Tag: K.J. Osborn

K.J. Osborn sets career highs in comeback win

Osborn had the game of his life on Saturday

The wide receiver position outside of Justin Jefferson has been iffy over the course of the season. Things haven’t been easy or consistent for the group after Justin Jefferson, but on Saturday, K.J. Osborn had himself a career day.

He set career highs in both receptions (10) and yards (167) while also scoring the touchdown that started the comeback.

Osborn wasn’t just the safety net for Cousins, he was a dynamic player. The effort never wavered, as he was constantly trying to gain extra yardage.

When the Vikings needed someone to make a play, Osborn was there. He never gave up and that energy kept growing throughout the fourth quarter.

Vikings Film Room: How nuance in route running makes a difference

The little things mean a lot when generating big plays

The Minnesota Vikings found a way to score three touchdowns through the air. Most of that was due to quarterback Kirk Cousins having himself a great day. He made a lot of great decisions on the day and excelled in pushing the ball down the field to both Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen.

On the game-winning touchdown, Cousins made the proper read, but it was the nuance of Thielen’s route running that took it to another level.

This is a two-man concept with both Thielen and Jefferson running deep crossing routes and K.J. Osborn to the flat on a split-zone action.

Jefferson commands a lot of attention, as he had torched the Patriots multiple times throughout the evening, so it makes sense why the far-side safety ended up following him instead of staying home.

Why he ended up staying home is due to the nuance exuded in Thielen’s route running. He makes the savvy move by running behind the safety. Why does this matter? Because he doesn’t cross the safety’s face and goes behind him, said safety doesn’t travel with him like the coverage is designed for.

Little things like this go mostly unnoticed on the game broadcast, but it makes such a huge difference in generating big plays.

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13 plays that show Kirk Cousins is a great quarterback

Despite throwing two interceptions, Kirk Cousins was great against the Bills and showed his growth with excellent throws in the clutch

Kirk Cousins is an interesting quarterback.

While he’s always had talent and the ability to be a successful quarterback, the consistency and willingness to push the ball downfield has not been there.

This season, Cousins looks like a new quarterback. He has a different level of confidence about him and that is showing up on the football field.

Against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Cousins was in his bag and made some tremendous throws that show both his talent and how much he has grown and evolved over the past year.

Here are 13 throws that show how good Cousins is right now.

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Vikings Film Room: Illegal contact causes Kirk Cousins’ first interception

Cousins’ first interception was a result of circumstance, not decision-making

The Minnesota Vikings found a way to beat the Buffalo Bills 33-30 in overtime, but they had some mistakes early on that put them in a hole. One of those was an interception by Kirk Cousins as he misfired a pass to K.J. Osborn down the field.

The play is one that is worth looking at deeper because it’s not as simple as it appears.

The Vikings run a three-man progression on this play with Adam Thielen running an out route at the top of the screen, Justin Jefferson running a crosser from the slot and Osborn runs the backside dig.

The defense appears to be running QQH (quarters nearside, cover-2 farside) and this is a good play to beat that. The out route is the last in the progression and, while it’s open right away, it’s covered by the time Cousins would get to it.

What he does see is Osborn about to run open into an open hole in the zone. All he has to do is get by Demar Hamlin and it’s an easy pitch and catch. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

Hamlin commits illegal contact by getting himself in position to blatantly disrupt Osborn’s path. That knocks him off axis, which slows him down just enough to cause Cousins to fire off-target for the interception by Christian Benford.

Should the penalty have been thrown on Hamlin? Probably, although throughout the context of how the refs called the game, it makes sense that they didn’t. I would have called it personally but it’s just another item in the line of multiple officiating mistakes.

As much grief as Cousins gets for his decision-making, this one isn’t on him in the slightest, unlike his second interception.

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Vikings Film Room: Kevin O’Connell uses space really well

The Vikings’ offense is creative and uses space really well

The Minnesota Vikings new offensive scheme under head coach Kevin O’Connell does a really nice job of utilizing space.

The college game has started to come to the NFL over the last few years with the spread offense and air raid concepts becoming more and more rampant.

One of the main ways that these offenses thrive in college is by utilizing space. In college, the hash marks are twice as wide on each side. Using the wide side of the field is an easy way to give your playmakers the football in space and let them be creative after the catch.

In the NFL, offenses are doing the same, but in a less extreme capacity. Head coach Kevin O’Connell is doing a great job utilizing space and letting K.J. Osborn work.

The Vikings put three wide receivers to the far side with Osborn in the slot. With the near side being the short side, Osborn has a lot of room to work with. He also has two blockers to seal the outside and allow him to get upfield quickly.

These concepts are simple in nature but a great way to potentially eat up chunks of yardage without any real risk.

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

K.J. Osborn’s game-winner vs. Lions was same play as 2021 strike vs. Panthers

Osborn’s game-winning touchdown vs. Lions was the same play as last season’s OT winner vs. Panthers.

The Minnesota Vikings beat the Detroit Lions 28-24 in Week 3 on a beautiful corner route to wide receiver K.J. Osborn.

After the team played an absolute clunker of a game, seeing them pull it out in the end was nice for a fan base that had seen the Vikings on the losing side of such outcomes far too often.

The touchdown pass to Osborn looked familiar, and it should. He explained after the game that it was the same play as his game-winner over the Carolina Panthers last year.

He explained to Pro Football Talk via a phone call after the game that he was the first option on the play and when he saw that he was wide-open, he did the Randy Moss “throw your hand up” gesture and Cousins delivered a perfect ball.

The passing concept being eerily similar is not a surprise, as the Gary Kubiak and Sean McVay versions of the zone running offense use a lot of the same principles.

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WATCH: Kirk Cousins delivers perfect pass to K.J. Osborn for the win

The Vikings won the game in explosive fashion on Sunday afternoon

The Minnesota Vikings found a way to pull out a clunker win 28-24 over the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon.

After falling down both 14-0 in the first half and 24-14 in the second half, they scored 14 unanswered points twice to both tie the game and take their first lead of the game with just 45 seconds left in the game.

The game-winning drive spanned just three plays and 58 yards but it was extremely effective. Kirk Cousins hit K.J. Osborn on a nice corner route.

The concept comes from a condensed set out of 11 personnel where Thielen ran an out route helping draw the coverage to him and creating a traffic jam in a condensed space.

The Vikings needed a big day from both Osborh and Thielen and they got just that. Huge win to get the Vikings to 2-1 overall and a vital 2-0 in the NFC North.

Studs and Duds from Vikings 28-24 week 3 win over Lions

Check out the studs and duds from Sunday’s game against the Lions

The Minnesota Vikings figured out how to win a game in which they didn’t play very well. The final score was 28-24 over the Detroit Lions and coming out of the game, it feels like the Vikings stole it from the Lions.

Throughout the game, there were players on both sides that played both well and poorly. Take a look at our studs and duds from Sunday’s clash with the Lions

Vikings PFF Grades: Best and worst performers in week 1 win vs Packers

The best and worst of the PFF grades from Sunday’s game

The Minnesota Vikings dominated the Green Bay Packers by a score of 23-7 in a game that never really felt close.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell became the fifth head coach in Minnesota Vikings history to win his debut for the franchise.

When the grades came in, they looked really good but there were some disappointing performances.

Here are the best and worst of Sunday’s PFF grades.