesota runs a pass-heavy offense and will throw the ball often on Sunday.

On offense, the passing issues for the Bears continue to linger, and fans are questioning the speed of Justin Fields’ development. In addition, Chicago struggled to continue their dominance on the ground without David Montgomery (ankle) and will likely be without him in Minnesota.

As the Bears travel north to take on the Vikings, here are three concerning issues.

10 important stats to know from the Vikings first four games

These stats help paint the picture of where the Vikings are currently after four games

Sitting at 3-1 on the season, the Minnesota Vikings head into week five feeling good about themselves despite showing struggles with consistency.

Over the first four games, we have gotten a good sense on where this team is and how they can improve moving forward. In understanding more about that direction, there are 10 stats that help identify that direction.

Kirk Cousins in Week 4: How cowardly were his checkdowns?

The decision-making wasn’t great, but Sunday’s game wasn’t heavy on checkdowns

There are a lot of myths surrounding Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. One that continues to perpetuate is that Cousins is the king of the checkdown.

In this new series for The Vikings Wire, we will be focusing on proving or disproving that myth.

What will we be quantifying as a checkdown? It won’t just be a short route or a screen. It will be a receiver that leaks out short that is an emergency option outside of the standard progressions.

All quarterbacks take these and Cousins is no different. Why are we looking at going through with this series? Cousins has a tendency to want everything to be perfect which can result in throwing into the flat instead of trusting his weapons down the field or waiting a split-second longer for someone to come open downfield. What this series will do is quantify each checkdown based on situation, pressure and confidence.

The scale that we will be using is from 1-10 with one being the most cowardly and 10 being the perfect decision. Some of this will be a little bit subjective but most of these will be closer to white or black than being a shade of gray.

Throughout the season, we will be breaking each one down and talking about why Cousins made the decision and what he could have or should have done differently.

Week 1: 4/33 (12.12%) Score: 26/40 (6.5)
Week 2: 12/46 (26.09%) Score: 73/120
Week 3: 2/41 (4.88%) Score: 14/20
Checkdowns (Season): 18/120 (15.00%)
Overall Grade: 113/180

Analysis: Saints showed some bright spots if you can see the forest for the trees

The Saints are dealing with a variety of problems, but they showed some bright spots against the Vikings if you can see the forest for the trees, via @MaddyHudak_94:

The New Orleans Saints extended their losing streak to three with Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and early season growing pains are now points of concern. While interceptions can be a bit nuanced, New Orleans leads the league with six fumbles. In the first two games, the defense managed to hang tough and force opponents to punt. Against Tampa Bay, turnovers were the deciding factor. It’s hard not to feel the same about a 3-pt loss in which both recovered fumbles resulted in field goals for the Vikings. Worse, it’s starting not to feel unacceptable.

Then there’s the issue of penalties that only Denver has incurred more of. Sunday saw a fair share of debatable flags, five of which resulted in first downs for Minnesota. But they also lead the league in third down flags and defensive holding on passing penalties. For comparison, 22 teams drew more flags last season than the Saints. The team feels undisciplined, and when the margin for error is razor-thin, penalties can’t be the deciding factor. It does a disservice to the bright spots – if you’re still able to see the forest for the trees.

Watch Kevin O’Connell utilize space vs Saints

The Vikings offense uses space really well

The Minnesota Vikings offense in their 28-25 victory over the New Orleans Saints in London and the first drive looked very similar to the college football Air Raid over what the offense has looked like the first few weeks.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins was making short, concise throws that gave his receivers the ball with an opportunity to do something with it after the catch.

The prime example of that came on the first play of the game.

The Vikings are in a 2×2 set after Adam Thielen motions to the top of the formation. With Justin Jefferson lining up at the bottom, Marshon Lattimore is lined up about eight yards off of Jefferson signaling zone coverage.

This play is one of two things: great design by O’Connell or a smart check from Cousins. Either way, the bubble screen is effective and Jefferson takes it for a nice 10-yard gain.

The Vikings taking advantage of both of these elements will be key to helping unlock the success of this offense.

NFC North Week 5 power rankings: Vikings return to the top spot

The Vikings are at the top of the NFC North division standings and our power rankings going into Week 5.

We’re essentially at the quarter mark of the 2022 NFL season and through four weeks, the NFC North is beginning to take shape, but still has plenty of question marks.

Two teams are tied for first place as the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers are each 3-1. The Chicago Bears sit comfortably in third place at 2-2 and perhaps one of the biggest enigmas in the league this year, the Detroit Lions, are at 1-3.

While the standings might start taking shape, the power rankings might be a little more cloudy. Here are our NFC North power rankings following Week 4.

