Vikings Postgame Report: The Vikings Get Frustrated In Philly 24 - 7 | Week 2

with the Minnesota Vikings. But Kirk Cousins had three interceptions and they couldn't get anything going in the running game. How much did that factor into this? Peter factored huge? Is Philadelphia had an interception, We blocked the field goal, you tall, you know, we were inside the thirty yard line I believe four times, at least three, maybe four times, and put got zero points out of any of those drives.

So that was huge. It was, you know, the first interception to slay, I think it was a miscommunication between JJ and Cousins. The next couple, you know, those were on Kirk. Kirk trying to make something happen, so, you know, pushing a little bit too hard, and this offense started out slowly. You know, Philadelphia, to their credit, changed the

front that they played. They brought different people in the game, and you know, they wanted to play a five man front, get Hassan Reddick on the outside, bringing Jordan Davis to play nos and they did that and it took a little while for the Vikings to adjust. Meanwhile, defensively, you were holding on, you were holding on, and then things started to break defensively and mental areas, drop passes offensively, mental areas defensively. Those were the difference makers in tonight's game.

When you spend the entire well not the entire wake up practice, but when so much your focus is on a team that just ran for two one hundred and sixteen yards and four touchdowns and they come out throwing and Jalen Hurts passed for three hundred and thirty three yards, it's I certainly, in no way would say were the Vikings not prepared or ready for an Eagles passing game. But it can't be disputed that many of these pass catchers were wide open. Oh they were. And that's exactly

It's It's one thing. It's one thing when a guy you get the right you know, thread the needle or you get a good throw and a good catch. This is this is a situation where we were just turning guys loose. I mean that the touchdown early to Koys Watkins, that was a three level route. We had two defenders chasing the seven route, the corner route, nobody covering the clear The clear is normally the decoy. That's normally the

route that you're run to clear out the zone. It's exactly what they call it a clear route, and we just said that, but we're not going to cover him. So you know, Jalen Hurts, they started hit with him throwing a week ago against Detroit, he started that game oh for five. Tonight he started five for five. So you know, credit, you gotta give credit what credits due. I mean they they have a very extensive running attack.

We were physical with Jalen Hurts early. I think if we could have kept them in that game and that game plan, those hits would have added up. You know, this score twenty four to seven. You know, I know a lot of fans are gonna be out here. We go again, same old Vikings. There was This is a

closer game than you think. I'm not saying that the Vikings would have come away a winner, but there were so many missed opportunities offensively and defensively, Paul, it's it's hard for me to get to that second level of that and saying ifs and thens and you know, because if if you can't, if you're not catching the ball out of the backfield, if you're not covering guys, you

mean it's gonna be a long year. So um, you know, whatever momentum that we had in Week one and emotion and everything that we carried into that Green Bay game, somehow that was lost along the way. And I think you take a look at this team and they were walk up this field and I of the twenty two starters, I'm gonna say, you know, eighteen of them are gonna be like, yeah, I could have played a lot better. But I do want to take a second, Paul and give a hat tip to the special teams unit. Wow,

they they won. You talk about three phase matchup, they won the game. They the block field goal, uh, putting us on around the thirty yard line. You know, they they were difference makers tonight, flipping the field, the whole thing. So you get, I gotta give, I gotta, I gotta you know, give a tip of the cap to to

that unit and how well those guys play tonight. Coming up on the Postgame Report podcast, so you will hear the thoughts of Kevin O'Connell via his press conference, likewise for Kirk Cousins, and the debut of Ron Johnson's Three Takes. But we begin with Gabe Henderson and Ben Lieber and Between the Lines. Welcome to Between the Lines, fueled by Gatorade.

The Minnesota Vikings fall to the Philadelphia Eagles twenty four to seven here at Lincoln Financial Field, and Ben Lieber is joining me today, and Ben, from start to finish, it seemed like the Minnesota Vikings just wasn't ready for what the Philadelphia Eagles had. What were your thoughts on how this game started and then concluded for the Minnesota Vikings. You know, I got admit I was a little surprised by just how how little we could compete with them

on a series by series basis. And I knew when when they received the first half kickoff that all right, they're gonna have something for us. I mean, it's game two for them as well, and and you know, certainly they didn't empty the whole playbook last week, so we're gonna see some new wrinkles. We saw tempo, we saw you know, right off the bat they go empty personnel,

