Ten Big Takeaways From Vikings vs. Saints Week 4 2022
The London crowd was treated to a fantastic NFL game today. Back and forth, down to the wire football with very few dull moments. The Vikings were fortunate to come away with a victory across the pond and I have ten immediate takeaways from this one.
1. Justin Jefferson Comes Alive After Two Subpar Weeks
The coaching staff were able to get Justin Jefferson involved in the offense again this week after having relatively quiet, nearly silent games against the Eagles and Lions. He was able to reel in 10 receptions for a total of 147 yards, no receiving TDs but he was able to get a rushing TD.
2. Special Teams Won This Game
The Purple were able to come out on top thanks to their special teams. Greg Joseph made all 5 of his field goal attempts and went 1 for 2 on extra points. Ryan Wright did an excellent job changing the field position game with every punt as well.
3. Ryan Wright Can Throw
It was not the best throw by any means but Ryan Wright’s throw to Jalen Nailor was on the money for a fake punt. It kept that drive alive and helped the team to get 3 more points on the board.
4. Mattison Got The Scoring Started
The first TD was wiped off the board because of an offensive pass interference call on Justin Jefferson. Fortunately, Mattison was able to make a few guys miss and made it into the endzone on a 15-yard screen pass for a TD. He only had three carries for three yards otherwise and did not have any other catches but this play was still a big one to open the scoring.
5. Cam Dantzler And Patrick Peterson Came Up Big
These two CBs combined for a total of eight tackles today along with five passes defensed. Several plays could have been game changers if one of these two would not have broken them up.
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6. Third Downs Kill Minnesota Drives Once Again
Minnesota were only able to convert 5 of their 14 third downs on offense. They were still able to get some points on the board after not converting but they could have closed this game out much earlier.
7. Penalties Keep Us In The Game
The Purple were able to get a total of 5 1st downs from penalties while the Saints did not get any 1st downs from penalties. They only had 5 penalties for 35 yards while the Saints had 10 penalties for 102 yards.
8. Latavius Murray Takes It To The Vikings
The former Viking performed well against his former team after being called up from the practice squad this week. He gained 57 yards on 11 carries and got 1 rushing TD for them as well. It was surprising that the Saints did not lean on him more heavily because of the success that he was having.
9. Will Lutz Ties The Game, Then Doesn’t
Saints Kicker Will Lutz had a great game and even tied his career-long field goal of 60 yards to tie the game at 25 with 1:51 left in the 4th quarter. He had a chance to win the game with a 61-yard field goal attempt but unfortunately, he hit the inside of the left upright before hitting the crossbar and bouncing out.
10. The Vikings Need To Be More Aggressive
Minnesota had several opportunities where they could have been more aggressive and gotten a TD instead of settling for FGs as often as they did. If they want to continue winning games this season they will probably need to be more aggressive and risk coming up empty on drives as well.
The Vikings came out with the victory this week but with all the offensive firepower that the Saints were missing, it should not have been this close of a game. Here is a link to a recap from this past Sunday’s Vikings Victory in London. Please come back to thedailyskol.com for your Vikings’ news and updates!
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