Lunchbreak: MMQB Highlights Vikings 2nd-Half Offense in Comeback Win

[Viktor]

The Vikings have finally reached their bye week, and it tastes a lot sweeter heading into the break with an 8-3 record.


Minnesota stunned Denver with a come-from-behind win of epic proportions on Sunday, and Albert Breer of The Monday Morning Quarterback highlighted the performance of Kirk Cousins in the second half. Breer wrote:


The headline in the Vikings 27–23 win over the Broncos on Sunday is that Minnesota became the first team in the last 100 league-wide tries to come back from a 20-point halftime deficit, and the first team to climb out of that big of a hole while scoring on every second-half possession in 40 years, which is crazy.


But as Kirk Cousins reflected on the win, he saw it more as another step for the team’s much-scrutinized passing offense under [Offensive Coordinator] Kevin Stefanski.


In the first half, Broncos [Head Coach] Vic Fangio got the Vikings a little off-balance with replace rushing (switching coverage players and rushers), pressures and coverage disguise, while his team ran up a 20–0 lead. In doing so, he took Minnesota out of its comfort zone by taking away stud [running back] Dalvin Cook early, then making it harder to lean on him later as the Vikings deficit grew. Which meant it’d be on Cousins and the passing attack to win the game.


Breer explained that Stefanski “got more aggressive with his play calling” and directed Minnesota to a no-huddle offense that allowed the team to claw its way out of the deficit.


That the Vikings showed that they could win without Cook gashing a defense, which is what’s happened all year, was significant, to Cousins at least.


Breer quoted Cousins, who called the Vikings offense “a work in progress.”


“One game, we run for 200 yards and we have 10 pass attempts and another game we have almost 40 pass attempts and run for 37 yards,” Cousins said. “You have to kind of play the game that’s called and react to what’s going on. I think when you're 8–3 and you’re doing a lot of good things offensively — we’re running the football and converting third downs, and working in screens and explosives to Stefon Diggs — there’s a lot of things to be excited about and feel good about.


“But they don’t get any easier from here,” he added. “We’ve got three divisional games against good football teams, and we have to go to Seattle and L.A. We’re going to get tested, I’ll put it that way.”