and we saw Jalen Hurts's arm. You know, we we all talked about it before the game that hey, we got to make sure that we put Jalen Hurts in situation where he's got to become a passing quarterback. Well he did that on the first drive and looked really, really good and never really lost the momentum as the game went on, and then all of a sudden, you start throwing in the idea that he can pass the ball. Now they still have the read option. Our defense was

on their heels the whole time. Offensively, a lot of just missed opportunities that I saw. We had the protection there that the offensive line was providing Kirk. I think Kirk missed some throws and missed some open receivers in the first quarter and then kind of settled in, was able to find some rhythm. You get that big drop by Earv, you get a bunch more drops by basically every receiver, seemed like in the second half, and you know, miss reads. You know, JJ whether or not he ran

the wrong route after that blocked field goal. That was a momentum killer. I mean it was just missed opportunities that you can't have when you're playing in a really hostile environment on primetime TV. Yeah, there were two setting change moments tonight, the block field goat and then the Jordan Hicks interception, and we got zero points off of setting change And playing an atmosphere like this, you need any kind of momentum that you can get. But I

want to go back to Jalen Hurts almost four hundred total. Well, I guess all purple jars today. I pretty much did whatever he won. But one thing we were talking about was the middle of the field for this defense was wide open. What does a running quarterback due to a defense that causes holes like that in the defense? Well, it's interesting, and this is why I think I think Philly's offense is going to be a hard out all season long. You go back a week ago and Detroit's

linebackers were very aggressive. They were getting downhill very quickly to try to stop any sort of running game as if the ball was handed off, and they were exploited in the passing game whenever they would pull the ball out so it looked like the Vikings linebackers took the approach this week of just sort of skating and staying lateral, not committing to go downhill, so they leave themselves open. Well,

what that does is put them in constant conflict. They were neither attacking the line of scrimmage, nor were they dropping back in coverage and taking away some of those windows. So they were sort of stuck right where they started, and they were in a little bit of like, you know, coverage purgatory. You're not really helping up front, you're not

really helping the guys in the back end. Things were being thrown in front of the safeties, which is fine, which is the way the way the defense is designed. But again, because they didn't know at all whether the balls gonna be handed off or the balls being passed, and they're always playing on their heels, they could never get a beat on it. They couldn't they couldn't play aggressive, and so it's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. Yeah, how did that affect third down?

Because they were seven or thirteen on third down they average over ten yards per third down, and it seemed like we couldn't stopped them. So how did that run pass option affect our defense when it came to stopping them and giving the ball back to our offense. Well, we saw too many times with our corners and our safeties. Either it's bad eyes or their mental busum. It's not

all on the linebackers. We had a number of occasions where it seemed like a safety would bite on an intermediate route and we get we get a big one over the top. You know, we got a couple look like on cam dancler side where he would let a guy go thinking that something's going to come back to him and it wasn't there. And then you know, guys, guys doing this too much at each other, like arms out in the air like that. Me is that you

like what's going on? And so again, I just think that because you have to keep one eye on the running game and one eye on the passing game, had our defense just spinning like a top. I want to move to the offensive side of the ball. This is a shock, say everybody, but Kirk Cousins led our offensive rushing yards. Ye had twenty rushing yards. Dal should never happen. That should never happen. Dalvin cook on. We had six rushes. So what did this Philadelphia Eagles do to limit us too?

I guess throwing the ball more than what we wanted to do. Well. I think they got great penetration up front. Um, you know, right from right from the get go. On the very first snap, you know, Dressau got blown back, you know, just hat in hands right in its chest on a running play, and and um, you know, I think from there it kind of set the tone that those guys are those front four, We're gonna stay aggressive and get up field. And you know, we tried different avenues.

I thought we had, you know, one drive where we went twenty one personnel, which is two running backs, one tight end. It's a base. It's calling for base personnel on defense, and we spread them out. We went empty formation. We really messed with some of their mismatches and we took advantage of that. When it comes to run game, we when we have to get off scripts so early because we need to score now, we have to we have to steal back some of that momentum. I think

it got us a little bit off schedule. You know, we couldn't play vertically with our offensive line, and again they just beat us up. They they flat outs, kind of flat out kind of beat us up. Yeah, and I guess them beating us up only caused adversity. And going back to Kevin O'Connell's first press conference, he talked about he wants to start having adversity. Yeah. We talked in the Minnesota Vikings podcast earlier this week about us being in this honeymoon phase since early February when Kevin

