DAILY CLIPS
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2018 LOCAL NEWS: Sunday, October 28, 2018
Star Tribune
Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs comfortable as a nonconformist By Ben Goessling http://www.startribune.com/vikings-receiver-stefon-diggs-comfortable-as-a-nonconformist/498808481/
Vikings are in debt to Saints defender Marcus Williams, architect of the Minneapolis Miracle By Jim Souhan http://www.startribune.com/vikings-are-in-debt-to-saints-defender-marcus-williams-architect-of-the-minneapolis- miracle/498801721/
Vikings vs. Saints: Minnesota will win if ... By Ben Goessling http://www.startribune.com/vikings-vs-saints-minnesota-will-win-if/498808451/
Before the Vikings' Minneapolis Miracle, there were these nine NFL playoff gaffes By Mark Craig http://www.startribune.com/before-the-vikings-minneapolis-miracle-there-were-these-10-nfl-playoff-gaffes/498803731/
Linebacker Eric Kendricks faces challenge in absence of teammate Anthony Barr By Sid Hartman http://www.startribune.com/linebacker-eric-kendricks-faces-challenge-in-absense-of-teammate-anthony-barr/498799611/
Should NFL teams go for two-point conversions more often? By Andrew Krammer and Michael Rand http://www.startribune.com/should-nfl-teams-go-for-two-point-conversions-more-often/498799021/
Pioneer Press
Charley Walters: Vikings will need reliable runner next season By Charley Walters https://www.twincities.com/2018/10/27/charley-walters-vikings-will-need-reliable-runner-next-season/
Thin on offensive line, Vikings elevate tackle Storm Norton from practice squad By Chris Tomasson https://www.twincities.com/2018/10/27/thin-on-offensive-line-vikings-elevate-tackle-storm-norton-from-practice-squad/
Vikings.com
Final Thoughts: 3rd down offense, red zone defense key for Vikings By Mike Wobschall https://www.vikings.com/news/final-thoughts-3rd-down-offense-red-zone-defense-key-for-vikings
Zimmer, Vikings Describe Challenges of Facing Drew Brees By Lindsey Young https://www.vikings.com/news/zimmer-vikings-describe-challenges-of-facing-drew-brees
3 (Non-Vikings) Games to Watch in Week 8 By Craig Peters https://www.vikings.com/news/3-non-vikings-games-to-watch-in-week-8
How to Watch & Listen to Saints at Vikings in Week 8 By Craig Peters https://www.vikings.com/news/how-to-watch-listen-to-saints-at-vikings-in-week-8
VIKING Update
Preview: Saints bring strong run game, run defense By John Holler https://247sports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/Article/Preview-Saints-bring-strong-run-game-run-defense-to-Minnesota- 123825030/
1500 ESPN
The lasting impact of Teddy Bridgewater on the Minnesota Vikings By Matthew Coller http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/10/lasting-impact-teddy-bridgewater-minnesota-vikings/
The Athletic
Vikings Week 8 preview: Rematch with Saints brings chance for signature win By The Athletic Staff https://theathletic.com/616736/2018/10/27/vikings-week-8-preview-saints-drew-brees-alvin-kamara-rematch-signature-win/
NATIONAL NEWS: Sunday, October 28, 2018
CBS Sports
Vikings' Everson Griffen will reportedly return against Saints after five-week absence By Cody Benjamin https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/vikings-everson-griffen-will-reportedly-return-against-saints-after-five-week-absence/
PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 10/28/18
Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs comfortable as a nonconformist
By Ben Goessling
The subject turns to fashion, as Stefon Diggs’ black Mercedes S550 nears Terminal 1 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, and the wide receiver shares what might seem an unlikely source of inspiration to anyone but him.
“It’s so cool when you see kids go in their closet and pick out stuff that they like,” he said. “Like, you’ll see a kid in basketball shorts and rain boots; I’m not saying I would go that far, but stuff like that. You talk about creativity — wear what you like.”
After he broke his ankle in 2013, Diggs had more time to pursue his interest in fashion, and now, as often as not, his Instagram account shows off his style: Diggs posing for New York photographer Ben Ritter in a heart-patterned black JW Anderson leather jacket, the receiver checking his cellphone in a white hoodie, denim jacket, green Adidas pants and snakeskin Bapesta sneakers.
He doesn’t use a stylist, he says; he purely picks clothes out of his closet based on what he likes, and little else.
“My stuff doesn’t match, but it looks pretty nice,” he said Wednesday. “I find whatever I’m comfortable in, and I go from there — because people really wear clothes for other people, but I wear what I like. You think about it — somebody says they don’t like what you wear, right? And I’m like, ‘Well, I didn’t wear it for you; I wore it because I wanted to wear it.’ Your opinion on how it looks really wouldn’t matter, because I’m comfortable.”
The glimpse into Diggs’ wardrobe is also a window into free-spirited ways that greet many of the conventions of his position with a raised eyebrow. The man who made perhaps the most iconic play in franchise history — by turning for the end zone last January to beat the Saints with a playoff touchdown when conventional wisdom said to step out of bounds and set up a game-winning field goal — has little need to contort himself to fit views of who he should be.
Diggs calls himself a homebody who doesn’t like to drink and is content to relax at his house near the Vikings’ facility in Eagan watching “The Office” or “Family Guy” reruns on Netflix — why should he spend his free time at nightclubs with a glass in his hand? He sticks mostly to a close group of friends from the Washington, D.C., area he’s known since he was 15, and quietly sizes up the people who enter his life now that he’s got an ESPY award and a Geico commercial. Why does he need a big crew of newcomers?
“I’ve had the same friends for eight to 10 years. Anybody new after that, you might see them every once in a while, but man, we ain’t that tight,” he said. “I’m not a huge new-friend guy. Keeping that same circle of friends keeps me grounded. They’ll also tell me when I’m wrong, and I appreciate that accountability.”
In one breath, the 24-year-old calls himself “such a stuck-in-my-ways old man.” In the next, he talks about how his offseason hobbies now consist of “trying to find things to be scared of.” He made plans to swim with sharks this offseason, before he ran out of time; though he kept the photos off Instagram, he went skydiving near Los Angeles last summer before he signed his five-year, $72 million contract.
“I want to go bungee-jumping — all these things I’m not supposed to be doing,” he said with a loud laugh. “I’m not a gambler, because I’m going to go put all my money on black. I’m going to go all-in. It’s kind of like football; I don’t know how to go halfway or do certain things in moderation. You can’t halfway bungee-jump. You can’t halfway skydive. For me, it’s pushing myself and letting myself know there’s nothing to be scared of.”
How Diggs came by such a fully formed version of himself, a month before his 25th birthday, might have something to do with how quickly he was forced to grow up: His father, Aron, died because of congestive heart failure almost 10 years to the day before Diggs’ infamous touchdown, telling the teenager to look after his sister and younger brothers.
With schools across the country offering Diggs scholarships as the nation’s No. 1 recruit, he chose to stay close to home and play for Maryland, enduring an injury-plagued career for three Terrapins teams that never finished better than 7-6. As Diggs was suspended for his role in a pregame scuffle with Penn State during his junior year and whispers about his character as a teammate — which the receiver surmised had to have come from Maryland — surfaced before the draft, he slipped to the fifth round, where the Vikings picked him 146th overall in 2015.
Now, Diggs and Adam Thielen comprise one of the NFL’s most prolific receiving duos, with both on pace for more than 100 catches this season. Diggs’ new deal will help him take care of his mother, Stephanie, who worked nearly three decades on traveling shifts for Amtrak and raised her kids after the death of her husband.
He’s happy with a team that he said looked beyond his pre-draft reputation and took the time to get to know him. And Diggs has no intention of slowing down.
“He was a little bit immature, but everybody has to grow up,” said Jaguars receivers coach Keenan McCardell, whom Diggs credits with teaching him how to get open while McCardell coached him at Maryland. “I love the way he’s carrying himself now. He’s grown up; he’s become a professional. Adam Thielen’s there, and they’re great together. Both guys have that same edge — that edge of, ‘You’re not kicking me out of this thing.’ ”
‘You’ve got to keep going’
From the time he was old enough to understand what football was, Diggs knew he wanted to play. He would run around his house carrying a ball as a kid, going to his half-brother’s games and waiting for the day his turn would come.
He was a few months shy of his sixth birthday when he asked his parents to allow him to play in a 6-year-old league; when they agreed to sign the waiver, “it was like the best birthday present I could have had,” Diggs said.
“Getting into it was enough for me,” he said. “I knew that’s what I wanted to do before I got to play. I was like, ‘Regardless of how it shakes out, this is what we’re doing for a long time.’ ”
His father, Diggs said, “was a pretty aggressive man” — measuring 6 feet 4 and weighing around 260 pounds, coaching his kids not to cry when they fell but to get up and keep going. He drove them hard enough that Stephanie Diggs wished he wouldn’t coach them, “but I didn’t mind,” Stefon said.
By the time he was in fifth grade, Stefon had attracted enough attention in Washington’s Maryland suburbs that private high schools were watching him. He was thriving on the football field, first as a quarterback and then as a running back, and while his father would go to the hospital because of heart issues for a month at a time, his feet swollen with gout, Stefon learned to live with the hospital stays, knowing his dad would always come home.
Then, when Stefon was in eighth grade, Aron sat him down and told him he wouldn’t be coming back.
“He was sitting on the edge of my brother’s bed, and my little brother was asleep behind me,” Stefon Diggs said. “He was like, ‘I’m going to go to the hospital,’ and he explained to me he wasn’t coming out. At that moment, I was crying, and he told me, ‘At this point, there’s not a lot to cry about. I’m going to need you to look after your little brothers, and look after your family.’ At that moment, I knew, because he said it with so much conviction. I’d never really seen him cry, but at that moment, he was crying.”
By the time doctors took his father off life support at the hospital, Stefon knew he had to change his mind-set. His family was crying; he had stopped, knowing by this point that no tears would bring Aron back.
“That was the trick for me: losing what I thought was all I had, and having to adjust after that,” he said. “For me now, it’s not hard. You’ve got to keep going.”
He honored Aron’s wishes and attended Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Md., starring on a team that also included Rams defensive back Blake Countess, as well as Chiefs defensive backs Kendall Fuller and Dorian O’Daniel.
“He would warm up the QB before practice, and the quarterback would be throwing these spirals,” said Bob Milloy, Diggs’ high school coach. “He would catch it by one hand, by the point. He’s got huge hands, and very strong hands. You just never saw him drop a big pass.”
With scholarship offers flooding in from around the country, Diggs chose to attend Maryland, where he could remain in the D.C. area and help out his family.
