Thursday Night Football was a treat for us all. The most entertaining games are ones like Falcons/Saints last week where it's an exchange of blows between each offense. Everybody loves a good shootout, and last night turned into an engaging one thanks to the capable performances of the Minnesota Viking's Kirk Cousins and the LA Rams' Jared Goff. A lot of people predicted that it'd be a battle of quarterbacks that would come down to the wire, and they were right. The Rams defeated their visitors 38-31.
Thankfully, the Vikings played waaaay above the quality of their last performance against the Bills. That should still give Vikings fans a glimmer of hope regardless of the L. They kept pace with LA's foot-always-on-the-gas-pedal attack and did a nice job cutting up the Ram's hobbling secondary. It all started with Kirk Cousins who put up 422 yards on 36/50 with 3 TD's and 0 Interceptions with a passer rating of 117.2 (his second highest of the season). The 1-2-1 record his team has put up makes you think he isn't completely living up to that fully guaranteed 3-year, $84 million deal he signed in the off-season, but he's putting up some fair performances early on. For the year he has 1,387 yards on 131/189(69.3%), 10 TD's, 2 interceptions, and a rating of 103.6. Despite the paltry showing against the Bills, Cousins is having a nice year. Vikings star wideout Stefon Diggs was Mr. Reliable for them against the Rams with 123 yards on 11/15 catches (which was an encouraging bounce-back compared to his 17-yard performance against the Bills). Adam Thielen put up a great game for himself too (8 catches, 135 yards, 1 TD, 4 straight 100-yard catch games this year). The Vikings wideouts did a great job of breaking tackles and getting extra yardage after the catch. It was like a receiver showdown of Diggs/Thielen vs. Cooks/Kupps
LA's defense certainly didn't dominate based on the 31 points they surrendered, but they took away big opportunities that would've tied up the game and given LA their first real neck-and-neck moment of the season. Stars on the defensive end like Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald came up with key sacks on Cousins late in the game that served to stifle the Minnesota momentum, and replacement cornerback Sam Shields stepped up with timely deflections in the absence of recently injured Aqib Talib. Based on how hyped they were in the off-season this Rams defensive unit sure lets opponents put a lot of points on the board, but they haven't let them slip away with a W just yet because guys are shutting opponents down right when the opposition is on the brink of tying it up. Rams corner Sam Shields got a clutch deflection after getting beat badly by Stefon Diggs, and the play that sealed the deal for the Rams was a John Franklin-Meyers forced-fumble after slapping the arm of Cousins mid-throw.
They're 4-0 on the year in large part to their burgeoning offense. That side of the ball has been rolling thanks to the excellent work of Jared Goff at the QB position and the impressive football-IQ of the 32-year-old Rams head coach Sean McVay. Goff has been on such a roll that if you had to hold a way-too-early MVP conversation, the 23-year-old no. 1 pick from Berkley would be at the top of the discussion. Just last night, he put up one heck of a showing on the stat sheet throwing 26/33 (78.8%) for 465 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions with a mind-blowing passer rating of 158.3 (which is the highest possible passer rating, if you value that statistic). In the four games this year, Goff has thrown for 1,406 yards 97/134 (72.4%) with 11 TD's, 2 Interceptions and a 127.3 passer rating. According to Adam Schefter, he (along with Kirk Cousins) could be on the way to breaking Peyton Manning's single-season passing yardage record of 5,477 in 2013.
Goff owes lots of his success to his so-far reliable set of wide receivers Cooper Kupp, Ron Woods, and especially free-agent pickup from New England Brandin Cooks. Cooks hadn't caught a touchdown all year even though he puts up good yardage every game, but last night he Cooper Kupp was so good that somewhere, in a dark corner of a film room in New England, Bill Belichick is deviously scheming on a way to get the young athletic white boy into his receiver corps. Same goes for Minnesota's Adam Thielen. Kupp had nine receptions and turned them into 162 yards and two touchdowns.
The Ram's lack of healthy cornerbacks definitely added some intrigue to the contest, and I was grateful for it. It started Week 4 off on a competitive note, so hopefully the majority of our Sunday games can follow suit. The Vikings will get a crack at the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles the following Sunday while the Rams will travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks for a potentially exciting showdown. I think if this game ends up being close, it'll come down to field goals and I'm incredibly unconfident in the Ram's backup kicker Sam Ficken. He missed a 30-yard field goal that would've tacked on some insurance points for the Rams, and he missed it in his home arena nonetheless. He has even shanked extra points since he came in to replace Greg Zuerlein. What's he going to be like on the road? The kicker game is a cold one, but if you're missing gimme's like that then you probably shouldn't be kicking right now. The Seahawks game will be interesting, but I'm honestly just counting down the days until we get to see the Rams vs. the Chiefs right before Thanksgiving on November 19th in LA at the Coliseum. If both squads come into the game healthy, it should be a face-off between the two best teams in each conference. Stay tuned for that one, but take a look at last night's highlights below.
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