O'Connell got highed. We're out of that phase now. Yeah. Sure, So going forward or going back to your conversation from a Kevin O'Connell post game, where does this Minnesota Vikings team go from here? Well, look, I mean these things are gonna happen. I mean, the coach is not gonna go first year head coach, and not a lot of coach is gonna go seventeen to nine, and you're gonna face some adversity. Really, it's just unfortunate that it fell as flat as it did today. You know, the really

the only bright spot was a special teams. They played really well, and look, coach O'Connell was you know, I think his mood was expected, you know, it was it was fine. I mean, obviously he wasn't happy about it, but I don't I don't think that he was completely dejected because he knows he's got another opportunity. He's got another opportunity to look at what went right and what went wrong. And I think everybody's just excited to see this team go back to US Banks stay him against

another division opponent. Um, you know, these division games are so important. Against a really tough Detroit Lions team, Let's see how they respond. You know, seeing how you respond to adversity is not always about what happens in the game. Let's see how these guys respond to adversity with a late night of travel. They got to get right back

and get right back in the game. Player, do the whole flush thing when when it comes to what you learn and what didn't go right, and see how they respond in the in the meat of this week and how they respond on Sunday. I honestly think a short week is the best thing for this Minnesota Vikings team because you can just flush it out as quickly as possible and get ready for that next game in six days against the Detroit Lions. But let's close it out

with this. What's one positive that the Vikings can take away. Going into that Detroit Lions game, well, I think we're starting to get IRV Smith more involved. Look, he dropped a would be touchdown pass, he came back and you know, I think he had a couple of solid catches and made him his presence felt. But I think as we get into this, we need to start implementing him a little bit more. I thought the way they used Jalen Ragor was great early on. He lined up in the

backfield as a running back. They got him out on a wheel route. Now, look it was covered, he wasn't the primary target, but we're starting to see a little bit more of him. He got involved on a jet sweep that resulted in a first down. So let's start seeing some of that speed that we keep hearing about on some of these simple, maybe gadget ish routes and concepts. But yet he's another weapon to add to this offense. Well, a lot of weapons we need that we were going

to me heading into next week and beyond. But more importantly, this Minnesota Viking stam has an opportunity to bounce back next week at home at noon at US Bank Stadium. So Vikings fans were looking forward to seeing you there. For Ben Labor. My name is Gabe Henderson. This is between the Lines fueled by Gatorade. Now, Gabe and Ben talked about third downs where the Eagles were seven of thirteen and um the Vikings were four of twelve on

kfa N on the Vikings radio network. You you stressed an hour before the game how important third down was tonight, and it completely went pear shape for us. It did. And we talked also about how this this Philadelphia offense, because they run the ball so efficiently, you're not going to get a lot of third and longs out of them. And we did. We got a lot of those. And then we kind of, you know, coin a phrase from Denny Green. You know, they let him off the hook.

You know, they were almost sixty percent on third down a week ago. Last year they converted at a forty five almost a forty six percent rate. That was a franchise record. But that's the diversity of this offense. And again, Jalen Hurtz makes this thing start and go, start and stop. His talent, his talent set and to see him tonight sit back there and throw the way he did yards

after catch, you know, tackling needs to get better. There's we didn't do much to take away what they tried to do, and they tried to do some new things and we need to make them pay for it. Let's get the thoughts of Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell with his postgame press conference following a Philadelphia Eagles twenty four seven victory over Kevin's Minnesota Vikings. UM. Obviously, ah, you know, very very difficult night, you know, for our team.

But you got to give the Eagles a lot of credit. Uh. They they outplayed us and and really controlled the football game really in a lot of phases of the game. But when I look back on tonight, Um, ultimately I think, uh, you know, I put I put this one on me. Um, I put this one on me. I don't think I did enough for our team in game. And obviously I

think our plan, we felt good about our plan. They did some things defensively and just seemed to seem to kind of push us to the point where we just needed to make that one or two plays on a drive to kind of get going and see if we could potentially finish and kind of capture that momentum and

then ultimately it's just as a football team. Although our defense and special teams with the blockfield goal defense with a you know, forcing a turn over there late, just to try to help us try to get going, and ultimately weren't able to capture that. And uh, like I said, you gotta get Philadelphia a lot of credit. But ultimately I do mean it. I do feel like this one's on me. And I told our team that, uh, you know, I'm gonna work like crazy to make sure that this

does not happen again. And we're I have no doubt we'll be prepared and ready to respond like the way I know we will do You all three of Cousins' interceptions were kind of deep in Philly territory. Do you see any similarity or a common threat on those No, I think, uh, you know, the you know kind of looking back on them, Um, they'll all have their own story. Um. I think we were we were trying to be aggressive, you know on the uh you know, on all those downs.