If the decision was the right one personally, it proved to be a difficult one for his football career. Diggs never played in a New Year’s Day bowl game, scored only three touchdowns as a sophomore before breaking his ankle and became the only player suspended for refusing to shake the hands of Penn State’s captains before a Nov. 1, 2014, game in which Diggs also lacerated one of his kidneys.
“It was a group thing — I just had to take the beef,” he said. “I had to play the bad guy; I got suspended and I ended up lacerating my kidney. That’s why I feel like I probably fell [in the draft].”
He knew he wouldn’t be a first-round pick, but Diggs figured he’d go on Day 2 of the 2015 draft, when his family organized a party to celebrate his selection. The party came and ended without a call from a team, as receivers such as Devin Smith, Dorial Green-Beckham and Jaelen Strong went off the board.
“I’m like, ‘They’re not better than me,’ ” Diggs said. “I know they’re not better than me. I’ve seen them. And I’m an honest person — if somebody’s better than me, I don’t mind saying it. The next day, I went to go work out. I said, ‘I’m not going to sit in the house all day. I can use the time I’m waiting for a phone call to go work out.’ ”
When the call came to notify Diggs he’d be the 19th receiver selected, the team on the other end of the line turned out to be exactly what he needed.
At home in Minnesota
Ask Diggs now what he appreciates most about the Vikings, and he’s as quick to mention the openness and candor in the organization, from teammates and coaches to people such as player development director Les Pico, as he is the team’s on-field success.
The Vikings, he said, were the team that saw beyond chatter about him being a prima donna, got to know him and gave him a chance — to the point where, Diggs said, team officials sounded almost stunned as they told him how much he differed from his reputation.
In Thielen, he has found an ideal counterpart: an undrafted free agent with a desire to prove people wrong and a willingness to accept hard criticism if it helped him improve.
“We’ve built up a level of trust with one another, that we can be completely honest with one another,” Thielen said. “If we think the other person’s not running a good route, we can talk to them about it and we’re not worried about hurting their feelings, because I think we both understand we’re in it to be the best football players we possibly can be.”
Of the 18 receivers who went before Diggs in the draft, only one — fourth overall pick Amari Cooper — has more yards or touchdowns.
Still, he frequently texts wide receivers coach Darrell Hazell on Monday nights after games, asking him to point out other ways he can improve, from driving at the ball to cut down its flight time in the air to improving the already- sublime route-running skills he honed with McCardell.
“We texted about it for 20 minutes [on Monday],” Hazell said. “He says, ‘I’m here. I’m a sponge. I want to know more. I want to be better.’ He has not mastered them yet.”
As Diggs pulls up to the baggage claim level at Terminal 1 to pick up a friend, he chuckles about the drivers who turn snarly with him as he waits for his passenger.
“It’s that Minnesota stuff,” he said. “People get real attitudes with me when I’m driving. It’s semi-road rage. I guess it has to go somewhere.”
On this day, the drivers are Diggs’ only complaint. The receiver who hates the cold doesn’t want to play football anywhere else, and the man who craves relationships with deep levels of understanding found them in a state known for its passive-aggressiveness.
It all makes sense to him. If it doesn’t make sense to someone else, that’s their problem.
“I don’t force myself into categories of doing things the way everybody else wants them done,” Diggs said. “Teamwise, I try to stay within my team. But outside of that, let me show my creativity. Let me show who I really am. People barely like you as is, or people judge you as is. Why not give them something else to talk about?”
PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 10/28/18
Vikings are in debt to Saints defender Marcus Williams, architect of the Minneapolis Miracle
By Jim Souhan
The true Minneapolis Miracle is that Vikings fans have mythologized a fluke play, caused by the most egregious missed tackle in recent NFL history, that led to an embarrassing blowout loss.
When Stefon Diggs scored on a 61-yard touchdown pass from Case Keenum to beat the New Orleans Saints on the last snap of their divisional playoff game last January, the play became part of Vikings history because it ran counter to Vikings history. Finally, fans said (or wept) — finally, a big play went the right way.
We now know that the play, combined with a 38-7 loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game the following week, was the equivalent of winning the lottery, then losing all of the money in one hand of blackjack.
The play was fool’s gold to begin with. Diggs scored only because Saints rookie safety Marcus Williams inexplicably ducked his head and completely missed Diggs when simply bear-hugging Diggs inbounds would have won the game for New Orleans.
I’ve been covering the NFL since 1989. I’ve never seen a defender make such an inexplicable play in a big moment.
Williams did more than win the game for the Vikings. He may have saved a job or two.
As the Saints return to U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday, let’s contemplate what might have resulted if Williams had made that simple play.
If the Saints had won, they would have completed a stunning comeback, on the road, in an extremely loud stadium. Given that they had won 12 of their previous 15 games, and that they have won five of their six games this season, they may have been a threat to win in Philadelphia and advance to the Super Bowl.
Had they done so, Drew Brees probably would have had as much or more success against the Patriots defense as did Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles. Brees and his coach, Sean Payton, well could have earned second Super Bowl rings, and Brees, who this year set the NFL passing yards record, may be more frequently mentioned as a contender for greatest quarterback of all time.
For the Vikings, the landscape could have changed from fields of bouquets to scorched earth.
If the Vikings had lost that game while blowing a second-half lead, Mike Zimmer would still be without a playoff victory as a head coach. Zimmer appeared to be outcoached during the second half by Payton, and that, not the Minneapolis Miracle or Keenum’s turnovers the following week, may have become a primary story line during the offseason.
General Manager Rick Spielman would have been without a playoff victory since 2009, meaning his only playoff victory of his dozen years with the team would have been delivered by Brett Favre.
The Vikings’ loss at Philadelphia was such an utter and total collapse that no individual took a large percentage of the blame. Had Zimmer’s defense contributed heavily to a comeback loss to the Saints, Zimmer may have felt pressured to make changes on his staff, or may have come under more internal scrutiny himself.
Mostly, though, the difference would have been atmospheric. Instead of the Vikings advancing one step closer to a Super Bowl, they would have looked and felt like the same team that so often fails, and so often fails predictably, in the postseason.
Would ownership have demanded changes? It’s hard to know. The Wilfs don’t often broadcast their intentions and have proved to be patient and loyal to their top employees.
We’ll never know because Williams, a quality young player, failed to make contact with a receiver standing in front of him with a playoff game hanging in the balance.
Wednesday, Zimmer sounded like he was tired of talking about the play. Which is funny. Because that play gave him his only playoff victory, and gifted him with the perception that the Vikings were still making progress.
PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 10/28/18
Vikings vs. Saints: Minnesota will win if ...
By Ben Goessling
The Vikings have beaten the Saints twice in 13 months at U.S. Bank Stadium, but with injuries at a number of key positions on defense, they could have a tough time slowing down Drew Brees and company in time to get a third victory against New Orleans, especially if it’s a big day for Alvin Kamara.
Three Big Story Lines
Moving on from the miracle
The Vikings and Saints have both taken great pains this week not to frame Sunday’s game as any kind of grudge match after Minnesota’s 29-24 victory in the playoffs. That hasn’t stopped the questions about Stefon Diggs’ game- winning TD in January, but both teams have plenty to play for this year.
Brees at his best
The quarterback, who turned 39 the day after the Vikings’ playoff victory over the Saints, could be on his way to his first league MVP award in his 18th season. He has completed a league-high 77.3 percent of his passes this season, throwing 13 for touchdowns without an interception.
Thomas Griffen ready to return
Defensive end Everson Griffen came back to the Vikings this week following his five-week absence while receiving treatment for mental health issues, and he’s expected to play Sunday night. It remains to be seen what kind of a role the three-time Pro Bowl selection will have.
Two Key Matchups
Vikings secondary vs. Saints WR Michael Thomas
If Xavier Rhodes, who is questionable for the game because of a sprained ankle, is able to play, he likely will be matched up with the physical receiver. If Rhodes can’t go, the task of covering Thomas will fall to Trae Waynes, Holton Hill and others. In any case, Thomas’ size and his connection with Brees make him one of the Vikings’ big concerns Sunday night.
Vikings RT Brian O’Neill vs. Saints DE Cameron Jordan
The Vikings rookie right tackle will get a tough assignment Sunday night in the All-Pro pass rusher, who lines up primarily on the left side of the New Orleans defensive formation. Jordan has five sacks already this season, and he finished with 13 a year ago.
One Stat That Matters
17.6 The percentage of dropbacks where Saints quarterbacks have been pressured this season, according to Football Outsiders. That percentage is the lowest in the NFL.
The Vikings Will Win If …
They are able to get some pressure on Brees without having to blitz him, keep Kamara from burning them in the passing game the way other running backs have and get enough production from Kirk Cousins and company if they are forced to trade scores with the Saints.
The Opponent Will Win If …
They can put enough pressure on Cousins to make things difficult for the quarterback, while Brees finds ways to get the ball in the hands of such playmakers as Kamara and Thomas in time to exploit the injuries on the back two levels of the Vikings defense.
Goesslings prediction: Saints 28-27
Win probability: 50 percent PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 10/28/18
Before the Vikings' Minneapolis Miracle, there were these nine NFL playoff gaffes
By Mark Craig
Saints safety Marcus Williams ducked his head, lowered his right shoulder and ended up on the wrong side of a miracle.
“Life happens,” he told the Bleacher Report months after his missed tackle made Stefon Diggs an everlasting hero and the Vikings a 29-24 walk-off winner in last year’s NFC divisional playoff game.
Life’s not always a beach, either.
In perfect position and needing to make only a routine play to prevent the “Minneapolis Miracle,” Williams whiffed and wound up on this man’s list of 10 of the more infamous unforced errors on what should have been relatively easy plays to execute in the closing seconds of a postseason game.
Here are the other nine, in the order they occurred:
Red Right 88, Jan. 4, 1981: Known as the “Kardiac Kids” that year, the Browns were trailing 14- 12 at Oakland’s 13-yard line with less than a minute left in a divisional game played in windy, 4- degree weather at Cleveland Stadium. Coach Sam Rutigliano gave QB Brian Sipe the play — forever known as Red Right 88 — with the stipulation to “throw it into Lake Erie” if the play wasn’t open for tight end Ozzie Newsome. It was second down and a 30-yard field goal attempt was the backup plan. Instead, Sipe, the league MVP that year, threw a wobbler into double coverage that was intercepted by Mike Davis.
