Dames, you won the bet, so here I go...
Great win by the Vikings tonight. They set the tone on offense all night, and that 2nd half drive where they scored on 4th down was really an amazing drive. If they can run like they did on that drive I like their chances to go deep into the playoffs. They found something that worked on the edges against a pretty good Cowboy defense and just pounded it down the field. That was old-school wrestler stuff and I LOVED it. The great teams can exert their will and the Vikings sure did it on that drive against a good run defense.
Switching to the defense, man, Kendricks was good. Yeah, it looked like he got burned on that crossing route TD, but he wasn't even supposed to be in that situation. It looked like some miscommunication by the Vikings after the snap. But what a play on that late pass breakup. Awesome. He covered the guy and found the ball.
Speaking of coverage, it was up-and-down for the secondary all night. While it seemed mostly down, there were several plays where the DBs could have had pick-6's and just missed. I thought overall, the Cowboys got away with a lot of push offs and yes, made a few good plays of their own including those two completely sick sideline catches, but overall, I don't think the secondary play was all that bad.
The Vikings front 7 deserves some serious kudos too for how well they contained Elliot, and while they didn't get Prescott down as much as I hoped, they did put some pretty good hits on him. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with how well the front 7 played overall. Dallas did manage to pile up some passing yardage with some big plays (seemingly most on 3rd down), but the defense got some stops and, as I noted, were pretty close to a few big plays themselves.
Back to the offense and everyone's favorite whipping boy, I thought Cousins played a very solid game. He did overthrow Rudolph on the one deeper route, but he did a nice job keeping alive on other plays and, of course, had 2 really nice TD throws. I thought he played smart and calm and showed the leadership the offense needed.
For Cook and Mattison, I have to tip my hat. Both were superb, shedding tackles and keeping their feet moving. I came up with a new nickname for Mattison with my son - we started calling him MANitson for his ability to keep the pile moving and break tackles. What a 1-2 punch those two are when both are on.
Great win on the road in prime time game against a tough opponent. I thought the Vikings played a heck of a game after the disappointing loss at KC. They didn't catch a break today with the Packers winning, but are in great position heading into a home game against the Broncos and then their bye. Very excited to see what this team can do.