Misc. Thoughts: Patriots

It is always weird watching a recorded game, you will tend to fast-forward to stuff you might really want to hear/watch.  For instance, I missed the Patriots TD being overturned as I walked away for a second figuring it was a touchdown only to come back as see the Patriots only got a field goal.  I honestly thought they had changed to call to a catch at the 1 yard line.  I was so anxious that I just fast-forwarded at that point to get to the Vikings next possession.  Now my thoughts:

• JJ Should Be Considered Strongly For MVP:  Purely from a wins/losses perspective, I can't think of only a few players who have a contributed to a teams record like JJ.  With all the 1 score games, without JJ the Vikes record would be well below 500.  Then, on top of that, though KOC gets some credit for unlocking Dark Cousins, clearly JJ should get a ton of credit for us seeing a different Cousins this year.  I can't recall a year where Cousins threw as many 50/50 balls as he did against the Patriots -- all to JJ.
• Defense:  I had hopes that the current personnel would grow into the current scheme and that we would see a much better defense as the year went on.  Now I am convinced that there are just a lot of players who don't fit the scheme.  It also sucks that your 1st and 2nd round picks, both on defense, are not contributing at all.  There are just too many square holes, round pegs.
• OLine:  You must be impressed how the OLine and coaching schemed for the Patriots on a short week and missing its best player.  I believe the Patrioys were second in the league in getting sacks going into the game.  That being said, the running game is a shell of its former self.   Maybe the limitation of training time has caused the coaching staff to pick either pass blocking or run blocking to emphasize.  Or perhaps Cook is not the ideal back for the run blocking scheme.
• Screen Game:  As I said last week, it is a stunning deterioration of the screen game from last year.  This OLine should be terrific at the screen game and they just aren't.  It is almost like there is a 'tell' with when the Vikes are going to throw a screen.
• Patrick P and Situational Football:  I loved PP's tackle of the wide receiver in the final drive and keeping the wr in bounds.  Perfect situational football.  What was not situational football: the Patriots Jakobi Meyers taking a knee on the final pass reception.  Pretty cool that the Vikes play better situational football than Belicheck's Patriots.