Darrin Nelson’s drop, Jan. 17, 1988: Some will argue that this wasn’t an unforced error. That Redskins cornerback Darrell Green played a role in jarring the ball from the Vikings running back at the goal line. The Vikings trailed 17-10 on the road in the NFC title game. They faced fourth- and-goal from the 6 with 56 seconds left. Wade Wilson threw a nice pass. The ball slipped through Nelson’s hands and hit his shoulder pads. Before he had time to gather it, Green made contact. The Redskins went on to rout Denver 42-10 in the Super Bowl.
Harmon wide open, Jan. 6, 1990: Another divisional game at Cleveland Stadium saw Jim Kelly and the Bills driving toward a winning touchdown in the closing seconds. Running back Ronnie Harmon was uncovered in the corner of the end zone but dropped the pass. One play later, Clay Matthews made a game-ending interception in a 34-30 win. The Bills would reach the next four Super Bowls.
Junkin’s bad snap, Jan. 5, 2003: Poor Trey Junkin. The long-snapper played 19 seasons but will be remembered for his one and only game with the Giants. Lured out of retirement after a year away from the game, Junkin made an errant snap that prevented a 41-yard field goal attempt with six seconds left in this wild-card game. The Giants had led 38-14 but lost 39-38.
Nedney’s double mulligan, Jan. 11, 2003: Titans kicker Joe Nedney got three cracks at a game- winning chip shot to beat the Steelers 34-31 in overtime of this divisional game. He missed twice before winning the game. The Steelers called a timeout right before the first miss from 31 yards. Then Dewayne Washington ran into the kicker on the second miss, giving Nedney the win from 26 yards.
Kasay’s dynasty assist, Feb. 1, 2004: The Panthers tied up Super Bowl XXXVIII with 1:08 left. Then veteran kicker John Kasay yanked the kickoff out of bounds, giving Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri the ball at the 40. Patriots win 32-29.
Romo’s slip, Jan. 6, 2007: The Cowboys trailed 21-20 in this wild-card game at Seattle. They lined up for a 19-yard field goal in the closing minute. But Tony Romo dropped the snap and was tackled trying to run.
Moore was less, Jan. 12, 2013: The Ravens trailed the Broncos 35-28 with 41 seconds left and were 70 yards from the goal line. With eight Broncos in coverage, defensive back Rahim Moore’s only job was to not get beat deep. He got way out of position and got beat deep for a 70-yard score. The Ravens won 38-35 in double overtime.
Wild, wide Walsh, Jan. 10, 2016: The day Vikings kicker Blair Walsh duck-hooked a 27-yarder with 22 seconds left in a 10-9 home wild-card loss to Seattle.
PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 10/28/18
Linebacker Eric Kendricks faces challenge in absence of teammate Anthony Barr
By Sid Hartman
The Vikings have slowly but surely regained their footing as one of the best defenses in the NFL. After giving up 327 yards and 27.5 points per game over their 1-2-1 start to the season, they have given up only 247 yards and 18.3 points per game over their current three-game winning streak.
But their opponents in that streak, the Eagles, Cardinals and Jets, have a combined 7-14 record while the Saints, their opponent Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium, will be the third-toughest offense, statistically, that the Vikings have faced this season.
The Saints are averaging 409.8 yards per game, which ranks sixth in the NFL behind two previous Vikings opponents in the Rams (446.4) and the Packers (421.0). The Vikings lost 38-31 to the Rams and tied the Packers 29-29.
But they will be at a true disadvantage with linebacker Anthony Barr missing the game because of a hamstring injury. That means that linebacker Eric Kendricks will be thrust into the spotlight to help guide the defense against one of the best passers in the game in Drew Brees, who has a ton of weapons at his disposal.
Pass defense a point of pride
Kendricks, who signed a five-year, $50 million this offseason, ranks 17th in the NFC in tackles with 44, a number that leads the Vikings. But more important, he’s getting more comfortable in coverage and has four pass deflections this season.
Kendricks said pass defense is one of the areas the team is constantly trying to improve.
Does he look forward to playing in coverage?
“It depends, you know?” Kendricks said. “I enjoy the challenge, but it can be tough at times, especially with these looks that they’re giving us. But that’s why you have to watch film and prepare.”
Being a middle linebacker means that Kendricks is one of the key players when it comes to sharing defensive audibles before the snap, which will be especially tough with a quarterback as smart as Brees.
“It starts with communication, and if we have good communication out there and good energy, we can do a lot,” he said.
Gophers bowl hopes alive
The Gophers’ 38-31 win over Indiana was one of the wilder back-and-forth contests in recent memory with Indiana scoring 22 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie it.
But Tanner Morgan’s 67-yard, game-winning touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman with 1 minute, 34 seconds left on the clock showed that coach P.J. Fleck never lost faith in his young team even after the Gophers committed three second-half turnovers and lost running back Shannon Brooks and lead receiver Tyler Johnson to injuries.
“We had to go finish the game,” Fleck told Fox Sports 1. “It was one of those frustrating moments [after blowing a big lead] and you say, ‘Let’s go win the game.’ Freshman to freshman. That was a big play.”
Yes, it was an impressive game for the freshman Morgan, who finished 17-for-24 with 302 yards and three scores to keep the Gophers’ hopes for a bowl game alive.
“This is the youngest team in college football,” Fleck said. “I’m so proud to coach them.”
Baldelli talks Tampa success
When the Twins made Rocco Baldelli their new manager it was the latest in a long line of front office and coaching personnel who have left the Tampa Bay organization for bigger opportunities.
There’s no doubt that the Rays have been one of the premier organizations in baseball while dealing with tight budget constraints. In 2018 they had the lowest payroll in baseball at $68.8 million while posting the sixth-best record in the American League at 90-72.
On top of that, several of their executives have had great success after leaving Tampa Bay. Joe Maddon won a championship with the Chicago Cubs while former General Manager Andrew Friedman has moved on to being president of the Los Angeles Dodgers, where they have won four straight division titles and reached back-to-back World Series since Friedman took over.
Does Baldelli hope to continue that run of post-Rays success?
“I am going to show up every day and do everything I can to do that,” he said. “I like to look ahead and think about what we’re trying to accomplish, but I like to think about what I have to do today and tomorrow and next week before I like to look ahead.
“I like having goals, but I like having short-term goals, a lot, too. I think that’s how you get to where you want to be.”
Baldelli said he actually doesn’t consider the Twins roster young or thin.
“I wasn’t overly concerned with anything like that,” he said. “I actually saw a young, good group of players that play with energy and have an opportunity to really do some nice things. They have real ability that I think if we get them in the right frame of mind and right situation with the right resources, I think they could make great leaps and do great things.”
Jottings
• Yes, a close personal friend and one of the greatest broadcasters of all time, Al Michaels, will work Sunday night’s game between the Saints and Vikings along with Cris Collinsworth. And local resident and star broadcaster Michele Tafoya will be on the sidelines reporting.
• Look for Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen to try to convince Mike Zimmer to play him against the Saints. He thinks he is ready.
• Zimmer on Griffen: “I watched him on tape [Wednesday], I watched him a little bit [Thursday]. Any time you’ve missed four weeks, or whatever it was, there’s a little rust.”
• Pro Football Focus has the Saints ranked as the second-best team in the NFL behind the Rams. The Vikings are seventh. PFF’s pick for the game? Saints 27, Vikings 26.
• Of 22 expert picks from SB Nation, USA Today and CBS Sports, 14 believe the Vikings will win Sunday.
• For one of the first times in a long time, every single Vikings game has been sold out this season. And even when the team is getting tickets returned from opponents, those are selling immediately.
• Talking about the Saints’ No. 1 run defense, Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph said, “They’ve lost one game this year, and it was coincidentally the only game they gave up 100 yards rushing.”
• Vikings receiver Adam Thielen on his former teammate and Saints backup quarterback Teddy Bridge-water. “I know personally I wouldn’t probably be the receiver I am today without him. He thought like a wide receiver, so it was really cool to have him as a quarterback.”
• Saints coach Sean Payton on facing the Vikings for the third time in two seasons: “It feels almost like a divisional game because you played them twice last season. You’ve got the [tape] cut-ups, you’ve got two games from a year ago, much like you would your own division.”
PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 10/28/18
Should NFL teams go for two-point conversions more often?
By Andrew Krammer and Michael Rand
NFL teams have gone for a two-point conversion 59 times this year through seven weeks and have converted 34 (a 58 percent success rate), according to Pro Football Reference.
Given the new rules that seem to favor offenses and the not-so-sure-thing of a 33-yard extra point, should teams be going for two even more regardless of the score?
First take: Michael Rand
Well, the short answer is yes.
I know some (and probably still most) coaches are hesitant to eschew what is still a high likelihood of one point in search of two, but if the current conversion trend continues, it will simply be bad math to adhere to the status of kicking by default.
While teams have gone for two 59 times, they’ve kicked 528 times this year, making 501 (95 percent). Had they gone for two each time and made them at the aforementioned 58 percent rate, they would have scored 107 more points than they had by kicking.
Obviously there are other factors in play, such as wind, relative strength of an offense and defense and even an intangible like momentum, but if you are a good offensive team playing with confidence, you should be going for two more often than you kick.
Vikings writer Andrew Krammer: The answer is absolutely yes.
It has been amazing to see how conservative football coaches continue to be as probabilities seep into and alter other professional sports around them. We should applaud Pat Shurmur for calling a two-point attempt following a touchdown that cut into the Giants’ 14-point deficit against the Falcons on Monday night.
Since the long-term two-point success rate hovers above 50 percent, and as aforementioned is closer to 60 percent this season, probabilities indicate the Giants were likely to make the two- point attempt after a second touchdown to tie the game — if the first two-point try failed. If it succeeded, they were an extra point away from a win.
It feels like we’re on the cusp of change, led by such coaches as Shurmur and the Eagles’ Doug Pederson.
Rand: Here’s where I’ll play devil’s advocate for a moment: As teams put more successful two- point plays on tape for opponents to study, might defenses start to catch up and tilt that success rate down under 50 percent?
Even a small shift in this year’s sample size could make the decision between consistently going for one or two a mathematical coin flip. And if that’s the case, I still think more coaches than not — with inertia and self-preservation as motives — will keep kicking.
Krammer: I think it’s fair to question how much room for improvement defenses have in those instances. A two-point play is no different from any other goal-line stand that defenses already practice and face weekly.
Since 2000, only five times has the NFL’s No. 1 red-zone offense had a touchdown success rate of 72 percent or better, per Football Outsiders. Three of those leaders — the 2016 Titans, 2014 Raiders and 2013 Broncos — have come within the past five years. And the Seahawks (73.3 percent) are on pace to do it again this season.
Offenses are setting leaguewide scoring records, which theoretically should force the evolution of the game’s leading coaches.
