Everything that went right and wrong for the Vikings vs. Dallas
By Matthew Coller
The Minnesota Vikings put together an overall strong performance against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, highlighted by JJ McCarthy’s 15-for-24 passing for 250 yards and by the Vikings’ defense coming up clutch.
Let’s take a closer look at the film and data from the game…
Everything that went right
The deep stuff
PFF credited McCarthy with three “big-time throws” and 4-for-6 passing with 130 yards on throws that traveled more than 20 yards in the air. The first of those throws was his touchdown pass to Jalen Nailor in the first quarter.
On this play, Kevin O’Connell draws up a very Kubiak-ish type rollout. Josh Oliver stays in to block and Jordan Addison blocks as well, which really helps sell the play-action. As McCarthy rolls to his left, Jordan Mason steps up and lays a nice block to give him all sorts of free space to work with.
McCarthy has two options: Jefferson on the crossing route or Nailor on the corner route. The safety stays with Jefferson underneath so he lets it fly to Nailor. The cornerback DaRon Bland has an angle on the ball but Nailor undercuts him to make the grab.
This would be an example of McCarthy using his arm strength for good things. If he floats that ball too much, then Bland might be able to get his head around and have a chance to make a play. Also, Nailor has become a really darn good receiver.
The longest pitch-and-catch of McCarthy’s career came when the QB made a good read and had good timing. Nailor’s route into the middle of the field draws the attention of the deep safety. As soon as he takes a step forward, McCarthy heaves it up over the top. Addison does a stutter step that freezes the corner and then he’s off to the races since there is no help behind the corner.
Yes, if McCarthy put just a little more air underneath it, it’s a walk-in touchdown, but let’s not nitpick. It was near flawless execution all the way around.
Our next throw appears like KOC has decided to lean into the 100mph fastballs that McCarthy throws. Against what looks like 2-man coverage, the receiver outside the numbers (Josh Oliver?) runs an outside release up the sideline, which forces the safety toward the boundary just enough to create space for TJ Hockenson to clear the linebacker. As soon as McCarthy sees him get by the zone defender, he fires an absolute missile. Hockenson makes a fantastic catch for an explosive play.
I would imagine some folks went back and deleted their Hockenson tweets from earlier this year. It’s clear that he’s capable of playing at a very high level if given the right opportunity.
KOC designed plays
It certainly didn’t hurt McCarthy that O’Connell gave him some layups with very good design. On this screen pass to Aaron Jones, the Vikings run a fake pop pass (which they used on the opening drive last week). You can see the defenders all flow toward Nailor and then the ball suddenly arrives on the other side of the field to Jones. Notice the block by Hockenson at the top of the screen.
KOC mentioned on Monday that there are some alerts and such to check into screens but they are truly not doing it enough. Per PFF, McCarthy is 22nd in screen percentage but 13th in yards per play on screens. It’s kinda working when they use it.
This next one was a dagger to put away the Cowboys, an 18-yard completion to Hockenson. This play features 13 personnel with all three tight ends lined up to the same side. They all crash down like it’s going to be a handoff, McCarthy sells it really well and so does Hockenson by laying a legit block before going out into the flat. McCarthy has all day to throw it and takes a little too much time, then leads Hockenson too far up field, giving the safety a chance to go get it. Hockenson tracks it brilliantly and the safety is a tick late.
He probably doesn’t need to pat the ball first and, in attempt not to throw a laser, had too much air underneath it. But the play design tricked the Cowboys so badly that it worked anyway. This is the type of stuff that has to happen to succeed with a young QB.
Flores on third down
Talk about getting in your bag. Flores’ 0-blitz looks on third down over and over caused Dak Prescott a ton of problems. He was pressured on a ridiculous 55% of drop-backs according to PFF.
