New England Patriots vs. Minnesota Vikings: Full Report Card Grades for Vikings
Well, that was ugly.
Let's start off by playing, "What if I told you..."?
What if I told you that the Vikings would roar down the field on their first possession and score with ease. Then I told you that the defense got a quick three-and-out and the Vikings got the ball back right away.
What if I told you that Tom Brady would finish the day with just 149 passing yards.
What if I told you that the New England Patriots would commit more penalties (15) than they ever have in the Bill Belichick era.
If I told you all of that, wouldn't a 30-7 Patriots drubbing of the Vikings be hard to fathom?
There are a couple of simple truths about winning NFL football games: First, it's a quarterback-driven league, and Brady finished with a passer rating over 100 while Matt Cassel finished with a rating of 39.1.
The second truth is that you can't shoot yourself in the foot and win games in the NFL. The Vikings took out an assault rifle and blew off their entire leg on Sunday.
It seems that reports of the Patriots' demise were a little premature after their stunning opening-week loss to the Miami Dolphins. It also seems that the Minnesota Vikings aren't quite as far along as we might have thought in their attempted return to respectability.
In a game that couldn't have started out better for Minnesota—Cassel hit Matt Asiata for a 25-yard touchdown on the opening drive—things went south quickly and dramatically from that point on.
The Patriots dominated the Vikings from just after the start to the finish, riding four interceptions and returning a blocked field goal for a touchdown to coast to an easy win over the Vikings.
In the simplest of terms, the Patriots did all of the little things whereas the Vikings did none of them.
It will be an interesting week in Minnesota, as the team has to deal with the legal issues surrounding its best player and get ready to go to New Orleans next Sunday to take on the Saints, who will be plenty ornery after an 0-2 start.
Quarterback
1 of 10
Matt Cassel was putrid on Sunday.
We'll temper that statement a bit by saying that he didn't get any help from his receivers or his offensive line. They were equally bad, but Cassel just played awful.
The horror show began in the first quarter, with the Vikings up by a touchdown and momentum all on their side. Facing 2nd-and-16 from his own 15-yard line, Cassel threw deep into double coverage and was picked off by Devin McCourty, who returned it all the way to the Vikings' 1-yard line.
It was a bad throw and worse decision.
There is nothing wrong with taking a shot deep when you've got all the momentum on your side. It's another matter when you're only up seven points and you're deep in your own end. You probably shouldn't throw the ball up for grabs into double coverage either.
While that certainly wasn't a death knell, Cassel played the rest of the game like a boxer who'd been knocked down in the second round and never found his feet again the rest of the day.
"The Bad Matt Cassel showed up today and #Vikings defense isn't much better. Tom Brady off to an 8-of-9 start as #Patriots lead 17-7.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 14, 2014"
The numbers are bad: 19-of-36 for 202 yards, four interceptions and one touchdown. It all added up to dismal 39.1 quarterback rating. Yes, he had several balls dropped. Yes, the offensive line also let him down on more than one occasion.
The truth is, though, that NFL teams often take on the in-game personality of their quarterback. When the most important player on your team is having an awful day, it's sometimes tough for the rest of the team to get going.
So what's next? Head coach Mike Zimmer addressed the quarterback situation early on in his postgame presser:
"Matt Cassel will start next week, Zimmer said. #asexpected
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 14, 2014"
This performance won't cost Cassel the starting job, but another one like it will. He's likely cut his margin for error in half.
Grade: F
Running Back
2 of 10
There's a spot for Matt Asiata on the Minnesota Vikings, but it isn't the featured running back role.
Asiata is what he is: a hard-nosed, dependable runner who doesn't have much burst or wiggle. He played pretty well on Sunday, rushing for 36 yards on 13 carries and catching five passes for 48 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown that was the Vikings' highlight of the day.
The question on most Vikings fans' minds is probably this: Why was Asiata the only Vikings back given an opportunity?
Third-round draft pick Jerick McKinnon was given just two carries. Joe Banyard, who proved he was a better runner than Asiata all training camp long, didn't get any carries after being activated in Peterson's absence.
Asiata ended up averaging less than three yards a carry, and to expect anything more than that is nothing more than wishful thinking.
It's hard to measure how much playing without Adrian Peterson hurt the Vikings. Suffice to say it was a lot.
Grade: C-
Wide Receiver and Tight End
3 of 10
The Vikings threw 36 passes on Sunday. Their supposed No. 1 receiver, Greg Jennings, had one catch for four yards. He wasn't hurt.
I would imagine the Vikings were looking for more production than that when they signed him to a five-year, $47.5 million deal in March of 2013.
