Field Gulls
A) Last year’s Minnesota Vikings quarterback is now with the Seattle Seahawks.
B) We know revenge games are real.
C) Seattle is currently good and Minnesota is, well, not.
Ergo, when they faced off in Week 13, Sam Darnold would eat like it was Hours 69-72 of Thanksgiving while the Vikings chewed on their offseason decisions. And, if you look at the score only, the spurned QB did get the last word… without delivering it himself. Darnold accounted for no touchdowns, but then again neither did the Vikings, Ernest Jones outscored them both by himself, another fourth quarter was reduced to 15 minutes of garbage time, and the Seahawks moved to 9-3.
Oh yeah, ‘twas a shutout too, a 26-0 disassembly disguised as a game. No secret: this game was strictly about the defense, which played like eleven lit sticks of dynamite to Max Brosmer’s Wile E. Coyote. Unlike so many other cartoonish backup quarterbacks before him who managed to roadrunner their way through the fake tunnel painted on the end zone, the Vikings emergency signalcaller hit his head, saw stars, watched a giant lump rise from his forehead, and flew home wondering how the heck it all went wrong.
Four interceptions, a fumble recovery and a turnover on downs. 162 yards of offense, 11 first downs on 13 drives (!), four sacks, 2.8 yards per attempt . The Vikings guided five drives into Seahawks territory. All five times the possession ended in a giveaway. None bigger than when Ernest Jones right-place-right-timed himself into six points.
Hold up, though. There is no Jones pick-six without DeMarcus Lawrence, who provided the pressure as part of his usual (!) monster day at the forefront of the defense. And there is no fourth and 1 to even speak of without Josh Jobe’s clean sideline tackle of Jordan Addision juuuuuuuuust short of the sticks a play earlier.
The whole defense engulfed Brosmer, Addison, Justin Jefferson and every other Viking from whistle to whistle. Byron Murphy wasn’t stoppable. Drake Thomas chipped in a half-sack. Jobe erased Jefferson and created one of Jones’ interceptions. Tariq Woolen stepped in front of an in-breaking route and definitely held on to the ball, I’m offended you believe he fumbled while trying to take it back to the house, why that doesn’t sound like him at all. For shame, dear reader, for shame. How can you hate a guy who laps the field on an interception return?
So this game isn’t about the quarterback, the star receiver, the stud running back. It’s an unabashed ode to the entire defense on a day they deserve every tulip in Mount Vernon. (Okay, let us quietly raise a glass to Jason Myers too, who methodically pushed the Vikings’ door to victory closed with each three-pointer he calmly knocked through the uprights.)
The scoreless opening quarter — third one this year for Seattle — featured two near-interceptions, zero explosives, and a whole lot of pressure on Sam Darnold. No turnovers felt like a win...