Rand: The Vikings have a defense-minded head coach in Mike Zimmer. It would sure be something to see him turn OC John DeFilippo loose with a bunch of two-point conversions!
Final word: Krammer: I’m not holding my breath, especially with Dan Bailey bringing a steadying presence at kicker. But hey, we’ve never seen issues with a veteran kicker in Minnesota, so it’s not like that’s a shoe waiting to drop or anything. PUBLICATION: PIONEER PRESS DATE: 10/28/18
Charley Walters: Vikings will need reliable runner next season
By Charley Walters
SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS AND ALERTS MOST POPULAR Doug Wardlow, LGBT rights and the gay man he allegedly bullied in high school Charley Walters: Vikings will need reliable runner next season What’s the best-kept secret in South St. Paul? Its quirky, friendly Polish hall 10-year-olds’ football game halted after adults fight and a gun fired in St. Paul East Ridge football player’s family turns to lawyer, GoFundMe to fight suspension St. Paul cop, retiring after 32 years, pairs up with son of fallen officer for his last patrol
It’s beginning to look like the Minnesota Vikings in the offseason will need to acquire a reliable running back.
Charley Walters (Pioneer Press) Dalvin Cook, who has played in just three games due to a hamstring injury, during which he averaged 2.7 yards per carry, is becoming about as reliable as was Sam Bradford for the Vikings last year, when the quarterback appeared in just two games.
It’s unlikely the Vikings will be able to make a deal before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline — they have just $833,401 in salary cap space, by far the lowest in the league.
It still looks like the Vikings will lose linebacker Anthony Barr to free agency next year because they won’t be able to afford him after anticipated new deals for Adam Thielen and Sheldon Richardson.
Richardson, 27, playing for $8 million in his first season with the Vikings, can expect a $30 million, three- year deal to avoid free agency. He said on Friday that “it’s been great” playing in Minnesota, but that his agent will be a factor in whether he re-signs with the Vikings.
“Got to let him do his job, too,” Richardson said. “Let the chips fall where they do; right now, I’m just trying to win.”
Richardson feels he is playing as well as anytime during his six-year career.
“Systematically,” he said, meaning within the team’s system. “I’m having a good time.”
As the Vikings approach the halfway mark of the season, the team has three players on a clear path for Pro Bowl selection. They are Thielen, Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter.
Stefon Diggs and Harrison Smith could emerge as Pro Bowl players the second half of the season.
The guess is that the Vikings won’t start Everson Griffen against the Saints, but use him to pass rush on third downs.
Saints QB Drew Brees, 39, is playing for $27 million this season, $1 million less than the Vikings’ Cousins, who is 30. Backup Saints QB Teddy Bridgewater, 25, is paid $6 million.
Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Michele Tafoya will call Sunday night’s Vikings-Saints game for NBC- TV in Minneapolis. For the game, the network will debut a field-goal tracer to map the flight of the football.
From 45 or more yards, Saints kicker Will Lutz has converted 72.7 percent of field goal tries during a three-year career. The Vikings’ Dan Bailey has made 72.4 percent over eight years. The NFL success rate from 45 or more yards, NBC points out, is 65.7 percent.
Bailey was unaware of TV’s new kick tracer that will be used on Sunday until informed by the Pioneer Press.
“Interesting; I think it will be cool to kind of see where the apex is,” Bailey said. “I’m looking forward to seeing it (on video).”
Gophers volleyball was honored the other day in conjunction with a $1 million endowment pledge Red McCombs made to the athletics department when he owned the Vikings.
A book on the life of whimsical ex-Vikings coach Jerry Burns, who turns 92 in January, is in the works.
First-year High Point University men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith, the ex-Gophers coach, held open walk-on tryouts. High Point is projected to finish near the middle of the Big South Conference.
Wishing the best for classy Bob Naegele Jr., who brought the NHL back to Minnesota as first owner of the Wild and is ill in Naples, Fla.
Ex-Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, 33, of the Redskins is on pace for a 1,000-yard season.
Look for Hill-Murray’s Bill Lechner to relinquish his athletics director duties on July 1, but to remain as the Maplewood school’s highly successful boys hockey coach.
Lechner, 65, will be succeeded as a.d. by Johnny Pohl, 39, the former Gophers hockey star whose wife Krissy Wendell-Pohl works in admissions at the school.
Lechner has been at Hill-Murray since 1979, 20 years as a.d.
“My heart’s going to ache a little bit when I leave (as a.d.) because I’m so attached to this place,” Lechner said. “But I’m very excited about Hill-Murray’s future because it’s in great hands with Johnny Pohl.”
Ex-Gopher Reggie Lynch is averaging 11.8 points and 4.2 rebounds for his BC Kalev/Cramo basketball team in Estonia.
Former Apple Valley star Tre Jones had nine assists and two three-point field goals in a 106-64 victory over Virginia Union last week in his first game as a freshman at Duke. It wouldn’t be surprising if the 6- foot-2 point guard, whose point guard brother Tyus of the Timberwolves left Duke after one season, leaves for the NBA after two seasons.
Ex-Apple Valley star Gary Trent Jr., 19, who left Duke after a year, is waiting his turn to play while on the inactive list for the Portland Trail Blazers, and in the first year of a guaranteed $3.9 million, three-year contract.
Former Timberwolves assistant Eric Musselman — son of late Wolves-Gophers coach Bill Musselman — has his Nevada men’s basketball team ranked No. 7 in the AP preseason top-25.
The Timberwolves’ Jimmy Butler is among the NBA’s top five players in Facebook interactions, according to Socialbakers, an analytical media marketing platform.
Some 2,000 tickets remain for Monday’s Wolves-Lakers game featuring LeBron James at Target Center. Tickets range from $41 to $1,348 apiece on vividseats.com.
The Capital Club, which last week presented an enlightening panel discussion featuring some of local sports’ top women reporters — Rachel Blount, Audra Martin, Courtney Cronin and Dawn Mitchell — drew a full house at Town and Country Club.
The Capital Club is a sports-centered, business networking group co-founded by longtime sports executive Patrick Klinger, who also adeptly brokered naming rights for the Wild’s Treasure Island Center Tria Rink on behalf of the Saint Paul Port Authority.
Minneapolis-based Jostens has expanded to China, designing championship rings featuring 78 diamonds on each for the Liaoning Flying Leopards men’s basketball title team last season.
Bill Ivory, the popular former Catholic Athletic Association athletics director and longtime on-field official, is recovering after major facial surgery resulting from an accidental fall this summer.
Pete Stauber, running for Congress, is an older brother of Robb Stauber, the former Gophers Hobey Baker award-winning goalie.
Shawn Irwin from Loretto, Minn., was named Mr. Golf at the 65th annual Diehard tournament last week at Southview Country Club
DON’T PRINT THAT
Pssst: The Houston Rockets have included three players with their trade offer of four first-round draft picks for the Timberwolves’ Jimmy Butler, but those players — needed to match Butler’s $19.8 million salary — currently are hurt.
The Wolves would be foolish to accept Houston’s offer because of the uncertainty of what those picks would be. The Rockets have become a perennial contender, meaning those picks could be in the late 20s. And the picks probably would be lottery-protected anyway. Besides, next year’s NBA draft is considered especially weak for talent.
It’s looking now that Butler could be with the Wolves until the trade deadline on Feb. 7. And the longer the Wolves wait to dump him, the less they’ll get for him.
Zach LaVine, traded to Chicago in the Butler deal, is averaging 29.8 points (fifth in NBA), 3.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 53.8 percent overall and 42.4 percent from three-point range.
Butler is averaging 20.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists while shooting 47.9 percent overall and 33.3 with three-pointers.
The Twins asked new manager Rocco Baldelli, 37, what jersey number he wanted, but at first he deferred because he wanted his players to have first choice. When No. 5 was available — he wore that number as a player — he took it.
“If one of the players wanted a certain number, they can have the certain number and I’ll move on to another number,” he said.
Baldelli was given a three-year contract totaling about $2 million.
Baldelli intends to phone Paul Molitor, whom he replaced and who has $3 million remaining on his two- year Twins contract.
Twins owner Jim Pohlad’s lone meeting with Baldelli was in a small group dinner at Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis last Sunday.
“I felt I could really relate to him right from the minute he sat down,” Pohlad said. “Not that I’m some great judge, but you get a feel from somebody value-wise. I think we were totally on the same page.
“And that’s important. That doesn’t mean that culturally we all have to be the same, but values have to be aligned. He wasn’t a big back-slapping guy, but a pretty quiet, reserved guy. He was willing to open up, but he didn’t all of a sudden start talking like a politician or something like that.”
Joe Mauer still has four years of college football eligibility. If the Twins’ first baseman, 35, officially retires from baseball after his wonderful 15-year major league career, people who know say Division III St. John’s is eager to recruit the former all-state QB at Cretin-Derham Hall for football and has a No. 16 jersey, which he wore in high school, waiting for him.
Out of high school in 2001, Mauer committed to Florida State as the nation’s top college QB prospect before signing with the Twins as baseball’s No. 1 overall draft pick. Another Cretin-Derham Hall QB, Chris Weinke, played professional baseball for six years in the Toronto Blue Jays’ system before becoming the 2000 Heisman Trophy winner at age 28 at Florida State.
Weinke, though, didn’t have the concussion issues that forced Mauer to move from a hall of fame catching track to first base.
The Twins say they still have no indication as to whether Mauer will retire from baseball. His $184 million, eight-year contract ended this season, allowing him to become a free agent this winter.
The three-year anniversary of the death of beloved Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders, who died of cancer at age 60, was last week.
“We were a strong family then, and we are a strong family now, and we live on that,” said wife Debbie, 62, who met Flip when she was 18 years old. “There are a lot of challenges, but there is a lot of grace, too.”
Son Ryan is a Wolves assistant.
“Ryan lives to be honorable like his dad,” said Debbie, who attends most Wolves games.
The Holy Grail trophy, which goes to the winner of the annual St. Thomas-St. John’s football game, was still in a St. Thomas trophy case on Friday night even though the Johnnies won the game 40-20 two weeks ago. The trophy is to reside with the winning team for the year before the next game.
Allianz Field, the new Minnesota United stadium in St. Paul, has U.S. Bank and TCF Bank stadiums competing with it for next year’s St. John’s-St. Thomas football game. A decision is expected within a month.
All 50 Target Field private suites have been sold for next year’s North Dakota State-Butler football game on Aug. 31. The game is expected to draw nearly 35,000 spectators.
