Aloha, Skoloholics! Only a few more short days until the next Minnesota Vikings game. Yes, PLAYOFF football returns to U.S. Bank Stadium, as the Giants come to town for a 3:30 game on Sunday, January 15 2023. It’s been a bit of a drought for us Vikings fans, as the Vikings haven’t made the playoffs since 2019, and haven’t hosted a playoff game at home since 2017. I will be there to cheer on our beloved purple and gold, and I cannot wait! This week is crawling by, ugh.
For stats or a preview, you can access them at the Game Center at Vikings.com.
PFF
We use PFF for much of our analysis, mostly because we had to settle on a tool to use, and that’s what we chose. It’s common, and although it’s far from perfect, it’s something more objective than the “eye test”, and is at the very least, a useful tool. Most of our analysis is locked behind a paywall, so I won’t bother linking.
As you likely know, PFF grades each individual player on each individual play throughout a game, then assigns a grade based on how well they performed. They have numerous categories for each side of the ball, and an “overall” grade for either offense or defense. Wherever you see me reference a grade below, the overall is the grade I’m referring to, the PFF overall defensive or offensive grade.
Giants Offense vs. Vikings Defense
It’s interesting to look at how we stack up to the opposition on the field, and predict which positional battles one team may try to use and exploit for their advantage. In this first segment, we’ll look at the Minnesota Vikings offense against the New York Giants defense.
Match-Ups to Watch
Vikings Pass Rush vs. Giants Offensive Line
The Giants have a glaring weakness on their entire offensive line, with the exception of Andrew Thomas, who is a superstar. Donatell SHOULD be able to exploit that glaring weakness, and should be able to use guys like Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith to harass Jones the entire game. You could also see Harrison Smith or Bynum come in at times to disrupt the Giants’ passing game.
When these teams met on Christmas Eve, the Vikings allowed 319 passing yards and 126 rushing yards to the Giants offense. The Giants averaged 185.7 passing yards per game this season, so 319 is obviously far more than you want to allow. The Vikings defense will need to clean this up a bit. I don’t expect the 2000 Ravens, but something resembling an NFL defense, such as we saw last week against the Bears, would be nice.
Giants Passing Attack
The Giants averaged nearly as many rushing yards as they did passing yards on offense in the 2022-23 season. As mentioned, they averaged 185.7 yards/game through the air, and they averaged 148.2 yards/game on the ground. The Vikings held them to a more modest 126 yards last time, so you hope they can replicate that effort or improve on it.
The Vikings secondary matches up fairly well against the Giants receiving corps. I see no glaring weaknesses or potential mismatches that either team would look to exploit. The Giants just don’t have any lethal weapons in their receiving game, other than their running backs. The running backs are who the Vikings will need to focus on in this game, IMO, in order to limit the Giants’ offense.
Coaching
Here are two rookie head coaches facing off. Both are offensive-minded, so here is where KOC has to rely on the guy he hired to take care of the defense, DC Ed Donatell. Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just stating a fact. Let’s hope he has a better answer to the Giants’ passing attack than he had in the last game. In the end, I just want a win, so let’s go get one. SKOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Force Jones to throw early and often, stack the box so Barkley has nowhere to run
PFF is literally an eye test by the “analytical” “experts” at PFF, its trash
it’s*
Good stuff!