They were kind of one of them. That last one, um was kind of a longer yardage you know, kind of situation type thing when we were throwing the ball to Adam out in the out kind of the the flat area, deeper flat area. And then we were just trying to activate jj on on a kind of a second and ten. Thought we'd get a little bit more on the first down play call um ended up kind of you know, right, you know, checking the ball down and getting right into that second and eleven second and

ten and try to activate something. And Slay made a good play, you know, sat inside and made a good play on the football. He's a really good player, had a good night and and ultimately we've got to find ways to make it easier, you know, on our guys and and try to give them an advantage when they can.

But didn't run the football enough. Um, you know, they kind of had some things schematically that uh you know got us into uh some different you know phases of our offense by just trying to you know, get get good plays off the versus some good looks. And that's where I got to do a better job make sure we stick to stay true to what we are and

what we want to be offensively. But yeah, those those turnovers were they were tough, just where they just kind of those momentum killers here and there and every single one of them has their own story, and we'll make sure that we coach them up and and put our guys in better positions. The plan defensively, um, first half, I mean they obviously they come out and they're kind of run them pretty good against you. Yeah, So what

was sort of the plan and what were the adjustments? Yeah, I think the plan you know, was to try to you know account for obviously Jalen in the run game, and they put a lot of pressure on you with those RPOs and different variations. Sometimes they're reading to throw, sometimes they're reading to you know, pull and run, and then they've got you know, layers to what they do

on those early downs. So those just kind of four or five yard hits, uh, kind of put them in manageable third downs and they were able to kind of convert here and there. I think they were over fifty percent for the night. But ultimately, when I look back on it, there was some opts for us second and long, third and long where they were able to you know, he puts a lot of pressure on the defense with how he can break, contain and you know make some

off schedule plays. I thought, you know, we were early, especially early on in the game. We were right there a couple of plays I can remember where we were right there and they just made the play. And that's where I think you got to give them credit. We'll obviously have to evaluate things we can do better coaching staff wise and really me personally, to really put our entire team in a better position, um to not only get off to a faster start, but then be ready

to bow up and try to respond. Like we talked a lot about doing, they get that first. They did that fast start, that firstich having all tough, was trying to get back in trying how much how much did they get any game for at that point? Yeah, I think you know, that's we're looking back on it. We tried to be aggressive, use some tempo, and we were able to move it um here and there once we started to activate in some of that, but ultimately just

didn't finish past that. Uh you know that that touchdown past the IRV. We just got kept getting down into the high red and and and just be you know, one play away from getting you know, being able to activate some things down on the low red to try to score. But that's where I give them credit. You know, they were going to have a plan where you know, they were going to try not to let us throw it over their heads and uh, you know, keep everything

in front. And we were patient enough, but it requires you to execute time and time and time again. And uh, you know, we just we just didn't quite have that consistency tonight that we look for and our guys have demonstrated. So we'll go back and look at it and see how we can improve. To Candidacer, he had things up in the second half overall, just what you take it away, Yeah, I I like I would have to go back and

look at it. I just know we had talked about maybe getting a Caleb some time here and there, and I think just the way the game was kind of going, it felt like a time where uh, you know, the the defensive guys wanted to get him a few snaps and then um, as always, he you know, made a couple of plays, looked like he had some uh you know, some burst to him out there and then and at camps,

you know, in my mind, still our starting corner. It was just a matter of just getting a guy, a young player time that we feel like I've earned the right to get on the field here and there, either by package uh you know, dime or whatever it may be, or you know, getting him in there on some of those early downs anything dropping. Yeah, we're gonna come back

to him. That's one of the things that happens when you play, you know, in an offense with guys like Justin and Adam and and obviously when we you know, have our our offense in sync a lot of times, you know we're gonna be able to get some good matchups for and if if Justin's gonna dictate coverage, IRV is gonna get some opportunities. And I'm excited about seeing him make some of those plays. Um, you know, Irv's gonna have a He's gonna have a heck of a year for us. He is, he's uh, you know, he's