A guess at the Twins’ 2019 opening day lineup against Cleveland on March 28 at Target Field: catcher, Jason Castro; first base, Tyler Austin; second base, Elhire Adrianza; shortstop, Jorge Polanco; third base, Miguel Sano; left field, Eddie Rosario; center field, Byron Buxton; right field, Max Kepler; pitcher, Jose Berrios.
Early this season, a contract extension for then-Twins second baseman Brian Dozier probably would have been worth $30 million over three years. Now the 31-year-old, after batting just .182 in 47 regular season games for the Dodgers, can expect a one-year free agent deal in the $5 million range.
The Twins have received some 200 applications for a manager of communications position.
A groin strain to Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri could mean another chance for ex-Viking Kai Forbath.
Joe Anoai, 33, whose World Wrestling Entertainment stage name is Roman Reigns and who received a tryout with the Vikings 11 years ago as a defensive lineman, revealed last week that he has leukemia.
That’s Bethel and Park (Cottage Grove) alum Jeff Nelson umpiring his fourth World Series.
Paul Azinger — and not ex-Gopher Tom Lehman, who auditioned — will succeed retiring Johnny Miller as NBC Sports’ top golf analyst next year.
Beginning next year, the NBA’s development G League, for players at least 18 years old, will pay $125,000 for the five-month season.
The Gophers men’s hockey program had revenue of $5.9 million from the 2016 season — the most recent data available — according to Watchdog.org, meaning each player, depending on how you view it, produced average revenue of $209,747. Wisconsin’s men’s program had revenue of $5.8 million, or $214,757 per player.
OVERHEARD
Vikings celebrated wideout Adam Thielen from Detroit Lakes, on all the national attention he’s receiving: “I just try to block it out and take care of my business. When I’m here in the (Eagan) facility, it doesn’t feel any different than high school football and college football. Nothing’s changed — you’re playing football.” PUBLICATION: PIONEER PRESS DATE: 10/28/18
Thin on offensive line, Vikings elevate tackle Storm Norton from practice squad
By Chris Tomasson
With the Vikings thin on the offensive line, they elevated on Saturday tackle Storm Norton from the practice squad.
ADVERTISING
Norton will be available to play in Sunday’s game against New Orleans at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings already have ruled out starting left guard Tom Compton with a knee injury and starting left tackle Riley Reiff is doubtful with a foot injury.
To make room on the 53-man roster, the Vikings waived defensive tackle David Parry, who was with the team to start the season before being waived Sept. 18 and re-signed Oct. 16.
The Vikings also re-signed to the practice squad defensive tackle Curtis Cothran and released cornerback Jalen Myrick, who played at the University of Minnesota. Cothran had been released from the squad last Wednesday, when Myrick was re-signed to it after being on the squad earlier this season.
The Vikings are expected against the Saints to start Rashod Hill at left tackle, Danny Isidora at left guard, Pat Elflein at center, Mike Remmers at right guard and rookie Brian O’Neill at right tackle.
Reserves expected to be available Sunday include Brett Jones, who plays center and guard, and Norton.
The signing of Norton again gives the Vikings nine offensive linemen on the 53-man roster. They previously were at nine until Bryan Witzmann was waived Oct. 5.
The 6-foot-7, 317-pound Norton, undrafted out of Toledo in 2017, never has appeared in an NFL regular-season game. He joined Minnesota’s practice squad last December after having stints with Detroit and Arizona.
PUBLICATION: Vikings.com DATE: 10/28/18
Final Thoughts: 3rd down offense, red zone defense key for Vikings
By Mike Wobschall
There are a lot of ways to win a football game. An unstoppable rushing attack, a furious pass rush, a barrage of explosive offensive plays…alone or in concert, these and various other elements can lead to victory.
If the Vikings are able to come out on the right side of the most important statistical category tonight – points scored – it’s hard to envision the formula not including advantages in two key categories: 3rd down offense and red zone defense.
Extending drives will be important for the Vikings offense on two levels. First, it increases the chances of a score. And it’s likely to take several scores to top this high-flying New Orleans Saints offense. Secondly, a great way to slow down the scoring of the Saints offense is to limit their possessions. Extending drives and consuming the clock is a way the Vikings offense can play complementary football with the defense. The Vikings rank just No. 22 in the NFL in 3rd down offense, converting at a 37.6% clip, while the Saints defense hasn’t fared any better, ranking No. 24 in 3rd down defense (42.3%).
Red zone defense is always important in the game but could figure even more prominently than normal because of the injuries the Vikings defense is facing. Linebacker Anthony Barr and safety Andrew Sendejo are out and defensive tackle Linval Joseph and cornerback Xavier Rhodes are listed as questionable. These are important players to the defense and the absence of any combination of them could limit the normal capabilities and results of the unit. If so, perhaps the Saints are able to win on 3rd down a bit more than Vikings opponents have so far this season; the Vikings have the NFL’s top 3rd down defense (23.4%). In that case, the Saints may be able to push the ball into scoring range, but the “bend but don’t break” philosophy could be in play for the Vikings defense at that point. The Vikings have surrendered touchdowns on only nine of 27 (33.3%) opponent drives into the red zone. If that’s the rate the Vikings are at tonight against New Orleans, it could be considered a win for the defense.
Mailbag
When you’re on the road, it’s hard to put the game away in the 4th quarter. But when the other team is looking like they are going to get back in it, the Vikings come up with something that puts the opponent back on ice. A long drive for a touchdown, a couple of great runs, recovering a fumble or getting an interception. Is it because this team has a lot of heart, great coaching, guys just stepping up or just plain luck? -- Curt Fahsholz
Valsdosta, GA
An impressive part of each of the Vikings last two road wins had to do with what Curt is referencing – fighting back after taking a punch from the opponent in the 4th quarter. In Philadelphia, it was an 11-play, 55-yard field goal drive that made it a two-score game. In New York, it was a Holton Hill interception in the 4th quarter after the Jets had pulled to within 10; then the offense scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive to all but seal the win. I’d point to a combination of good coaching and competitive integrity by the players. Head coach Mike Zimmer talks frequently about wanting tough-minded players and it’s common for him to complement his team’s fight after games. The Vikings have outscored opponents 100-70 in the second half of games this season, and that is a result of Zimmer preaching the importance of being tough- minded and finishing games and then of the players doing what it takes late in games to get the job done.
Quotable
Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer was asked what the signature was of a Sean Payton offense. Zimmer didn’t mince words.
“Indiscriminant,” he said.
Push to elaborate, Zimmer expanded.
“Call anything at any time,” Zimmer said. “Call anything. Second and one, he might be in no backs. Play action shots on first and possession, it doesn’t matter. Formations, movements, personnel groupings, he doesn’t care. I don’t think he cares about down and distance.”
Zimmer and Payton were on the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff together from 2003-05.
Stat of the Week
3,065 – Number of receiving yards for Adam Thielen since the start of 2016, trailing only Julio Jones and Antonio Brown
Thielen leads the NFL in receptions (67) and receiving yards (822), but the stat included above illustrates that Thielen is not just on a one-season tear. He’s been one of the best, if not the best, receiver in the NFL for a couple seasons, at least.
Stat of the Week II
The Vikings have beaten the Saints twice at U.S. Bank Stadium and can beat them for a third time tonight, yet they’ve not been able to defeat the Detroit Lions one time yet in their new home. The Lions are next week’s opponent, so the Vikings don’t have to wait much longer to cross this item off their to-do list.
Broadcast Information
National TV: NBC
Play-by-Play: Al Michaels
Analyst: Cris Collinsworth
Sideline: Michele Tafoya
National Radio: Westwood One Sports
Play-by-Play: Tom McCarthy
Analyst: Jason Taylor
Local Radio: KFAN-FM 100.3/KTLK-AM 1130
Play-by-Play: Paul Allen
Analyst: Pete Bercich
Sideline: Greg Coleman, Ben Leber
PUBLICATION: Vikings.com DATE: 10/28/18
Zimmer, Vikings Describe Challenges of Facing Drew Brees
By Lindsey Young
EAGAN, Minn. – The Vikings know they’ll have their hands full against a talented quarterback on Sunday Night Football.
Drew Brees, who earlier this month set the NFL record for passing yards, will make his 256th career start when he takes on Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Brees will turn 40 in January but is still putting up big numbers in his 18th NFL season.
Through seven games, Brees is 170-of-220 passing (77.3 percent) for 1,870 yards, 13 touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating is 121.6, which is on pace to be a career high.
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, who has a high level of admiration for Brees, said there isn’t one thing to pinpoint about Brees’ game that makes him so dangerous.
“If it was one thing, he wouldn’t be the Hall of Famer he is,” Cousins said. “He doesn’t take sacks, he protects the football, throws for a lot of yards, a lot of touchdowns, he’s good on third downs, has stayed healthy, he’s got durability. That’s why he’s Drew Brees; it’s not one thing. The whole point of him being Drew is you can’t name just one thing.”
Vikings Head Coach Zimmer said it’s difficult to prepare defensively for Brees, who has led the Saints on a five-game win streak entering Sunday’s game.
Zimmer called the quarterback “amazing” and echoed that he expects Brees to be a Hall of Famer.
“He’s very cerebral, accurate. He’s moving well in the pocket,” Zimmer said. “I was watching tape … and I thought, ‘How old is this guy? I thought he was getting old.’ ”
“He’s not really a runner, but he scrambles and usually to find guys open, and he knows where to go with the football, he’s extremely accurate,” Zimmer added.
Zimmer is 2-1 against the Saints since taking over with the Vikings in 2014. In those three games, Brees has passed for 293, 291 and 294 yards, respectively, and has totaled six touchdowns and two interceptions. The Vikings defense has sacked Brees just four times over that period.
Brees has proven especially lethal in late-game situations, having led his teams on 33 fourth- quarter comebacks and 47 game-winning drives. He’s logged three such games already this season against the Browns, Falcons and Ravens.
Minnesota nearly fell victim to a Brees-orchestrated comeback during the Divisional Round playoff game in January, but the Minneapolis Miracle advanced the Vikings to the NFC Championship game.
Zimmer said that Brees is a “great competitor” and gets a better feel of each defense throughout the course of the game.
“A guy like him who has seen everything … can kind of decipher things quickly on the move,” Zimmer said. “I think that’s part of it, and he’s got good players, too.”
Vikings safety Harrison Smith said that Minnesota’s secondary doesn’t necessarily need to play “differently” against Brees, but the quarterback certainly makes it difficult for defensive backs to make big plays.
“He’s just really good, so he makes it hard,” Smith said. “He knows where to put the ball, and he has the skill to do it. You just have to play tight coverage.
