Cowboys Postgame

[TSonn]

Really happy about the win but I feel like the Cowboys beat themselves in the last 2 drives. The Cowboys were throwing all over us all game and they get down near the 10 yard line and run it with Zeke 2 times in a row for negative yardage. If that was our team, we'd be calling for Zimmer's head for running it twice when the run hadn't worked all game and passing was seemingly easily.

On top of that, the fair catch on our last punt was ridiculous. They could've gotten 15-20 yards if Austin had actually returned it and that completely changes the game plan from hail mary or bust to potentially being able to work it in the endzone from the 40 yard line with 40 seconds.

I'm definitely biased because I'm really hard on our defense, but even though we technically stopped them (the 4th down play was awesome), I think the Cowboys beat themselves by running it when the run clearly wasn't working. If those two plays were passes I think we probably lose that game.

[StumpHunter]

Really happy about the win but I feel like the Cowboys beat themselves in the last 2 drives. The Cowboys were throwing all over us all game and they get down near the 10 yard line and run it with Zeke 2 times in a row for negative yardage. If that was our team, we'd be calling for Zimmer's head for running it twice when the run hadn't worked all game and passing was seemingly easily.

On top of that, the fair catch on our last punt was ridiculous. They could've gotten 15-20 yards if Austin had actually returned it and that completely changes the game plan from hail mary or bust to potentially being able to work it in the endzone from the 40 yard line with 40 seconds.

I'm definitely biased because I'm really hard on our defense, but even though we technically stopped them (the 4th down play was awesome), I think the Cowboys beat themselves by running it when the run clearly wasn't working. If those two plays were passes I think we probably lose that game.

The Cowboys played a good, mistake free game yesterday on offense and we held them to 24, keeping them out of the end zone to win the game.

[J. Kapp 11]

I think my favorite part of all this is what the naysayers are going to be forced to say today.

Every single NBC announcer/analyst predicted a Dallas win. All seven of them. Just minutes before kickoff.

Colin Cowherd predicted a Dallas win and said the Vikings were "fool's gold."

The Sporting News predicted an 11-point Dallas win. ELEVEN POINTS.

While I realize this a hometown newspaper, every single writer at the Dallas Morning News predicted a Dallas win. This despite the fact that the Cowboys have been favored in every game they've played.

Many, many, many, many analysts talked about Kirk Cousins' failure in prime time, against winning teams, etc.

Many of you on this board said everything points to a Dallas win, that the Vikings would continue their history of losing in prime time to a good team. Funny how most of you are (not so) strangely silent.

Cold, greasy, bitter crow. That's what many are eating today.

[Dames]

Dames, you won the bet, so here I go...

This is a bet I loved winning, and you loved losing

Excellent post man! I'll admit I was prepping my pessimistic speech just a little at the end, but the D stepped up just in time. Great win for us.

[NJVikes]

Certainly glad we won, we often lose these types of games. I don't think the Cowboys will end up being a playoff team but wining on the road on Sunday night is a good win.

My concern with the Vikings is there lack of killer instinct. Up 14-0 having solidly established the run, was hoping for a shot down field on a first down play action pass. I felt like we could have won that game in the first half but we let them hang around. I have got to believe that Irv Smith can get deep down the middle for a big play, maybe twice a game. I just think that while our defense is good but not great, that the offense needs to be more aggressive.

[Dames]

My summation... the NFL officials , well, officially SUCK!!!! I am SO SICK and TIRED of watching these idiots blow calls, favor certain teams.. G.B., cough, Dallas, hiccup, New England, fidget, . Its absolutely ridiculous how we watch them favor the darling teams, blow calls, and now just basically make their calls relying on instant replay to make their calls correct . I myself am sick and tired of it. My best friend and I, he is a Bears fan, texted during game about how on some of the obvious screw job calls against us, Collinsworth pretty much said they were terrible calls by actually remaining silent. Its ridiculous and I am sick of it. If I were a fan of one of the favored teams I wouldn't be upset, but man we get the screw job about every wk.
Ok enuff of that.

This issue is beyond frustrating. The bias is clear IMO. I'm thankful we overcame some bad calls, and are not lamenting another screw job. This is not a Viking issue alone for sure, it's a league-wide issue, The refs are having too much influence on the games. If it's not intentional, it's an absurd coincidence. At some point, as much as I love football, this is going to wear me out and a lot of fans I think. But... I'm done with this conversation now too. On to better stuff!

[Texas Vike]

Really happy about the win but I feel like the Cowboys beat themselves in the last 2 drives. The Cowboys were throwing all over us all game and they get down near the 10 yard line and run it with Zeke 2 times in a row for negative yardage. If that was our team, we'd be calling for Zimmer's head for running it twice when the run hadn't worked all game and passing was seemingly easily.

On top of that, the fair catch on our last punt was ridiculous. They could've gotten 15-20 yards if Austin had actually returned it and that completely changes the game plan from hail mary or bust to potentially being able to work it in the endzone from the 40 yard line with 40 seconds.