he's in a good spot in our offense. Would have loved to see him make that play, unbelievable play by Kirk to kind of see the coverage in real time and and uh, you know put that ball out there, and those are kind of what I'm talking about just one play away. And then guys started to really want to, you know, be the guy that makes to play to change the momentum in the game, and it felt at times me included, like we pressed a little bit, um and and that's where we just got to go back

to it. And I can promise you this much. Our guys, you know, as even post game, um, there's a feeling of wanting to get right back to work. Bad taste in your mouth is one thing. But we know what our standard is and and it starts with me tonight, um And, and I got to make sure I do much much more to help our guys play to their standard todown. We'll get to think over fourteen open where it was the bus there or something that was about Yeah, it looked like they nailed down our our kind of

safety and a quarters. Look, you know, I kind of caught the very end of it there, um And, And that's what happens. You start, you know, you get you get that coverage, you know, to start declaring a little bit.

And then and then with their run game in there, but I thought Jalen threw the ball really well tonight, and I thought they protected him well, you know kind of you know, body blows with their run game and then when those explosive you know, opportunities came, uh, you know, he made a lot of those plays, and they made those plays, and that's where you got to give those guys credit. Um, you know, just our defense. Uh, they

were on the field too much. We got to sustain more complimentary football early and that's on us as an offense. And then when we get those plays, momentum change plays throughout a game on the road, you got to do more with it offensively than we did. Either off the blockfield goal or the interception. I was saying it was on him to try to get open more. It just seemed like there weren't that many targets early on the game.

Is it something that was planned out, No, it was you know, we uh, you know, I can think back to a couple of plays we were trying to get going for him early and kind of buy the look. You know, we ended up checking to you know, a couple of different things based upon protection, whatever it was. But Adam, you know, you saw him kind of come to life. You know, I know it was a little bit of it had gotten away from us a little bit, but he's his you know, his mediu factor with Kirk

is there. Kirk trusts him inherently. Then we got to find ways to continue to get him the ball within the rhythm. But twenty one plays in the first half, so you know, not a lot of targets to go around in general when you only have twenty one plays, and and just when you can't convert on those early third downs, stay efficient. That's how we want to activate and operate and do a lot of the things that

we do offensively. And when we don't do that, that's where I put it on myself, uh, to make sure we find a way and schematically personnel based all of those things we'll go back and take a look at. But um, I can promise you I got so much confidence in our group offensively, the guys up front, our running backs and obviously our skill players to make a lot of plays and and I thought Kirk Battle tonight

and uh put them in some tough spots. Um. And I think our overall offensive philosophy, when we do not succeed, you know, in activating those things, it puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback. And that's where once again put this one hundred percent on me to be better for our offense, for our team. Um And and that's kind of how I feel about it. Kind of Yeah, the challenges. Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be a challenge.

We'll get right back to work as a staff and then make sure our guys turn over and and and and get their recovery and however we can. We've got a nice plan for those guys, knowing this is our first short week, um, you know, leading into a tough divisional game at home. Uh well, you know, we're we're gonna we're gonna rally and fully expect to have a

great atmosphere on Sunday at us pank Stadium. And just like they did in the opener, we expect our you know, fans to combine with us playing a cleaner game and being ready to roll. Um, you know, have ourselves a day at home against a good football team that's playing really well. Right now. Yeah, he uh he did, and uh I looking at the way he checked out and talking to Tyler and Uriah, we feel pretty you know, strongly about where he's at, you know, but uh, well,

we'll go through the phasing. It's very very important that that gets handled medically through the protocol. It is a short week, so we'll just kind of have to see where he's at. But uh, you know, he was all over the field tonight and having to make a lot of plays um down the field, you know, in the running pass game. So he's one of our guys, one of our leaders. And you know, not one time did you ever feel like, uh, you know, Harrison wasn't leading

the way out there. But unfortunate we did lose him. U see how he is throughout the rest of the week. Yeah, look right, thanks guys. Now with Cousins, you know when when after the Jordan Hicks interception and they get down to the nine first and goal still with the puncher's chance to get back into or win this game, Cousins went to Jefferson a couple of times back left to the end zone, and they were just very soft throws. It's they were fifty fifty situations, but Kirk didn't seem

to put enough on it. I wonder why you're you're right about that, and I think, well, the reason why was, um, you know, Philadelphia again, when you're when you're when you're nursing a twenty four to seven lead, that's when they got aggressive. They started the blitz. They were all out blitzing. They were sending the kitchen sink and you know, early

on we weren't receivers, weren't adjusting to it. Then they do adjust to it and Brandon Graham just drops himself right off in the passing lane, and you know, and then you get down, you get down the field in the red zone and they get a sack out of it.