“There’s plenty of guys with big arms, but him being able to get it out quick, know where to put it and put it where it’s hard for the defender to get to it – there’s a reason he’s the all-time leader in pass yards,” Smith added.
Zimmer’s defense will no doubt need to be on its game Sunday night when Brees hits the turf of U.S. Bank Stadium for the third time in just over a year.
The stats are still there for Brees, but is he at least showing any signs of slowing down?
“No. He should retire, too,” Zimmer quipped. PUBLICATION: Vikings.com DATE: 10/28/18
3 (Non-Vikings) Games to Watch in Week 8
By Craig Peters
The Saints-at-Vikings game, set for 7:20 p.m. (CT) Sunday, will be broadcast nationally on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
That means Vikings fans could, in theory, begin watching football at 8:30 a.m. (CT) when the Eagles face the Jaguars in London and barely hit pause until time expires at U.S. Bank Stadium late Sunday. NFL Network is exclusively televising the Philadelphia-Jacksonville game.
According to 506sports.com, most of Minnesota, all of Wisconsin, eastern Iowa and eastern North Dakota will have the Jets at Bears game on CBS at noon (CT). Southwest Minnesota, western Iowa, western North Dakota and all of South Dakota will receive the Broncos at Chiefs in this time slot on CBS.
Over on FOX, all of the aforementioned locations and many places beyond will see the Seahawks at Lions game at noon (CT).
In the 3:25 p.m. time slot, almost all of the country will see the Packers take on the Rams in Los Angeles.
Here is a little more info on the Jets-at-Bears, Seahawks-at-Lions and Packers-at-Rams games. bears-jets-game-to-watch-102718 Jets (3-4) at Bears (3-3)
Kickoff: Noon (CT)
Watch/Listen
TV: CBS
Sirius: 133 (NYJ), 108 (CHI) | XM: 388 (NYJ), 228 (CHI)
Overview
For the third of four consecutive weeks, the Bears will face an AFC East team when they host the Jets. Chicago has dropped its past two contests at Miami and against New England. In Week 9, the Bears will visit the Bills.
The Jets are trying to bounce back from losing 37-17 to the Vikings last week.
Jets Notes
Sam Darnold leads all rookies with 124 completions, 1,552 yards and 10 touchdown passes.
Jamal Adams’ 50 tackles rank second among safeties in the AFC.
Avery Williamson is one of three players (Demario Davis and Christian Kirksey) with 400-plus tackles and 10 or more sacks since 2014.
Bears Notes
Mitchell Trubisky has passed for more than 300 yards in three consecutive games. Since Week 4, Trubisky is the only quarterback with 10 or more touchdowns and a passer rating of more than 115.
Trey Burton set career highs with nine receptions and 126 yards last week against New England. He also caught a touchdown for the third consecutive week.
Khalil Mack has forced a league-best four fumbles in 2018. He has 2.0 sacks, two forced fumbles and a pass defended in three home games since joining Chicago. seahawks-lions-game-to-watch-102718 Seahawks (3-3) at Lions (3-3)
Kickoff: Noon (CT)
Watch/Listen
TV: FOX
Sirius: 99 (SEA), 81 (DET) | XM: 385 (SEA), 226 (DET)
Overview
Seattle is coming off its bye after defeating Oakland 27-3 in London.
Detroit toppled Green Bay in Week 5 and continued momentum out of its bye with a 32-21 win at Miami last week.
Seahawks Notes
Russell Wilson became the third NFL quarterback to ever pass for three touchdowns and have a passer rating of 125 or higher in London. He is aiming for his third consecutive game with those numbers.
Tyler Lockett is one of three players this season who is averaging 15 or more yards per catch and has caught at least five touchdown receptions.
Frank Clark had a career-high 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles against the Raiders.
Lions Notes
Matthew Stafford completed 18 of 22 passes with two touchdowns against the Dolphins. Since Week 4, he leads the NFL with a passer rating of 125.3.
Rookie Kerryon Johnson set a career high with 158 rushing yards in Week 7 and ranks second among rookies with 444 rushing yards this season.
Since 2017, Darius Slay leads the NFL with 31 passes defended and is tied for the league lead with nine interceptions. packers-rams-game-to-watch-102718 Packers (3-2-1) at Rams (7-0)
Kickoff: 3:25 p.m. (CT)
Watch/Listen
TV: FOX
Sirius: 134 (GB), 83 (LAR) | XM: 384 (GB), 225 (LAR)
Overview
In 92 previous meetings, the teams have tied twice, and each has recorded 45 victories.
After four of six at home and a bye, Green Bay is beginning a stretch of four road games in five weeks.
Los Angeles is back from its three game road swing to Seattle, Denver and San Francisco for the first of three at home in four weeks. The Rams have scored 33 or more points in six of seven games and are 7-0 for the first time since 1985.
Packers Notes
Aaron Rodgers became the first quarterback in NFL history with consecutive games of more than 400 passing yards and no interceptions.
Davante Adams is one of four players with at least 40 receptions and six or more touchdowns in 2018.
Blake Martinez has recorded 27 tackles and 3.0 sacks in his past three games.
Rams Notes
Jared Goff is 5-1 with 2,081 yards, 16 touchdowns, three interceptions and a passer rating of 123.3 in his past six home games.
Todd Gurley leads the NFL with 14 touchdowns from scrimmage (11 rushing, three receiving) and is the third player in NFL history to have 14 or more touchdowns in his first seven games.
Aaron Donald had a career-high 4.0 sacks against San Francisco, bringing his season total to 8.0, which is tied with Danielle Hunter for the league lead.
Full Week 8 Schedule
Thursday’s Result
Texans 42, Dolphins 23
Houston improves to 5-3; Miami falls to 4-4
8:30 a.m. (CT) Sunday Game
Eagles (3-4) vs. Jaguars (3-4) in London
Noon (CT) Sunday Games
Broncos (3-4) at Chiefs (6-1)
Browns (2-4-1) at Steelers (3-2-1)
Redskins (4-2) at Giants (1-6)
Seahawks (3-3) at Lions (3-3)
Buccaneers (3-3) at Bengals (4-3)
Jets (3-4) at Bears (3-3)
Ravens (4-3) at Panthers (4-2)
3:05 p.m. (CT) Sunday Game
Colts (2-5) at Raiders (1-5)
3:25 p.m. (CT) Sunday Games
49ers (1-6) at Cardinals (1-6)
Packers (3-2-1) at Rams (7-0)
7:20 p.m. (CT) Sunday Night Football
Saints (5-1) at Vikings (4-2-1)
7:15 p.m. (CT) Monday Night Football
Patriots (5-2) at Bills (2-5)
Week 8 Byes
Falcons (3-4)
Cowboys (3-4)
Chargers (5-2)
Titans (3-4)
PUBLICATION: Vikings.com DATE: 10/28/18
How to Watch & Listen to Saints at Vikings in Week 8
By Craig Peters
EAGAN, Minn. — The Vikings will host the Saints at 7:20 p.m. (CT) Sunday in the third meeting between the teams in Minnesota since Week 1 of the 2017 regular season.
The Vikings (4-2-1) defeated the Jets 37-17 in Week 7 for their third consecutive victory of 2018.
The Saints (5-1) won their fifth game in a row on Sunday after coming back from a 10-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to defeat the Ravens 24-23. The win was sealed after a missed extra point —the first in 223 career attempts by Justin Tucker — with 24 seconds remaining.
The game is scheduled to air nationally on NBC.
Here are the ways to watch and listen to this week’s game.
TV BROADCAST
Kickoff: 7:20 p.m. (CT)
NBC (KARE 11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Play-by-Play: Al Michaels
Analyst: Cris Collinsworth
Sideline Reporter: Michele Tafoya
LOCAL RADIO
KFAN 100.3-FM/KTLK-AM 1130
Play-by-play: Paul Allen
Analyst: Pete Bercich
Sideline Reporters: Greg Coleman and Ben Leber
Radio Pre-game Show: Mike Mussman | 10 a.m. (CT)
KFAN and KTLK serve as the flagship stations for the five-state Vikings Radio Network.
NATIONAL RADIO
Westwood One
Play-by-play: Tom McCarthy
Analyst: Jason Taylor
SATELLITE RADIO
Sirius: 81 or Streaming 821 (NO); 83 or Streaming 819 (MIN)
XM: 226 or Streaming 821 (NO); 225 or Streaming 819 (MIN)
NFL GAME PASS
NFL Game Pass provides access to replays of every game, the NFL Films Archive and more for fans in the United States. International fans who subscribe to NFL Game Pass can watch games live. Click here for a free trial.
DIRECTV NFL SUNDAY TICKET.TV
NFL SUNDAY TICKET.TV provides live streaming service for customers who cannot get DIRECTV where they live. Eligibility is based on location, residence type or enrollment in any university in the U.S.
The service allows fans to stream all live, out-of-market NFL regular-season games every Sunday (based on customer’s device location) that are broadcast on FOX and CBS. The service is available on computers, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles or streaming devices.
Three different packages are available.
Click here or visit NFLSUNDAYTICKET.TV/VIKINGS for more information. PUBLICATION: VIKING Update DATE: 10/28/18
Preview: Saints bring strong run game, run defense
By John Holler
It has been virtually impossible to escape the storyline for Sunday night’s matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints – the Minneapolis Miracle playoff game from last season.
This is a new season and the teams have some significant differences from the teams that met last season. But the Saints likely will have revenge on their minds as they return to the scene of the crime at U.S. Bank Stadium, where the Vikings began the season with a win in Week 1 vs. New Orleans and ended it with their improbable win in the divisional playoffs.
The Saints have been about as hot as any team in the league this season. After losing their regular-season opener to Tampa Bay in a 48-40 shootout, the Saints have won five straight games, including their last three on the road against the Falcons, Giants and Ravens.
Quarterback Drew Brees isn’t showing any signs of aging in his 18th season. Through six games (New Orleans has already had its bye week), Brees is averaging more than 300 yards a game passing, has thrown 13 touchdowns with no interceptions and has a passer rating of 121.1.
As always, the future Hall of Famer has been efficient with his passes. While most of his completions have been to his top three receivers – wide receiver Michael Thomas (53), running back Alvin Kamara (40) and tight end Benjamin Watson (23) – he has completed passes to 17 different players, including one to himself, and has thrown touchdowns to eight different players, which is the most of any quarterback in the league this season. If he has an eligible receiver, the Vikings defense will have to be on point that they could all be in play when Brees drops to pass.
