SURVIVING THE GAME

VIKINGS 23

JETS 17

The Vikings have become the biggest surprise of this NFL season, largely by playing extremely complete football in all 3 phases (offense, defense, special teams).

But you don't always get to have such games. Sometimes, you may only have one of those phases working, and you just have to figure it out. That was Sunday out in London, where the Vikings had to figure it out when only their defense was doing what it was supposed to.

In likely the last ever Vikings game against Aaron Rodgers, it looked early like I thought it would, that the Vikings would roll.

The defense quickly showed a bounceback from the 2nd half in Green Bay. The Jets didn't get a 1st down until 20 minutes into the game.

By the time that happened, the Vikings already led 10-0, due to a long Will Reichard field goal and a glorious 63-yard pick six by Andrew Van Ginkel.

Cam Bynum also picked off Rodgers, and the defense stuffed Breece Hall on a 4th down. The Jets offense had nothing going.

The Vikings offense squandered a chance for more points with a puzzling deep shot on a 4th and 1 that was incomplete, but they did drive to another TD (by CJ Ham) on a drive aided by THREE Jets penalties drawn by Justin Jefferson.

The Vikings were cruising towards another easy win, but just like last week, a special teams blunder let a dead opponent gain new life.

The Jets punted, and a stupid blocking penalty pinned our offense deep. Then we punt, and give up a long return to set the Jets up with a short field. And they scored on that short field to make it a 17-7 halftime score.

The 3rd quarter was just ugly, as the Vikings offense went punt-punt-punt. They key moment in the 3rd was another special teams mistake, as the defense forced a punt, but then Ivan Pace got flagged for roughing the punter. Aaron Rodgers had seemingly been injured on the previous play, but after the penalty, he returned immediately. Also fake was the penalty, which was a total phantom call. But it did spark the Jets to their one real drive of the day, to get a field goal.

The Vikings offense was dead. Aaron Jones left with a hip injury in the 1st half, and the run game was ineffective, not that they really tried. The OL was often getting crushed, and Sam Darnold was not playing well at all, but KOC kept pushing the passing game. But all those quick drives and incompletions kept the clock stopped. 

The Vikings were able to flip field position and get a drive started already in long field goal range. Here, too, they couldn't movie the ball, but Reichard made the long kick to push the lead back to 10. 

Still we kept throwing. Deep in our own end, Darnold fired downfield and was picked off. Again the Jets cashed in on the short field, to make it a 20-17 game. 

Just like last week, the offense snapped to it just enough to muster a scoring drive. Darnold hit a couple of big passes to Jefferson and Johnny Mundt, but then a rare JJ drop on 3rd down meant we could only get a field goal to go up 6 with 3 minutes left.

I felt encroaching doom as Rodgers hit on a few passes and the Jets were moving. Rhe defense did not deserve to be placed in this position of having to save the game, any more than Kirk did with all those comebacks in 2022. The consequences of not playing complete football.

The Jets got as close as the 26, but then Rodgers misfired down the sideline and Stephon Gilmore was able to haul in an interception to seal the game!

I didn't like making the game close, but if that was the last pass Rodgers ever makes against the Vikings, it sure was satisfying to see. Condolences to Rich Eisen, who was announcing the game for NFL Network, and was slurping Rodgers so hard that even Joe Buck was probably cringing.

It's important to be able to win games when you're not playing your best, so this was another growth game for these Vikings. It was the first true clunker for Darnold, but to be fair the Jets defense is very good, and it's unfair to expect any QB to be lights out every game. 

What's most important is that defense bounced back in a big way, and that unit is going to be the driving factor for whatever the Vikings wind up doing this season. 

And now the bye hits at 5-0, just like in 2016, but I don't see a collapse happening this time. The defense is elite, the offense will be fine, and the easiest part of the schedule is yet to come. The Vikings have gone 5-0 against teams that are 13-7 combined in games not against the Vikings. 

This is a team very much worthy of its record. They will make it til at minimum October 20th undefeated, and in an NFC where some of the presumed favorites aren't looking that good, they absolutely have to be taken seriously as a contender to win the NFC.