The Vikings signed Kyle Rudolph to a five-year, $36.5 million deal in July. He had five catches for 53 yards but two brutal drops that Troy Williamson probably could've caught.
Cordarrelle Patterson, who had scored rushing touchdowns of 35-plus yards in three consecutive games, didn't continue that streak because he was never given the opportunity.
Is a football team ever better off handing the football to Asiata over Patterson?
Matt Cassel had an awful football game. His receivers didn't help him out much.
I'm giving an "A" to Rhett Ellison, who probably should be utilized more. Patterson had four catches for 56 yards to lead the team. The rest of the group had a forgettable afternoon.
Grade: D
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
Whether it was out-schemed or just outplayed, the Vikings' offensive line was flat-out terrible on Sunday.
Running backs never had anywhere to go, Matt Cassel was sacked six times and hit eight times, and the Patriots recorded eight tackles for loss.
And that blocked field goal.
Have you ever seen a field-goal attempt that was blocked so easily? Chandler Jones nearly caught the darn thing on the fly. Somebody blew an assignment on what may have been the single play that broke the camel's back in this football game.
"Maybe instead of chanting Teddy, we should chant the name of Kalil's backup.
— Brandon Mileski (@BMileskiKFAN) September 14, 2014"
Not a good day for the Vikings left tackle. For a guy coming off a subpar second season, you'd think he wouldn't stop on a play before the whistle like he did on Chandler Jones' first of two sacks on the day.
We all know Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is no fan of Pro Football Focus, as detailed here by Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press, but Kalil might want to never look at that site again after it grades this game. Not good.
None of the other four guys were very good either.
When your offense gains 217 yards and your quarterback is sacked six times, it's a bad day for the offensive line. Throw in the one of the easiest blocked field goals you've ever seen, and this game pretty much grades itself.
Grade: F
Defensive Line
5 of 10
Was the Vikings' defensive line there?
We aren't displaying a picture of one of its members tackling somebody because we couldn't find any.
Other than Tom Johnson's sack, you'd be hard-pressed to remember hearing a Vikings defensive lineman's name called on Sunday afternoon.
There's a reason for that. The starters registered five tackles. The Patriots ran 60 plays. Do the math.
The talk all week had been about how poorly the Patriots' offensive line had played in their loss to the Dolphins last week and how New England had finally sabotaged its offensive line beyond repair by trading Logan Mankins.
Well, it sure got better in a hurry. Or maybe it was matched up against a much easier defensive line to block.
Rookie backup Shamar Stephen had three tackles. Two less than starters Sharrif Floyd, Linval Joseph, Brian Robison and Everson Griffen combined for.
Robison has just two tackles and no sacks in two games. That won't do.
A bad day all around includes these guys' performances. Tom Brady didn't have to do much, but he certainly had all the time he needed when he dropped back to pass. Stevan Ridley rushed for 101 yards a week after getting just 21 against the Dolphins.
Grade: D-
Linebacker
6 of 10
The Vikings linebackers probably had the best day of any of the team's positional units. That's not saying a whole lot.
Middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley led the team with 11 tackles, eight of them were solos. Chad Greenway had a bounce-back week with eight tackles, a quarterback hit and a pass defended. Rookie Anthony Barr had five solo tackles.
We're not going to give them a great grade because the Patriots' running back duo of Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen—who, let's face it, aren't exactly a dynamic duo—ran for 141 yards on 4.5 yards a pop.
The Vikings did a decent job on underneath routes, holding Rob Gronkowski pretty much in check, but nobody on the Vikings defense did anything to take Brady or anyone on the Patriots offense out of their comfort zone.
As disruptive as the Vikings defense was last week against the St. Louis Rams, it never got on track against the Patriots. Not a terrible game for the linebackers, but nothing special either.
Grade: C
Secondary
7 of 10
We'll start by saying that the Patriots threw for just 149 yards.
Knowing that number before the game, was there any scenario in which you could have seen the Vikings losing this football game? Me either.
Tom Brady only attempted 22 passes on the day and the Vikings only recorded one pass defended. That was by Chad Greenway.
If I told you that the Vikings faced Tom Brady and the secondary had zero passes defended, you'd probably guess that they got killed.
You'd have been right, but it certainly wasn't the fault of the secondary.
Weird game.
Second-year corner Xavier Rhodes had a tough day, picking up a defensive holding penalty and a pass interference penalty. He also went for a pick on an out pattern to Julian Edelman early on that led to a big New England gain.
Harrison Smith and Robert Blanton were both very active on the back end, registering eight and six tackles, respectively.