The biggest recent change in the Saints offense over the last couple of weeks has been the return of running back Mark Ingram from a four-game suspension that sidelined him the first month of the season. While Kamara was impressive as a runner, Ingram is more of a between- the-tackles grinder and, in the two games since he has been back (both wins for the Saints), New Orleans has run the ball more than it has thrown it.
One of the unsung facets of the Saints success has been an experienced offensive line that has quietly become one of the best lines in the league – tackles Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk, guards Larry Warford and Andrus Peat, center Max Unger and solid backups Jermon Bushrod and Josh LeRibeus. There is depth and strength both as run blockers and pass protectors – the Saints are running the ball efficiently and Brees has only been sacked nine times.
The Saints offense is always capable of putting up 30 or more points. They’ve done that four times this season and scored 40 or more three times, but the New Orleans defense has improved considerably as the season has progressed.
The Saints have the league’s No. 1-ranked run defense, allowing just 3.1 yards a carry this season. A lot of that is due to having a young, athletic defensive front that includes perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Cameron Jordan, along with defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and end Alex Okafor. As a unit, they have consistently bottled up the run game and forced opposing offenses to become one-dimensional, which is typically a recipe for disaster.
The Saints pass defense has been a different story. Although it’s hard to blame them for allowing passing yards (307 yards a game on average) because the team is so adept at stopping the run game, the biggest issue has been creating turnovers. The Saints have just two interceptions and opposing quarterbacks have thrown 13 touchdowns and have a passer rating of 112.2. They have an elite shutdown cornerback in Marshon Lattimore, but opponents are completing almost 70 percent of their passes, so there should be the opportunity for Kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense to pick apart the Saints defense because most quarterbacks they have faced have been able to accomplish that.
If there is a wild card to beware of, it is specialist/athlete Taysom Hill. A backup quarterback who operates out of the Wildcat near the goal line, Hill is a special teams ace who has done everything from be an edge rusher on the field goal coverage team, a blocker on punts, a kickoff return man and a secret weapon who has converted two first downs on fake punts. He may not be a household name, but the Vikings are going to be fully aware of where Hill is on every play that he is on the field, whether it’s on special teams or on offense.
SIGN UP FOR FREE VIKINGS NEWSLETTER FREE 7-DAY TRIAL VIP SUBSCRIPTION INTERACT WITH VIKINGS FANS ON MESSAGE BOARD For the better part of this week, Vikings players and coaches have been peppered with questions about the Minneapolis Miracle, to the point where many have grown tired of answering questions about it. One can only imagine it has been much worse for the Saints, who were on the heartbreak end of that game when they erased a 17-0 halftime lead to come back and appeared to have the game won.
If the Vikings are going to make a deep playoff run, one of the keys will have to be beating the teams that are in direct conflict of accomplishing that goal. They were able to do it against the defending champion Eagles on the road two weeks ago and will need to do it at home against the Saints as they look to beat New Orleans on their home turf for the third time in 14 months. PUBLICATION: 1500 ESPN DATE: 10/28/18
The lasting impact of Teddy Bridgewater on the Minnesota Vikings
By Matthew Coller
If you walk through the locker room entrance that players used coming off the practice field at Winter Park and look directly to your right, you will see the the Korey Stringer tribute locker and the space where Adrian Peterson had the presidential suite — which was just two lockers to himself. In 2017, with Peterson gone, the Minnesota Vikings moved Teddy Bridgewater’s locker over to that space, putting him next to rookie Dalvin Cook, an intentional move, and alongside team leaders Terence Newman, Eric Kendricks and Case Keenum. They called it “The Neighborhood.”
There were rules in The Neighborhood. Every member must pay a residence fee, $1 per day, placed in a plastic jar that looked like it once was home to cheeseballs. There were fines for sulking and farting — and as this reporter found out first hand, loitering was also a finable offense. Landlord Bridgewater oversaw the operation — and said he was donating Neighborhood funds to charity.
“Teddy started the whole thing,” Neighborhood Member Anthony Harris said Friday. “It was for fun and jokes but at the same time, he got everyone involved. It could be somebody on the total other side of the locker room and they would come over and he’d say, ‘alright you have to give us a dollar for coming over here.’ It was fun stuff for us to laugh at, help the day go by, but it also allows you to get to know people.”
It’s going to be weird as hell for remaining Neighborhood Members, those who paid the visitor’s fee and all of his other former teammates to look across the field on Sunday night and see Bridgewater wearing the jersey of the team they defeated in the Minneapolis Miracle playoff game last season. At the same time, on the minds of many Vikings players will be the reverberations of the way Bridgewater not only helped drive their 13-3 season without starting a single game, but also the way he impacted their lives and careers in the process.
His rehab was a major part of that.
On August 31, 2016, the entire trajectory of the Vikings’ franchise was changed when Bridgewater’s knee gave way to one of the most severe, gruesome injuries that has ever happened to an NFL player — so bad that in the ambulance, trainer Eric Sugarman told Teddy that he could lose his leg. At the time, the odds were very low that he would ever return to the field, much less be the up-and-coming franchise quarterback he once was.
He remained around the team in ’16 and throughout the entire offseason in ’17. Outsiders only saw glimpses on Instagram of his progress. Bridgewater occasionally would send out a clip of him throwing the ball or working with one of those rope ladders you lay on the ground. But his teammates saw the whole thing up close, from the crutches to his return to practice during OTAs to being officially activated to standing on the Washington sideline wiping away tears to taking the field for the first time at the end of a blowout against Cincinnati.
“Being a teammate of Teddy’s when he went through what he went through and seeing the way the handled the adversity that he went through, I think he impacted our team more in the two years that he was battling that catestrophic knee injury than he did as the actual starting quarterback just because of the mindset and mentality that he took every single day attacking his rehab,” tight end Kyle Rudolph said this week.
At any given time in an NFL locker room, you will see guys rehabbing injuries. Heck, at the same time Teddy was returning, Dalvin Cook was on crutches and Nick Easton was using one of those scooter things to motor around because of an ankle injury. This one was different though. It was potentially career ending — and it happened to a player whose future was as bright as any young quarterback in the NFL.
“I think it was just the significance of the knee injury, the prognosis initially of how much of an uphill battle he had to get back to where he was before the injury,” Rudolph said. “A lot of guys attack ACL rehabs and do an unbelievable job but Teddy had a whole lot going on outside of that. For him just to come every single day with a mindset to get better without really any light at the end of the tunnel was pretty special to watch.”
Having Bridgewater along for the ride as an inspirational story was enough to add positive vibes to a team with Super Bowl aspirations. But once he was activated and started practicing, the potential existed for an awkward situation. Keenum was in the midst of a remarkable season playing in place of starter Sam Bradford, yet there were hints that head coach Mike Zimmer might be concerned enough about Keenum’s gunslinging to give the keys back to Bridgewater.
It’s hard to say how close that ever came to happening — though Zimmer’s rant about Keenum’s interceptions after the Vikings’ win in D.C. made it seem like the rope wasn’t going to be long.
If Bridgewater was like the rest of us, he might have been waiting and hoping for the next Keenum crazy throw to land in the hands of the opposition — maybe hope for something just bad enough to cost Keenum the starting job without costing the team a playoff position. But that wasn’t Bridgewater’s approach. In fact, against Washington, Bridgewater pointed out something in the defense’s coverage that Keenum ultimately used to throw a long touchdown pass.
“Case talked all the time when Teddy wasn’t around that it was really good and special to have a guy like Teddy in his mind in the locker room, a guy that was always helping him point out things,” Vikings quarterback Kyle Sloter said on Friday. “Teddy has a great mind for the game. I know he wanted to play, but just having him around, Case talks about last year how much he appreciated it. Teddy was a huge part of his success last year.”
When Bridgewater finally did step back on the field against Cincinnati, Keenum led a “Teddy, Teddy” cheer with 60,000 or so chanting along.
“I might have been one of the guys trying to start the ‘Teddy’ chant there,” Keenum said after the game. “I couldn’t be more excited for him.”
Minnesota Vikings ✔ @Vikings Tremendous ovation for @teddyb_h2o. Welcome back! #Skol
3:39 PM - Dec 17, 2017 34.1K 13.3K people are talking about this Twitter Ads info and privacy Bridgewater and Sloter quickly became friends. The other two quarterbacks in the room were married, so Bridgewater and Sloter spent their free time going head-to-head playing video games.
“He’s very good at Madden,” Sloter said. “That’s what we play most of the time. He’s a guy that misses NCAA Football, like a lot of us. That was more his game than Madden but he’s very good at Madden.”
The Vikings signed Sloter as a developmental quarterback after he put on a show in the preseason for the Denver Broncos. It didn’t take long for Bridgewater to have an influence on the former Northern Colorado QB.
“I think he’s very detailed in his preparation,” Sloter said. “Teddy was very detailed all the way down to the last detail on every single play, what needed to be accomplished, responsibilities, things like that. I think he really helped me focus on those small details that make a play good and that’s one of the things that he’s really good at.”
“He was a huge help to me in the quarterback room last year, helping me come along and progress and really just taught me what it’s like to be a pro,” Sloter added.
In the 2017 credits, Bridgewater’s name should also appear under “assistant wide receivers coach,” according to the NFL’s leading receiver Adam Thielen, who broke out for 91 catches last year.
“Personally I wouldn’t be the receiver I am today without him,” Thielen said Thursday. “He thought like a receiver, so it was really cool to have him as a quarterback who thought like a receiver. I remember so many times last year after a game where he came up to me and said, ‘Hey you should have done this better or you could have done that better,’ and so many things that I wasn’t thinking about that he was thinking about. It was really cool.”
Thielen and Sloter both said they made New York Jets preseason games must-see TV when Bridgewater was taking the field for Gang Green. Bridgewater was part of a trio of quarterbacks that included rookie Sam Darnold and veteran Josh McCown. Thielen talked to McCown about their shared experiences with the former Vikings quarterback.
“I just really said ‘Man, how great is Teddy and how fun was he to be around?’” Thielen said. “And his face lit up. He was like, ‘What a special guy?’ Anybody who’s been around Teddy knows he can make a huge impact on you on the field and off the field. He’s just someone you want to place yourself around.”
Which leads us to a point that needs to be made when discussing Bridgewater: Sometimes the word “leadership” is thrown around so often in football that it becomes about as interesting as a dial tone or “trust the process,” but in Bridgewater’s case, teammates can be much more specific about his impact rather than just slapping a label on it and moving along.
“He doesn’t say a lot, he talks and jokes around a good bit but he’s not one of those guys who’s going to coach you to death,” Harris said. “If he wants to get a point across, he knows how to do that without overdoing it. I think guys appreciate that. His ability to communicate and reach different people in different ways, it was a special ability that he had.”
