This game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Chargers lived up to the billing.
There were a ton of fireworks throughout this game, including four touchdowns of 30+ yards between the two teams. Both Kirk Cousins and Justin Herbert threw for 300+ yards. Justin Jefferson and Keenan Allen made defenders on both sides of the ball look silly.
Buy Vikings TicketsKevin O’Connell and Brandon Staley were aggressive in their decision-making, but ultimately, the score ended up 28-24 in favor of the Chargers.
Losing three games to start this season is heartbreaking, but there are certain players on this team who have seen their stock go up in this game.
Stock up: Run defense
The Minnesota offense does not get another chance at winning this football game without a crucial fourth-and-one stop from the interior of this Vikings defense.
At the beginning of the second half, the leading rusher for the Los Angeles Chargers was Justin Herbert on a 12-yard scramble.
Whether it was Kellen Moore pulling the plug on the Chargers run offense due to the loss of Austin Ekeler or the Vikings forcing the issue, keeping a team to only 30 yards on 15 carries is something to be proud of.
Stock down: Pass defense
Justin Herbert had a historically good day against the Vikings’ secondary.
Justin Herbert ends the day completing 40 of 47 passes — that's 85%.
That's the best single-game completion percentage for any quarterback with at least 45 pass attempts in league history.
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) September 24, 2023
Herbert went 40-of-47 for 405 yards and three touchdowns. This makes for Justin Herbert’s career-high and first-ever game with 400+ passing yards. He navigated the pocket and continued to beat up the coverage behind the aggressive front seven of Brian Flores’ defense. Out of the 24 first downs in the game for the Chargers, 22 came through the air.
Keenan Allen had a career day as well. His 215-yard game makes for a career-high and his first-ever 200-yard receiving game on the season. To go with his career day catching the ball, he added a 49-yard bomb to fellow receiver Michael Williams.
Stock up: Run game
There were times in this game that Kevin O’Connell looked to try to force the run game but it did end up paying off as the run game looked the best it has since the beginning of the season. Alexander Mattison had a suspect day with an early fumble and a few drops but he did finally end up getting going, ending the day with 93 yards on 20 carries.
Second-year running back Ty Chandler added 27 yards of his own on just three carries.
With Chandler’s explosiveness and the addition of Cam Akers, expect some noise as far as the snap count in the running back room.
Stock down: Offensive line
It’s become a weekly occurrence where the offensive line’s stock continues to plummet.
Kirk Cousins had a tough time getting into a rhythm early, with plenty of hits on him in the first half of this game. The offensive line allowed four sacks and 13 total quarterback hits on Cousins for the day.
Cousins threw a few balls to a spot early in his receivers’ routes simply because he could not get through his drop before a defender was in his face.
Next off-season, upgrading this offensive line must be a priority of this front office.
Stock up: Kirk Cousins
Cousins throwing the interception at the end of the game after not downing the ball was not a wise decision. However, his play was a key reason why they were in this game until the very end in the first place.
Kirk went 32-of-50 for 367 yards with three touchdowns on the day. He made some tight-window throws in key situations, including a key fourth-down conversion to T.J. Hockenson directly before the interception.
Also, Justin Jefferson was a yard away from becoming the first player to have 150+ yards in the first three games to start a season. The connection between Cousins and Jefferson has yielded immediate results in the yardage column, just not the win column.
Stock down: Execution
The Vikings were able to get to Herbert on various occasions but were not able to bring him down but once.
They fumbled yet again in the first quarter to stop the momentum of an early drive that looked to be yielding points, especially after Minnesota started the drive from LA’s 43-yard line.
The final sequence of plays that led up to the interception and the drops throughout the game are all lack of execution on the part of the Vikings.
It has become a frustrating watch for fans to watch this talented team come up short week after week because of a lack of execution. Something has to change if these Vikings want a sliver of a chance to salvage this season.