I'm definitely biased because I'm really hard on our defense, but even though we technically stopped them (the 4th down play was awesome), I think the Cowboys beat themselves by running it when the run clearly wasn't working. If those two plays were passes I think we probably lose that game.

Good post. I think someone (actually, maybe it was you!) asked me in a game day chat recently, "when has Zimmer EVER out coached anyone?" I only had to wait a week for an answer: he definitely out coached Garret last night. (I'm including all coaches under the HC's responsibility in saying this for both teams).

[VikingLord]

Many of you on this board said everything points to a Dallas win, that the Vikings would continue their history of losing in prime time to a good team. Funny how most of you are (not so) strangely silent.

Cold, greasy, bitter crow. That's what many are eating today.

I'm one of those crow-eaters.

But I'll tell you something - it doesn't taste half bad to be eating crow in this situation.

Hats off to those of you who kept the faith. Those of us who didn't can learn something from all of you.

Man, STILL impressed this morning with how well the Vikings shut down the Cowboy run game. If there was a difference in this game, that was probably the single biggest one.

[Bowhunting Viking]

My summation... the NFL officials , well, officially SUCK!!!! I am SO SICK and TIRED of watching these idiots blow calls, favor certain teams.. G.B., cough, Dallas, hiccup, New England, fidget, . Its absolutely ridiculous how we watch them favor the darling teams, blow calls, and now just basically make their calls relying on instant replay to make their calls correct . I myself am sick and tired of it. My best friend and I, he is a Bears fan, texted during game about how on some of the obvious screw job calls against us, Collinsworth pretty much said they were terrible calls by actually remaining silent. Its ridiculous and I am sick of it. If I were a fan of one of the favored teams I wouldn't be upset, but man we get the screw job about every wk.
Ok enuff of that.

This issue is beyond frustrating. The bias is clear IMO. I'm thankful we overcame some bad calls, and are not lamenting another screw job. This is not a Viking issue alone for sure, it's a league-wide issue, The refs are having too much influence on the games. If it's not intentional, it's an absurd coincidence. At some point, as much as I love football, this is going to wear me out and a lot of fans I think. But... I'm done with this conversation now too. On to better stuff!

Yep agree with you buddy. Spilled out my anger and frustration, and glad it didn't cost us a win like the PI call against Cook did in GB.
Time for us to start beating teams convincingly and not let it happen.
We BEAT the Cowboys at Jerryworld. So we shall Celebrate!! SKOL!!!

[Bowhunting Viking]

Many of you on this board said everything points to a Dallas win, that the Vikings would continue their history of losing in prime time to a good team. Funny how most of you are (not so) strangely silent.

Cold, greasy, bitter crow. That's what many are eating today.

I'm one of those crow-eaters.

But I'll tell you something - it doesn't taste half bad to be eating crow in this situation.

Hats off to those of you who kept the faith. Those of us who didn't can learn something from all of you.

Man, STILL impressed this morning with how well the Vikings shut down the Cowboy run game. If there was a difference in this game, that was probably the single biggest one.

I feel same way about how our D absolutely shut down Zeke and the running game.
And equally impressed at how well we excelled in the running game, when the Boys were predicting how they were gonna " Take the wheels off our running game". Cook and Mattison ran great, and our line really did open some nice holes last night. We have one helluva set of RBs.

[mansquatch]

Great win and really a win that was more on the shoulders of the offense than the defense. In particular I think the OL and offensive coaching staff deserve a lot of credit. The OL did a fantastic job in the running game against a monstrous front 7 and also did a great job giving Cousins time to throw. The Offensive Staff called a really solid game tonight as well. Great game.

On Defense I want to be worried about the secondary and feel like i should be, but I wonder how much of what we saw was the game plan, ie making Dallas one dimensional? It really felt like the DAL tackles had their way with Hunter and EG. We were not getting any meaningful pressure on Prescott all game and that is what i think lead to our secondary getting scorched so bad. My sense in watching is that Zimmer didn't want to give any openings for Elliot to gain traction and as such was willing to accept the passing yardage. They stiffened enough in the redzone to pull out the win.

That last point is really salient IMO. The game plan doesn't work if the offense isn't chugging along like it was.

Still this is two games where the Defense has allowed a WR to go bonkers. That doesn't bode well for the playoffs. I don't think we'll see too many teams that will field Tackles like the Cowboys have, which means the secondary will not be defending routes for 5+ seconds all game. So in that respect the issues against KC and DAL are probably a bit different.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer too much, it was in a lot of ways a signature win for the Vikings. Hopefully this will give them the shot in the arm confidence wise that they need to go on a solid run to finish out the season.

[Texas Vike]

Great win and really a win that was more on the shoulders of the offense than the defense. In particular I think the OL and offensive coaching staff deserve a lot of credit. The OL did a fantastic job in the running game against a monstrous front 7 and also did a great job giving Cousins time to throw. The Offensive Staff called a really solid game tonight as well. Great game.

