The Minnesota Vikings struggled too much on Sunday afternoon against the Detroit Lions which ended up with a 30-24 loss on Christmas Eve. Despite not going the way the Vikings wanted it to, there is still plenty of positive from this game.
The intrigue about it lies in the snap count data. Multiple injuries hindered the offense and defense throughout the game, but who stepped in to replace them? Looking at that process gave us a lot of information on how the Vikings might proceed forward when dealing with their injuries.
The snap counts from Sunday’s game are interesting and we break them down.
Offensive snap counts
- 55: Christian Darrisaw, Dalton Risner, David Quessenberry, Ed Ingram, Garrett Bradbury, Nick Mullens
- 54: Justin Jefferson
- 47: K.J. Osborn
- 36: Ty Chandler
- 28: Brandon Powell
- 24: T.J. Hockenson
- 23: Johnny Mundt
- 21: Jordan Addison
- 20: Josh Oliver
- 17: C.J. Ham
- 5: Alexander Mattison
- 1: Lucky Jackson
Offensive snap count analysis
The real intrigue with the offensive snap counts is what the Vikings did after the injuries to Hockenson and Addison. The majority of the tight end snaps went to Mundt. It appears that the Vikings trusted him to be the receiving threat in the offense more than they did Oliver.
Powell got a significant amount of snaps on offense as well once Addison left. Jackson even got onto the field for the first time this season.
Defensive snap counts
- 79: Josh Metellus, Camryn Bynum, Jordan Hicks, Harrison Smith
- 74: Danielle Hunter
- 65: Akayleb Evans
- 60: D.J. Wonnum
- 59: Jonathan Bullard
- 58: Harrison Phillips
- 54: Pat Jones II
- 39: Mekhi Blackmon
- 38: Andrew Booth Jr.
- 30: Ivan Pace Jr.
- 25: Sheldon Day
- 15: Theo Jackson
- 13: Jaylin Williams
- 12: Khyiris Tonga
- 4: Jay Ward, Jaquelin Roy
- 1: Andre Carter II
Defensive snap count analysis
The same players played every snap against the Lions as they have every week. The biggest surprise possibly was Hicks playing all the snaps in his first game back. That prompted Pace to only play in 30 snaps when he had been playing every snap with Hicks out.
Blackmon only ended up playing 39 snaps due to his shoulder injury, which led to Booth playing in 38 snaps. Williams played in 13 snaps due to Evans being benched.