Justin Jefferson declares himself “The Answer” on Instagram

Jefferson compares himself to Allen Iverson, declares himself “The Answer”

The Minnesota Vikings got the win over the New Orleans Saints in London by a score of 28-25, but that wasn’t the big story on the day. That belonged to star wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

After a couple of games that left a little bit to be desired, Jefferson had a fantastic game against the Saints. Their star cornerback Marshon Lattimore followed Jefferson for most of the day and it didn’t matter all that much.

When covering Jefferson, Lattimore allowed seven catches on 10 targets for 93 yards. That included gaining massive separation on Lattimore.

Throughout the game, Jefferson made his presence felt by winning on all three levels, including stacking Lattimore late in the game on a deep route.

On Monday, Jefferson took to social media to snipe at Lattimore and did it with the perfect picture: the Allen Iverson stepover on Tyrann Lue from the 2000 NBA Finals.

All-time post from Jefferson who truly was the answer for the Vikings on Sunday.

Vikings PFF Grades: Standouts from Week 4

The PFF grades are in and come across favorably for the Vikings

A 28-25 win in London over the New Orleans Saints has fans of the Minnesota Vikings feeling both positively and negatively about the team.

While the 3-1 record is objectively good, it hasn’t been the cleanest path to get there. They won their last two games with sub-par performances or in other words: clunkers.

Justin Jefferson was the key to the Vikings win getting 10 receptions for 147 yards and a rushing touchdown.

As the Vikings move forward to play the Chicago Bears on Sunday, PFF released their grades from Sunday’s game and there were some fascinating grades.

Justin Jefferson took Marshon Lattimore to school

The star cornerback was no match for Justin Jefferson

The Vikings rode the coat tails of star wide receiver Justin Jefferson en route to a 28-25 victory in London over the New Orleans Saints.

After a couple of tough outings, the offense made it a priority to get Jefferson involved early and often. They lived up to their word with two catches on the first drive and 13 targets on 39 passes (33.3% target share).

Not only did Jefferson have an excellent game of production on Sunday but he did so against the Saints’ top cornerback Marshon Lattimore.

While Jefferson caught 10 passes on 13 targets for 147 yards, he did most of his damage on Lattimore.

Seven catches for 93 yards is no small feat for Jefferson. Lattimore not allowing more than three receptions in the Saints’ previous 20 games is extremely impressive but Jefferson is no average receiver.

The struggles he had against Darius Slay and the bracket coverage he received against the Detroit Lions certainly has paid off. Just look at the separation created.

Jefferson is back in full force and the NFL better prepare for his wrath.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbyjpbajmjvnqmj player_id=none image=https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Should the Vikings be concerned about Kevin O’Connell’s clock management?

Does head coach Kevin O’Connell have an issue with clock management?

The Minnesota Vikings got the win in London over the New Orleans Saints by a score of 28-25 but that wasn’t without controversy.

The biggest point of controversy came at the end of the second quarter.

The Vikings had just kicked a field goal and kicked the ball off to the Saints. On the first play, Dalvin Tomlinson strip-sacked Andy Dalton and the ball was recovered by Harrison Phillips.

The play gave the Vikings the ball at the Saints 20 yard line with three time-outs and 56 seconds left on the clock. What happened next was flabbergasting at best.

The first play was a throw to Justin Jefferson into the flat off jet-action to let him create after the catch. A safe, yet potentially explosive play. It got no gain due to a nice play by second-year cornerback Paulson Adebo.

They snapped the next play with 22 seconds left. How can you let that much time come off the clock with only 20 yards to go and a loaded offense? The answer could be quite a few things but the thought process was conservative and disappointing.

The second play was a check down into the flat that fell incomplete and after a false start by Brian O’Neill, Cousins completed a pass to Irv Smith Jr. for seven yards leading to a field goal with just three seconds left.

There are two likely scenarios as to why O’Connell wasn’t more aggressive in this spot: he is conservative like the guy he replaced in Mike Zimmer or O’Connell didn’t trust Cousins after he threw an interception at the end of the first quarter. The latter is the likely scenario.

After Cousins throws an interception where he is aggressive, he tends to go into a really conservative state. Sunday’s game was no different. He turned it up once the Saints took the lead but that gap between the interception and the final two drives left a lot to be desired, including a sure touchdown to Justin Jefferson on a 3rd and goal where he took a one-yard check down to Adam Thielen instead.

Is this a cause for concern yet?  I wouldn’t go that far. It’s tough for a new coach to get everything right immediately. This is something that deserves monitoring moving forward, as it can be come a big issue down the line.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbyjpbajmjvnqmj player_id=none image=https://vikingswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]