On Defense I want to be worried about the secondary and feel like i should be, but I wonder how much of what we saw was the game plan, ie making Dallas one dimensional? It really felt like the DAL tackles had their way with Hunter and EG. We were not getting any meaningful pressure on Prescott all game and that is what i think lead to our secondary getting scorched so bad. My sense in watching is that Zimmer didn't want to give any openings for Elliot to gain traction and as such was willing to accept the passing yardage. They stiffened enough in the redzone to pull out the win.

That last point is really salient IMO. The game plan doesn't work if the offense isn't chugging along like it was.

Still this is two games where the Defense has allowed a WR to go bonkers. That doesn't bode well for the playoffs. I don't think we'll see too many teams that will field Tackles like the Cowboys have, which means the secondary will not be defending routes for 5+ seconds all game. So in that respect the issues against KC and DAL are probably a bit different.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer too much, it was in a lot of ways a signature win for the Vikings. Hopefully this will give them the shot in the arm confidence wise that they need to go on a solid run to finish out the season.

Good analysis. I'll add my 2 cents. The D was repeatedly solid on early downs, which got them into many 3rd and longs. We did not excel, however, at getting off the field in those cases. You are right to point out that Dallas' OL handled our pass rush pretty well. Zimmer DID try to blitz Barr/ Kendricks/ Harry, but Dallas usually picked it up or Dak dealt with it well via movement. We have to give credit to Dallas on that. I think Zimmer's system is predicated on being strong enough in the secondary to not HAVE to blitz too often, but our secondary is no longer as elite as they were and Zimmer has yet to adjust his scheme. I'm sure guys with more time on their hands will do a great break down (w/ videos, on twitter) comparing when our blitzes worked and when they didn't. I look forward to seeing those analyses. My hypothesis is that A Gap blitzes didn't work as well as sending a safety around the end, but my memory could be off.

[Purple Domination]

Really happy about the win but I feel like the Cowboys beat themselves in the last 2 drives. The Cowboys were throwing all over us all game and they get down near the 10 yard line and run it with Zeke 2 times in a row for negative yardage. If that was our team, we'd be calling for Zimmer's head for running it twice when the run hadn't worked all game and passing was seemingly easily.

How many times have we beaten ourselves, though? I get what you are saying, but those things decide a lot of game outcomes in the NFL. Glad we played well and were able to take advantage of their mistakes. Now I am sure Dallas fan line was furious about a lot of things after the game.

[VikingLord]

I'm definitely biased because I'm really hard on our defense, but even though we technically stopped them (the 4th down play was awesome), I think the Cowboys beat themselves by running it when the run clearly wasn't working. If those two plays were passes I think we probably lose that game.

Why weren't they passes?

I know the coverage looked poor overall, and was poor at times, but Dallas ended up in a decent number of 3rd-and-longs and converted several of them by the skin of their teeth, either by Prescott barely escaping with his life before the throw or by barely evading a pick. There were at least 3 Prescott throws that I thought could have been picked and returned for 6. On several more, Prescott barely got the pass off before he got hit. And I think as Dallas got into the shorter field, they realized it was going to be much harder to complete those passes, which is why they went to Elliot to try to force the Vikings to worry a bit more about the run.

I'm not saying the coverage was great all night. I'm just saying that I think Dallas realized they were getting away with some stuff in the passing game and feared it was about to catch up with them, and they needed Elliot to do something on the ground to get things aligned so they could take a shot in the passing game on a shorter field and he couldn't do it.

I mean, take that 4th-and-5 that Kendricks broke up as an example of what I'm talking about. That was Dak's first read, and Kendricks was all over it. If Dak had a better option on that play, that guy was likely well covered too.

I thought the Vikings were also getting better pressure on Prescott as the game went on, which is also something I noticed last week against KC too. It seems like the Vikings DEs especially seem to get more active and have more energy as the the game enters the 4th quarter, and even though that wasn't enough against KC, it's still encouraging to see.

[CharVike]

oh I’m sure there will be something along the lines of “Dallas is average”, “it wasn’t a big game”, “cousins yardage mostly came on screens”, “he still held the ball too long”, etc. Same song and dance

I said early on that Dallas was grossly overrated. They went 3-0 and everyone drooled over them but they beat the giants, dolphins and redskins. And the cowboys got beat by the jets. They aren’t very good at all IMO.

Dallas has the same problem as us. They lack an elite QB. Teams want that guy to throw. That's why the Jones family isn't throwing a pile of gold his way. They know he's limited. If they can't run the ball a victory is almost impossible to get unless they are playing a stiff like the Giants. Below is a Dallas beat writer talking about the Boys
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Or maybe, and we’ve seen this before, maybe they are just an average team that can not only beat most of the poor teams, but blow them out. But then against the teams that are competitive to good, the Cowboys just can’t get over the hump.

They can play with the Saints, Packers and Vikings. They just haven’t showed that they can win.
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Same as us. Since neither team has a QB that's good enough to carry the squad we both need to build a world record beating D to win it all. And neither of us are close to that. We both need an elite level QB. Not many of them around. Dallas will do the same thing the Skins did with Cousins. A few tags and then see ya stiff. You'er not good enough to carry our team to the show.