Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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The Vikings bounced back from a disappointing loss at Green Bay last week by routing the Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium Sunday.
John Breech of CBS Sports gives out grades weekly to every team for its game-day performance.
In looking at the Week 3 slate of contests, Breech led his article with Minnesota’s home defeat of Oakland. He wrote:
So, what has made the Vikings ground game so successful this season? [Vikings Head Coach Mike] Zimmer explained after the game what he’s seen from his team, which went into Week 3 as the NFL’s third-best rushing team.
“Number one: Our coaches are doing a good job scheming,” Zimmer said. “And number two: I think the offensive line is doing a really good job of getting on the right people and creating some space.”
Breech broke out and broke down a handful of specific plays by the Vikings, including Adam Thielen’s first career rushing touchdown that Breech said “caught the Raiders completely off-guard.”
He also delved into run plays by rookie Alexander Mattison, who scored his first NFL touchdown with a flying leap into the end zone, and Dalvin Cook, who again racked up the yards. Through three games, he’s totaled 375 yards on the ground.
Cook has been so good this season that he’s doing things not many other players in NFL history have ever done. Thanks to his performance against the Raiders, Cook is now just the fifth player in NFL history to rush for 110 or more yards and a touchdown in each of his team’s first three games of a season.
The Vikings have now gone over 200 yards rushing a total of five times under Zimmer, and they’re 5-0 in those games.
Breech gave the Vikings an A-minus for their performance against the Raiders, whom he graded with a D-minus.
Although Dalvin Cook and the Vikings ground game stole the show, nearly everyone on Minnesota’s roster had an impressive game. Defensively, the Vikings harassed Derek Carr, sacking him four times with Eric Wilson coming up with two of those. And let’s not forget about Kirk Cousins, who shook off his struggles from last week to throw for 174 yards (15 of 21) and a touchdown.