You know, so they Philadelphia mix things up enough. Um, you know for JJ and what you'd like to take a closer look at how he played, just because Slay got him on that first third down right the first series, first third down, no question, that should have been a past interference and JJ didn't get the call, and I sensed a little bit of I sensed a little frustration out of Jefferson the whole night. You know, he was limited the stuff that was underneath. They didn't take any

shots at him deep down the field. So there's there's that part of it there. They figured out a way to slow and stop JJ. And you know that's but that's this league, man, that's if you know, Jefferson, you're number one, and you're going to be facing the number one corner week after week after week after week. So um, you know, hopefully a learning experience for this offense in that respect, and they can put things back together in a short week and get against the against the very

I believe beatable team in the Detroit Lions. Now for Cousins, that was his tenth start against the Eagles. He now as twenty seven touchdowns and nine interceptions, including three this evening. Two went to Darius Sleigh and uh for the man they call big play Sleigh. H he has four two interception games in his career. Speaking to Kirk, here's what Kirk had to say following the game. All Right, disappointing performance. Um, uh, you know, credit the Eagles. I thought they did a

good job against us all night long. And um, you know, now we've got to respond in a short week and be a resilient group and uh and get back on track. So uh, you know, need to play better and we'll play better up ahead. Take any questions you have the challenge, I guess trying to get back when they got the larg the year of the league, just to getting deep in the lar, I had to try to change some things. Tough. Tough was that was trying to finally the work did that.

That's first time they had I think we tried to speed it up a little bit. Uh, you know, certainly the two minute ish at the end of the half, we were going to be going fast regardless. And then I think the first drive of the second half try to play with some tempo, um um, So there was a little bit of that certainly as the game goes on. How did you view your three interceptions or did you see any common thread at all between any of them? No,

not a common thread. Just each one's different, you know. Um, So you just take each one as they as they were and uh and um, you know, try to improve and get better. Kirt would like them at the first one join in the gable were you and kind of talked with you in the silent about it was like what happened on that one point? Yeah, I was just hoping he was gonna come flat there and uh, and so that was really what happened. How tough is it

to get a rid though throughout a game? When you started three now first three, your eyes obviously got got things going and totally just started there. Yeah, I think it was part of the challenges. We didn't we didn't stay on the field, we didn't run enough place and um. And so those three and outs early. You know, aren't how we want to start. How much how much with those was the defense? How much a little parts the defense and trying to get things going. Yeah, I think

their defense deserves credit. Um, they did a good job with Russian with coverage and the combination. Um, you know, made it made it tough for us. What do you want to learn from this? You kind of look at the film quickly and respond to it next week. What do you want to find out film us? If you wanted to take it, Yeah, we'll watch it. We'll have good conversations. Uh, there'll be a lot of good coaching going on and um, and then get right back to work and just try to fine tune everything you got.

You guys only got twenty five yards rushing out of your running backs. Obviously you were behind us of the game. But how difficult does that make it when you're kind of one dimensional? Almost? Yeah, I think that getting behind early, we probably had to throw a little more often than we would have liked and didn't stay as balanced as we would like to be. And um, you know that's probably just more the nature of the way they game went. And you know, we certainly want to be balanced as

best we can obviously back. That was perfectly strong. Did you again touched out earlier? What did you like about how we'd play today? Yeah, you know, it's it's good to have him back. You know, it's it's been a year without him in there. So, um, you know, he's a he's a dynamic player and it's just good to get him back involved again once again. The final score was twenty four seven Philadelphia. Ron Johnson one of the

more accomplished receivers in the history of Golden Gophers football. Um. He has a new feature we include on the Postgame Report podcast. It's called Ron Johnson's Three Takes. Thanks Pa, and this is Ron Johnson coming to you from Kafan And these are my three takes from tonight's game. Not a ton of takeaway from the night's game. Pretty bad blowout twenty four to seven. But you have to find the bright spots in some of these games. And here's

what the Vikings can build on er smith Junior. The usage is up eight targets, five receptions, thirty six yards and one touchdown. Now here's my takeaway from that. ERF. Smiths Junior was used a ton. There were a lot of left plays on that field that he left out there. He could have made so many more plays we know to drop possible touchdown. We know the two third down routes he ran where he kind of just was swallowed up, one on the inbreaking route and one on the drag.

