09-20-2019, 12:16 PM
According to Pro Football Focus, Cousins was pressured on a whopping 65.7 percent of his drop-backs on Sunday, after being pressured on 45.5 percent of them against the Falcons in Week 1. He lost the ball on the first-quarter strip sack, and while his fourth-quarter interception in the end zone was a bad decision by Cousins’ own admission, he had Dean Lowry bearing down on him as he threw the back-footed pass.
Cousins had six throwaways on Sunday, and was hit six times in the game. His first interception, on a ball intended for Diggs and thrown into coverage over the middle of the field, came when Cousins had a clean pocket, but the Packers’ pressure was almost constant on Sunday, and it came from multiple angles: defensive tackle Kenny Clark had seven pressures, while Lowry had six, Za’Darius Smith had five and Preston Smith and Kyler Fackrell had four each.
Garrett Bradbury struggled again in pass protection, and Dakota Dozier had a rough afternoon in place of the injured Pat Elflein; he gave up five pressures, including when Cousins was forced to scramble for six yards in the fourth quarter after Dozier appeared to turn the wrong way. But as the Vikings rallied on Sunday, they also maintained enough balance that the Packers couldn’t just come after Cousins without regard for the run. That’s the part that might be the most concerning for the Vikings going forward; even as they were able to run the ball the way they wanted on Sunday, their passing game didn’t reap many of the benefits.
Here are two other areas of concern for the Vikings after their loss on Sunday:
The run defense: As much as the Vikings were able to sustain their running game even after falling behind 21-0, they allowed a Packers offense that came into the season preaching balance to control the clock with its own running game. Green Bay held the ball for 34:06, and even after Cousins’ fourth-quarter interception, the Packers took away the Vikings’ final chance to win the game by running 2:58 off the clock and forcing them to burn through their timeouts.
Penalties:. But after they were flagged 11 times for 100 yards in Week 1, the Vikings were called eight times for another 100 yards in penalties on Sunday. Coach Mike Zimmer called Diggs’ unsportsmanlike conduct penalty “selfish,” after Diggs’ decision to remove his helmet following his 45-yard touchdown led to a 48-yard extra point that Green Bay blocked. A holding call on Bradbury in the third quarter took the Vikings out of field goal range. Zimmer’s best teams have been some of the NFL’s least-penalized; the Vikings have a long way to go to put themselves atop those rankings.
http://www.startribune.com/pressure-was-...560483112/
Cousins had six throwaways on Sunday, and was hit six times in the game. His first interception, on a ball intended for Diggs and thrown into coverage over the middle of the field, came when Cousins had a clean pocket, but the Packers’ pressure was almost constant on Sunday, and it came from multiple angles: defensive tackle Kenny Clark had seven pressures, while Lowry had six, Za’Darius Smith had five and Preston Smith and Kyler Fackrell had four each.
Garrett Bradbury struggled again in pass protection, and Dakota Dozier had a rough afternoon in place of the injured Pat Elflein; he gave up five pressures, including when Cousins was forced to scramble for six yards in the fourth quarter after Dozier appeared to turn the wrong way. But as the Vikings rallied on Sunday, they also maintained enough balance that the Packers couldn’t just come after Cousins without regard for the run. That’s the part that might be the most concerning for the Vikings going forward; even as they were able to run the ball the way they wanted on Sunday, their passing game didn’t reap many of the benefits.
Here are two other areas of concern for the Vikings after their loss on Sunday:
The run defense: As much as the Vikings were able to sustain their running game even after falling behind 21-0, they allowed a Packers offense that came into the season preaching balance to control the clock with its own running game. Green Bay held the ball for 34:06, and even after Cousins’ fourth-quarter interception, the Packers took away the Vikings’ final chance to win the game by running 2:58 off the clock and forcing them to burn through their timeouts.
Penalties:. But after they were flagged 11 times for 100 yards in Week 1, the Vikings were called eight times for another 100 yards in penalties on Sunday. Coach Mike Zimmer called Diggs’ unsportsmanlike conduct penalty “selfish,” after Diggs’ decision to remove his helmet following his 45-yard touchdown led to a 48-yard extra point that Green Bay blocked. A holding call on Bradbury in the third quarter took the Vikings out of field goal range. Zimmer’s best teams have been some of the NFL’s least-penalized; the Vikings have a long way to go to put themselves atop those rankings.
http://www.startribune.com/pressure-was-...560483112/
