The Minnesota Vikings beat the Detroit Lions on Sunday by a score of 28-24. It wasn’t the prettiest game but it showed a lot about the Vikings moving forward.
On defense, the team only allowed 24 points which feels impressive when the Lions were as consistent on offense as they were. On the back end, they didn’t allow any deep ball completions without Harrison Smith who was out with a concussion.
In Smith’s place, the coaching staff refused to name a starter between Josh Metellus and Lewis Cine stating that they had ideas for each player during the game.
The defense ended up playing 75 snaps on Sunday and Metellus out-snapped Cine a whopping 75-0 per ESPN stats and info. The major deficit had Cine tweeting out of frustration.
Vikings' plan was to use both Josh Metellus and Lewis Cine in place of Harrison Smith today. In the end, Metellus played all 76 defensive snaps. Cine played 15 snaps on special teams but none on defense, per @ESPNStatsInfo player participation tracking. https://t.co/hWH8VeynJ2
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) September 26, 2022
On Saturday, we wrote about Cine and if it should be a concern that he had only played one defensive snap. He needed time to develop and get used to the speed of the game. After getting zero defensive snaps and just 15 on special teams for the second-straight week, maybe it is time to be a little bit concerned.
As far as Metellus, he played a great game on Sunday. On the last drive, he almost made the game-ending interception and followed it up by actually ending the game with an interception. Putting in Metellus was a good move but not seeing Cine in for even a few plays was inherently frustrating.