If he improves and works on that, ARV Smith is going to be a threat. The fact that they're willing to use IERF Smith in this way, the fact that they're willing to get earth Smith into this offense we've been looking for that. It shows that he is ready to be a force in this offense. He just has to make the plays. I think Kirk Cousins trust him and we'll see what comes up against the Lions. Another takeaway number two. In the second half, the defense shut

out the Eagles. Now, were they really trying to go after it or do the Eagles feel like, you know what, let's just not turn it over. There was at an interception by Jordan Hicks, so we know the defense was trying and the offense was trying. But we know in that second half the defense found a way to shut him out. They gave up twenty four points in the first half, turned it around, found a way to shut him down. You have to find ways though for the offense.

Kirk Cousins through three interceptions. If kirk Cousins completes two of those into the end zone, it's twenty one to twenty four and the Vikings maybe have a chance to win the game at the end. So what does that leave us. This defense got better. They figured him out, but didn't figure them out soon enough. Last takeaway fourteen to nine first downs in the second half. The Vikings had the advantage. They only had six in the first half.

They finished with twenty. The Eagles had sixteen. They finished with twenty five. So the offense found a way to gain first downs, but it was too little, too late. We know Kirk Cousins against the Packers looked a lot more comfortable. I don't know what the Eagles were doing. I don't know if the Eagles had his number. I don't know if he just wasn't getting the same motions and shifts that he got in week one verse the Packers,

the Vikings looked overwhelmed. They didn't look as prepared as they did versus the Packers as they did versus the Eagles. With that said, I think Kirk Cousins can get it together against the Lions. There's no other option there. Darius Slay is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. He showed it tonight. He said that I want to take on Justin Jefferson. That's what Alexander wanted from the Packers.

They also bracketed Justin Jefferson had a safety over the top, so Darius Slay could take more chances on some of those comebacks and those curls, and it paid off. He got away with a couple of holes here and there, and that's why he was able to contain Justin Jefferson. And then in the time, Justin Jefferson just looked lost, did not feel like the ball was coming his way. But hey, that's how the cookie crumbles. The Vikings lose twenty four to seven to the Philadelphia Eagles. They are

now one and one. They head into this Lions game. If they lose to the Lions, you don't want to do that. That puts the Lions ahead of them in the division. And that's something nobody saw coming. But at the end of the day, the Eagles were the better team. Kirk Cousins didn't have a great day justin Jefferson was not the Cooper Cup we thought he would be. In his defense, well, they gave up way too much in the first half and just could not get enough from

the offense in the second half. Well those were my three takes from tonight's game. Back to you at the stadium, Pa, Thank you, RJ. The Lions are one and one, the Vikings are one and one. It's a noon kickoff at us Bank Stadium. Jared Goff just threw four touchdowns against zero interceptions. Alman Ross Saint Brown, who beat the Vikings at Ford Field last year. He's having a phenomenal season.

He had a long run in the game against Washington, plus a prolific receiving game just top of the head into the practice week and then obviously the game in six days. What is a singular key to beating the Lions. I think the singular key, Paul is, don't make quld making stupid mistakes. Catch the ball and it's thrown your way. You know you mentioned Alman Ross Saint Brown on the big run that he had. That was a Jet sweep that Washington just completely let go. Right, They let us

Jets sweep turn into a fifty some yard run. The last touchdown that was caught by the running back, the last touchdown that Golf through. It was third and like eighteen and the running back caught the boat, fell down and was able to get back up and then beat four Washington four Washington football players to the end zone. So I mean Washington did a lot to help Detroit out in that football game. You know, they're they're struggling

in the middle of their offensive line. They've got two nice offensive tackles, but the middle of that offensive line is a bit of a mess. Defensively, they're extremely aggressive. They blitzed forty percent of the time against Philadelphia and the opening game. So yeah, we've got to weather the storm early because they're gonna be aggressive and come after us. And then defensively, I expect us to really get after Golf and dominate because if you leave Golf alone, he's

a good thrower, he's a great passer. But we should be able to pressure him and match up very well with this wide receiver corps. That's Pete Versage and I'm Paul Allen. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings twenty four to seven, Eagles two and two and Oh, the Vikings are one and one and they play the Lions Sunday at noon at us Bank Stadium, and the Lions are one and one. Thank you very much for listening to the Postgame Report podcast