You can bet the entire group was getting sick of chasing Edelman (six catches, 81 yards, one touchdown) around the field. The rest of the Patriots offense had just 68 receiving yards.
The Vikings held the Patriots offense to under 300 yards. You'd take that every single time and be happy.
Grade: C
Special Teams
8 of 10
Yuck.
Further review shows that the right side of the Vikings' offensive line was flat on the ground when Chandler Jones blocked Blair Walsh's field-goal attempt just before halftime. How it got that way will require another view, but the end result was pretty much the tipping point in this football game.
Instead of heading into the locker room down 17-10, the Vikings found themselves down 24-3 in an instant.
It was a weird play that perfectly summed up a weird game for the Vikings. How does a defensive lineman break through that easily on a field-goal attempt? Jones then got a perfect bounce of the ball into his hands and was off to the races with only Walsh and Jeff Locke in pursuit.
It was a sloppy play all around that perfectly encapsulated a sloppy game for the Vikings.
Locke had a decent day punting, but Edelman was able to rip off a 34-yard return on one of his punts.
The grade is for the impact the only meaningful special teams play of the game had on the outcome. It all but sealed the deal.
Grade: F
Coaching
9 of 10
It's impossible to know how much missing Adrian Peterson affected the Vikings in their brutal 30-7 loss to the Patriots on Sunday. As Zimmer said postgame, the Vikings had a lot of issues on Sunday that had nothing to do with Peterson.
"Zimmer on missing Peterson: "No, it didn't affect the team. You know what affected the team? Throwing interceptions...
— Brian Hall (@MNBrianHall) September 14, 2014"
"...getting a field goal blocked, not tackling well enough, having conflict in the defense, that's what affected the team. The team is fine."
— Brian Hall (@MNBrianHall) September 14, 2014"
The Vikings began the game in great fashion, tearing down the field and scoring an touchdown that had all the momentum on their side. It didn't stay there.
If you throw four interceptions and have a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown, you're going to lose.
We'll note that losing your best player, especially under the circumstances in which the Vikings did, can do a lot to ruin all your game-planning.
Having said that, the Vikings coaches aren't getting a pass for Sunday's debacle.
Is a football team ever better off handing the ball to Matt Asiata over Cordarrelle Patterson? Patterson had back-to-back games with touchdown runs of over 50 yards, and three straight with touchdown runs of 30-plus yards. You're missing your star running back and you never hand it off to Patterson?
As we said earlier, Asiata is a fine player and has a role, but he can't be your featured back. There's a reason he's averaging just 3.8 yards per carry for his career.
Joe Banyard looked phenomenal in the preseason and was activated for the game. Why not give him a shot?
Obviously, Banyard might not have been involved in the offense's preparation all week, but what about Jerick McKinnon? If he's not good enough to take some carries from Asiata, then it wasn't a very good draft pick.
More important than this game in particular is how the Vikings coaches perform moving forward. They are now going to have to deal with a quarterback who played an awful football game, a rookie backup who's looked good every time he's played and a star running back whose football future is cloudy.
Bad game all around. Coaches included. They wouldn't argue that point.
Grade: D
Final Grades
10 of 10
Positional Unit Final Grade
Quarterback F
Running Back C-
WR and TE D
Offensive Line F
Defensive Line D-
Linebacker C
Secondary C
Special Teams F
Coaching D
Overall Grade: D-
We'll say it again, it's a quarterback-driven league and the Vikings quarterback had an awful day that permeated throughout every other part of the team.
The Vikings had a lot to deal with heading into this game, with the news that one of their teammates had been arrested for a horrifying act, but they certainly seemed to weather that with a lightning-fast start.
Things changed dramatically when Matt Cassel threw deep into double coverage and Devin McCourty picked it, bringing it all the way back to Minnesota's 1-yard line.
Things snowballed on Cassel and the entire team after that. Three more interceptions thrown by Cassel and a back-breaking field-goal block and return for a touchdown sent a game that could have been 17-10 at halftime into the locker room at 24-3.
The Vikings followed that up by doing absolutely nothing in the second half.
"This Vikings team could be torn apart very soon with the Peterson mess and a quarterback controversy.
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) September 14, 2014"
That tweet from the beat writer for the Pioneer Press is certainly a doomsday scenario, but it could be very real over the next couple of weeks. Zimmer quickly quelled any quarterback controversy after the game, but another performance like that out of Cassel and everything will change.
The Vikings will now move on to getting ready for the New Orleans Saints, who stand at a surprising 0-2.
Let's all just forget this Patriots game ever happened.
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