The grades from Pro Football Focus from the Vikings’ 34-26 win over the Cardinals are in. Let’s dig into them…
Za’Darius Smith leads active defense
Smith has been a wrecking ball for the Vikings and Sunday he destroyed Arizona’s banged up offensive line (they were down three starters) and racked up three sacks to tie New England’s Matthew Judon for the NFL lead at 8.5.
Smith’s 81.6 PFF grade was the highest on the defense, just ahead of Patrick Peterson’s 81.0 and Jordan Hicks’ 76.5, both of whom were playing a revenge game against their former team.
Smith tied Danielle Hunter for a team best four pressures in the game, though Hunter didn’t record a sack. D.J. Wonnum added three pressures, but Kyler Murray was elusive enough to only be hit two times in addition to the four sacks he took.
Who was DeAndre Hopkins torching all day?
The only Cardinal who really threatened the Vikings all day was DeAndre Hopkins, who had 12 catches for 159 yards and a touchdown.
Chandon Sullivan and Harrison Smith got beat all three times each was covering Hopkins, and Hopkins caught five of six targets when he was matched up with Cam Dantzler.
Rondale Moore had seven catches in the game and five of them were when he was covered by Sullivan.
Peterson posted a team best 85.2 coverage grade, having been targeted five times and only allowing two catches for 42 yards, 37 of which came after the catch. PFF didn’t document any targets to Hopkins against Peterson.
How did Kirk Cousins do under pressure?
Another week and another efficient-but-not-mind-blowing performance from Kirk Cousins, who completed 24-of-36 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns, not to mention his 17-yard rushing touchdown on the opening drive.
When Cousins was passing out from a clean pocket he was 18-of-23 for 170 yards and both of his touchdowns. When he was under pressure, he was 6-of-13 for just 62 yards and his yards per attempt dropped from 7.4 while clean to 4.8.
You maybe noticed if you were watching the game, but Cousins only attempted nine passes 10+ yards down the field. He was 4-of-4 on passes behind the line-of-scrimmage, 15-of-17 on throws 0-9 yards, 3-of-5 from 10-19 yards and 2-of-4 on throws 20+ yards downfield.
How’d the offensive line do?
Christian Darrisaw continues to establish himself as one of the premier left tackles in football as he posted a 91.7 overall grade, including an 87.7 pass-blocking grade and a 91.2 run-blocking score.
- Ezra Cleveland: 79.5 overall, 57.1 pass blocking, 82.7 run blocking
- Brian O’Neill: 66.7 overall, 68.2 pass blocking, 62.7 run blocking
- Garrett Bradbury: 66.6 overall, 69.6 pass blocking, 71.1 run blocking
- Ed Ingram: 41.7 overall, 16.9 pass blocking, 59.7 run blocking
Based on PFF grades, that was Ingram’s worst pass-blocking performance of the season. He was charged with allowing two sacks, one QB hit and three QB hurries for a total of six pressures.
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