“I think a lot of times people think you’re a leader because you’re the best player or because you’re a guy that’s very vocal or because you start or something but that’s not the case,” running back Latavius Murray said. “This is an example of, you’re a leader if you lead by example. You’re a leader because of who you are and what you do, not because of your position, your status or your rank.”
The Saints took all of these things into account when they traded a third-round pick for Bridgewater as an insurance policy for future Hall of Famer Drew Brees. New Orleans head coach Sean Payton talked with Zimmer about Bridgewater at the Combine — which was in the midst of the Vikings still trying to decide on a direction at quarterback.
“I know how [Zimmer] felt about Teddy and I know how those other players that were down at the Pro Bowl felt about him,” Payton said. “At that time, Teddy wasn’t even on our radar, it was just in conversation. I think the uncertainty was just his health. Then you have the preseason with the Jets and you’re able to get another evaluation to how his knee is doing and man I thought he played real well in the preseason. I think it was after we had a chance to see him on the field post injury that we really had an interest. ”
It’s possible Bridgewater is the Saints’ future at quarterback — after all, Brees is 39 years old. It’s also possible they could trade him to Jacksonville. Or he could stick with the Saints for one year and move along in free agency to a team that will give him a starting gig.
“For me, I do not mind waiting,” Bridgewater said after he was traded to the Saints — coincidentally it was nearly two years to the day after his knee injury. “I get to learn from one of the best players to ever play this game and get to be in the room with a great group of guys. I get to learn from coach Payton also, so I look forward to that.”
With Bridgewater’s future up in the air, it appears he is simply creating similar relationships with players in New Orleans and trying to impact his new team the same way he did his former franchise.
“He is highly intelligent, he’s very calm, cool, poised,” Brees said. “He’s picked up the offense pretty quickly, he appears to be pretty comfortable. He’s got a lot of really good traits. You can tell he’s a guy that guys really like and who they will follow.”
While The Neighborhood residents and players like Thielen whose careers have been pushed along by Bridgewater will be reminded before Sunday’s game of his influence, you can bet there will be a pang in Zimmer’s mind that wonders what would have happened if Bridgewater hadn’t gotten hurt.
“He’s a guy that everybody gravitates to,” Zimmer said this week. “Teddy’s a winner, a great competitor, unbelievable person. I think the team saw how hard he worked to get back from that injury from how bad it was. I’ve got nothing but praise for him. Like I’ve said a million times, I thought he’d be the quarterback for the rest of my career. I love the kid, I love his nature, competitiveness, everything about him.”
Or maybe Bridgewater getting hurt was just a window opening when a door closed — a window for him to show his Vikings teammates how a player can effect everyone around him without playing a down.
PUBLICATION: 1500 ESPN DATE: 10/28/18
Vikings Week 8 preview: Rematch with Saints brings chance for signature win
By Matthew Coller
The Vikings may be on a winning streak, but their list of results so far is hardly convincing. Their four wins have come against teams that are a combined 8-20. One of their losses was a home blowout at the hands of the Bills, who are now just 2-5. Their other loss — a 38-31 road defeat to the unbeaten Rams — is certainly excusable at a glance, but L.A. torched the Minnesota defense worse than it had ever had been in the Mike Zimmer era.
That brings us to Sunday night, a nationally televised showdown against another potent offense and another one of the NFC’s best. The last time the Saints showed up at U.S. Bank Stadium, we were treated to the Minneapolis Miracle. Will New Orleans’ 2018 visit bring another signature win? Our Vikings crew of Chad Graff, Arif Hasan and Jon Krawczynski previews Week 8.
What I’m watching Graff: How the Saints use their myriad offensive weapons. This week, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer compared Saints running back Alvin Kamara to Eric Dickerson. He compared Taysom Hill to former Holy Cross Heisman Trophy candidate Gordie Lockbaum. He humorously suggested that Drew Brees should retire so he doesn’t have to coach against him anymore. And that doesn’t even get to Michael Thomas, whom the Vikings had no answer for in the playoffs last season, watching him catch seven passes and two touchdowns. Matchups between Zimmer, the NFL’s last remaining head coach who calls defensive plays, and high-powered offenses are always interesting affairs. But this one is especially so given how well Zimmer and Saints coach Sean Payton know each other as former assistants under Bill Parcells.
Hasan: The offensive line is going up against its best matchup, with weak pressure production despite some talented players. I’ll look for the Vikings to challenge deep when they have the ball. Most exciting, however, will be what happens when the Vikings defense is on the field. How they choose to handle the combination of Thomas and Kamara will be the most interesting, especially given the Vikings’ issues with pass-catching running backs. Putting pressure on Brees will be important, but having a plan in place for Kamara and Thomas is paramount.
Krawczynski: Everson Griffen. I just hope he’s OK. After being away from the team for a month to address some serious personal issues, Griffen returns to a battered defense. They definitely could use his pass rush, but it will be interesting to see just how much he has in the tank after such a long time off. More importantly, hopefully a return to the field will help Griffen as he tries to work through the mental-health problems he has been facing. He is a popular figure in the locker room and the proud defense will likely rally around him. But it will no doubt be an emotional return.
The Vikings win if … Graff: Kirk Cousins and the offense figure out the third-down issues that plagued them last week when they went 2 for 15 in such situations against the New York Jets. The Vikings’ passing offense is much improved this season and the team doesn’t need to rely on the defense quite as much as it did in their 13- win campaign a year ago. While the Vikings’ run game has gotten better the last two weeks, they still rank 27th in the league, averaging 87 yards per game. And they face the Saints’ top-ranked, run-stuffing defense Sunday. So if the Vikings are going to win, Cousins will likely need to find success on third down through the air.
Hasan: They take advantage of the weak pressure and underperforming secondary for deep shots and big scores. The Saints offense will be slowed down by the Vikings defense, but they will score. The best opportunity to win comes from the weak Saints secondary and the Vikings’ ability to make big plays.
Krawczynski: Cousins can outduel Brees. The Vikings defense has been asserting itself as the stingy unit everyone knows it to be. But with Anthony Barr and Andrew Sendejo out with injuries and Xavier Rhodes and Linval Joseph questionable, Brees has to be licking his chops. The Saints also have a stout run defense, so this one could fall on the arm of Cousins, who has been great in his first season with the Vikings.
Super Bowl meter Graff: Ready to skyrocket if the Vikings can beat the Saints in what is arguably a meeting to decide the second-best team in the NFC.
Hasan: Warming up. The Vikings still don’t have a signature win, especially as the Eagles win doesn’t look spectacular, and they have to prove they can beat top-level teams before they can say they’re truly in the hunt.
Krawczynski: Three straight wins have the Vikings looking much more like the contender they were billed to be at the start of the year than the flop they were against Buffalo at home. A win over the powerful Saints with the whole country watching on Sunday night would crank that meter up to 11.
Game predictions Graff: Saints 28, Vikings 27. The challenge of slowing the Saints’ offense was always going to be a difficult one for the Vikings even before injuries put into question the status of Rhodes and Barr. And I have a hard time picking Brees to lose three times to one team in a 14-month span.
Hasan: Vikings 33, Saints 31. The Saints will score, and the Vikings will find a way to keep up.
Krawczynski: Saints 31, Vikings 28. All those injuries to the defense scare me. Brees, Kamara and the rest of that offense are going to let it fly.
Week-by-week picks At long last, some differentiation. After seven consecutive weeks of our writers making the same picks, there is disagreement this week, with Arif the only one of the three to take the Vikings. Who do you think will win? Vote now in our Twitter poll.
2018 Vikings week-by-week predictions: Week 8 Game Graff Hasan Krawczynski Fans Actual Week 1 vs. SF
Week 2 at GB
TIE Week 3 vs. BUF
Week 4 at LAR
Week 5 at PHI
Week 6 vs. ARI
Week 7 at NYJ
Week 8 vs. NO
Vote now TBD Record 5-1-1 5-1-1 5-1-1 4-2-1 4-2-1 Fantasy spin You know the drill by now, and against a vulnerable defense like the Saints, Cousins, Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs are in your lineups. There is the potential for Thielen’s first quiet game and a huge one for Diggs if Marshon Lattimore focuses on Thielen. If Lattimore heads Diggs’ way for most of the game, well, enjoy another amazing Thielen week. It’s hard to trust Kyle Rudolph at this point. The Saints are actually tough against tight ends, and Rudolph has been touchdown-reliant for real production. You have to start Latavius Murray on volume alone, but the Saints run defense is one of the best, and he’s more of a mid- low RB2 this week.
For the Saints, you always start Brees, Kamara and Thomas. Mark Ingram likely needs to be in lineups, even against the Vikings with four teams on bye. At receiver, Tre’Quan Smith is filling the Ted Ginn role, and with this game projected to be high-scoring (and Rhodes likely focusing his attention on Thomas often), Smith is a boom/bust play. And speaking of touchdowns for tight ends, Ben Watson is a decent gamble for one in this game if you’re digging deep. — Jake Ciely PUBLICATION: CBS Sports DATE: 10/28/18
Vikings' Everson Griffen will reportedly return against Saints after five-week absence
By Cody Benjamin
A little more than a month after he was the subject of a Minneapolis police investigation, Everson Griffen is set to return to the field for the Minnesota Vikings' anticipated "Sunday Night Football" game against the New Orleans Saints.
The three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher has not played since Week 2. After initially being deactivated for the Vikings' Week 3 loss to the Buffalo Bills with what the team deemed a knee injury, Griffen was excused for a five-week absence from the team while dealing with a "personal matter" -- mental health concerns that were on display in a Star Tribune report centered on his apparent paranoia and aggression at both Vikings practice and at home.
As NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Friday, however, Griffen is expected to play on Sunday night.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer would not confirm whether Griffen would be active for the game, but the defensive end told reporters he's "able to play football" this weekend, and the team announced Griffen's return to the facility earlier in the week.
Minnesota Vikings ✔ @Vikings Everson Griffen will resume team activities tomorrow.
"I'm just excited to get back here with my team and get back to the grind," Griffen told the media this week. "It's been hard to be away, but I'm happy to be back. It's a good feeling right now and I'm taking one day at a time and one thing at a time to get things back on track."
Griffen has been a full-time starter at defensive end since 2014, posting three double-digit sack seasons, but it remains to be seen whether he'll return to the lineup immediately. Most importantly, he appears to be in a good condition off the field. As NFL Network noted, the Vikings required Griffen to undergo a mental- health evaluation before returning to the team at the start of his absence. The ninth-year veteran acknowledged his "personal issues" at the time and promised to "return as a much-impr