3 key stats highlight Minnesota’s impressive win vs. New Orleans that will have Vikings fans excited heading into the bye week
Things aren’t perfect for the Minnesota Vikings going into the bye week, but their record is perfect through five games.
The Minnesota Vikings are a fascinating team to talk about. They are 5-0 after a 23-13 win over the New Orleans Saints, and the vibes surrounding them are still in a weird place.
Through the first four games, there was a lot of discussion about what the Vikings should do at quarterback. Kyler Murray has been inconsistent at quarterback, and suffering the concussion didn’t help things. He has shown incremental improvement over the last three games, all of which he played the entire game.
Being that the Vikings are now 5-0, the bye week is here at the perfect time, and there is a fair amount of optimism with the Vikings. These stats have epitomized that success.
84
The last two games haven’t just been good from the perspective of wins and losses; they’ve been great on the defensive side of the football. The unit has allowed just 17 points over the two-game span, but that isn’t the most impressive thing about the stretch.
Over the last two games, the Vikings defense has been on the field for just 84 plays. That’s an average of 42 plays a game, and it extends out to 714 plays over a 17-game season. For context, the Vikings defense was on the field for 1,025 plays, or 60.29 per game. It’s not just the plays, as the defense has only been on the field for 41:12 of the last 120 game minutes.
Saving 18 plays per game is a big deal for the health of the unit, as is controlling the wear and tear on an older unit. Guys like Harrison Smith, Josh Metellus, and Blake Cashman will be thankful for this stretch.
0.22
The biggest area of concern for the Vikings was the offense. Quarterback Kyler Murray struggled in multiple ways over the first four games, including missing the Week 2 matchup with the Chicago Bears with a concussion. We needed to see more from him and the offense, and we got that on Sunday afternoon.
Murray didn’t just have a positive EPA/play and a bonkers CPOE of 11.8, he generated 0.22 EPA/play. He did so in a bevy of ways, both with his arm and feet, including 9-18 on third down. For comparison, Murray finished last Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins wiht an EPA of -0.07, and that includes a fourth quarter EPA of 0.588.
Things weren’t perfect for the Vikings offensively, but they are certainly trending in the right direction.
43
One of the biggest issues with the Vikings’ offense being able to sustain drives. Going into the day, the Vikings had a success rate across their first four games of just 34.4%. For context, the Indianapolis Colts ranked 16th in the NFL at 43.7%, and the San Francisco 49ers are first at 54.1%. It was a big reason why the Vikings weren’t able to get things going.
That changed on Sunday, as they had a success rate of 43.3%. That is a massive increase in successful plays, and the Vikings needed to see that kind of increase. The offense is still a work in progress, and having a level of inconsistency is normal, but getting to a more consistent point is massive for the Vikigns going into the bye week.