O’Connell said on Monday that he enjoyed watching Harrison Smith play mind games with Prescott at the line of scrimmage on third downs. Here are two examples…
On this third down early in the game, Smith lines up off the edge like he’s going to blitz (which he’s done really well over the last few weeks). At the last second, he runs back into zone coverage in the middle of the field. Prescott is looking for one of his receivers in the middle but he bails quickly. Jonathan Greenard also dropped as well.
It’s worth noticing Dallas Turner’s hustle on this play.
On another key third down, you’ll see Smith again bail out. This time running from the edge position all the way back to safety.
Prescott probably had an out route open but Greenard roasted the right tackle with a spin move and the Cowboys’ QB had to scramble. Greenard had seven pressures on the night. Total dominance.
Some other things that went right…
— Ryan Kelly and Will Fries had zero QB pressures allowed and Justin Skule gave up just one. It was his best game as a Viking by far.
— Eric Wilson had five pressures, giving him 31 on the year, by far his career high.
— Jalen Redmond played 57 plays and had four run stops.
— Ryan Wright and Will Reichard played like Pro Bowlers.
— CJ Ham was in for 16 plays
What went wrong
McCarthy vs. Dallas blitzes
In a game like this, there wasn’t a ton of things that went wrong for the Vikings offense.
For some reason, Dallas barely blitzed McCarthy on the night. When they did, he went just 4-for-8 passing with 59 yards and an interception.
The INT came on his first drop-back. The ‘Boys ran a free-running blitzer from the nickel position, leaving Jefferson with space. McCarthy tries to throw into the vacancy left by the blitz and has Jefferson open. The ball ends up being tipped and intercepted.
There’s certainly a question about McCarthy’s passes being knocked down but this play did have some bad luck to end up bouncing into the hands of Quinnen Williams.
Reacting to a blitz later in the game, McCarthy tried to do a little too much. It has been an emphasis of O’Connell’s to his QB to take the easy stuff. He didn’t do that here. Dallas sends five rushers, leaving Hockenson one-on-one with Dante Fowler Jr. The tight end slows him and then drops into the flat. Rather than dump it to Hockenson for a couple yards, McCarthy takes a deep shot with the edge rusher bearing down on him. He gets hit and throws the ball into the stands.
Over the next three games, McCarthy doesn’t face teams that have a tendency to blitz but he might see some extra rushers to speed up his process or to push him into taking risks that he shouldn’t take.
Connecting with Jefferson
McCarthy was not shy about trying to get the ball to Jefferson but it just didn’t work on Sunday night.
Here’s two examples of timing and velocity causing them to miss the mark. Down by the goal line, KOC dials up a back-shoulder throw to Jefferson. He runs the route toward the back pylon and then slams on the breaks and spins to the front pylon. The problem? The ball has zero touch on it and goes flying by Jefferson before he can even get around.
The thing about throwing to Jefferson is that it’s very hard to do without touch and timing because of the types of coverages that he gets. There is either going to be help or the defender is going to be pressing and playing very physically. This type of throw requires precision.
On this deep crosser, Jefferson is wide open. That’s not something that happens very often and these have to connect. The Vikings line up with two TEs and CJ Ham at tight end. Jefferson is the only receiver. Dallas plays a single deep safety, who is basically in the parking lot. That forces the Cowboys corner to try to stay with him all the way across the field. Spoiler: He cannot.
However, McCarthy doesn’t release the ball on his first hitch and then Kenny Clark beats Donovan Jackson and he rips the pass full speed and there’s no room for Jefferson to adjust to the ball in the air and it falls incomplete.
It’s great to have 99 throw power on Madden but it makes life really hard on the guys catching the ball, as we’ve seen a number of times this year.
Other things that went wrong:
— The Cowboys gained 138 yards on the ground. Jonathan Allen scored a 24.5 PFF grade vs. the run. He’s 76th of 89 starting DTs vs. the run this year.
— Dononvan Jackson got beat a couple times by great DTs and had his lowest pass blocking grade of his career.
— Both Vikings RBs gained under 3.0 yards per carry.
I would add a few injuries to what went wrong.