Denver Broncos vs Minnesota Vikings
The Broncos managed to blow their fourth second-half lead of the year, allowing the Vikings to come back from a 20-0 halftime deficit. This is the first time in the last five years that a team has won a game after trailing by 20 or more points at the half. Kirk Cousins overcame a sub-par performance by Dalvin Cook to lead the Vikings to victory.
Denver Broncos
Quarterback
- Brandon Allen: 17/39, 240 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 Sacks | 3 carries, 18 yards
While Brandon Allen only took two sacks, he was not comfortable in the pocket, which led to a lot of errant throws. On the first play from scrimmage, Allen missed Courtland Sutton deep after Sutton burnt Xavier Rhodes (a theme that you’ll hear often in this writeup). Allen seemed more comfortable throwing deep passes than short, as he completed four of eight deep throws for 151 yards. Sutton also drew a pass interference penalty on Rhodes after leaving him as burnt toast on a deep throw. Unfortunately, completing less than 50% of his passes led to not being able to sustain drives in the second half, where the Broncos scored just three points.
Running Backs
- Phillip Lindsay: 16 carries, 67 yards | 2 targets, 2 receptions, 8 yards
- Royce Freeman: 8 carries, 31 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 14 yards
We now have a two-week sample size of what the Broncos players workloads look like with Brandon Allen under center. From Weeks 1-7, Royce Freeman averaged over four targets per game out of the backfield; however, over the last two weeks, he’s seen just 3 targets from Allen. Freeman also saw just 32% of the Broncos snaps, his lowest snap share of the season. Phillip Lindsay saw double the touches and had his highest snap share of the season. This is a positive for Lindsay owners and a negative for Freeman owners but is something to keep an eye on, considering it’s just a two-week sample size.
Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends
- Courtland Sutton: 9 targets, 5 receptions, 113 yards | 2 carries, 10 yards | 1/1, 38 yards
- Noah Fant: 11 targets, 4 receptions, 60 yards | 2 carries, -7 yards
- Tim Patrick: 8 targets, 4 receptions, 60 yards
Courtland Sutton did it all today. Burnt Xavier Rhodes multiple times, carried the ball and even completed a deep pass to Tim Patrick. Sutton took an end-around from Phillip Lindsay and connected with Patrick for 38 yards. To be fair, it was a 50-50 ball that Patrick went up and got. It could’ve been a much bigger day for Sutton as Allen missed him when he was open deep multiple times and he had a big gain taken away after Rhodes interfered on a deep ball. Sutton also saw three red-zone targets and remains a high-end WR2 moving forward. Noah Fant saw an incredible 11 targets. Unfortunately, most of Fant’s targets were of the short variety which Allen struggled with. On the plus side, four of those targets came in the red zone. Overall, you have to be happy with that kind of target share and 60 yards from a tight end that you most likely grabbed off the waiver wire. Fant should be treated as a backend TE1 moving forward. With DaeSean Hamilton questionable with a knee injury coming into this week’s game, Tim Patrick saw the field for the first time since Week 1, where he played on just eight snaps. Well, Patrick saw the field a lot and received eight targets, three of which came in the red zone. We’ll keep an eye on Patrick to see if this type of workload becomes consistent, but with Allen under center, it’s hard to see Patrick as anything more than a deep flex.
Minnesota Vikings
Quarterback
- Kirk Cousins: 29/35, 319 yards, 3 TD, 5 sacks | 2 carries, 1 yard, 1 fumble lost
On Friday, I was listening to a Pro Football Focus podcast and Jeff Ratcliffe said that Kirk Cousins was second in the league in adjusted completion percentage, behind only Drew Brees. Cousins showed that efficiency against the Broncos completing 83% of his passes. However, don’t mistake efficiency with perfection, because Cousins was far from perfect. The offense came out flat in the first half, going three and out on the first two series’. It wasn’t until the third series of the game that they managed a first down, however, a false start penalty, followed by a third-down sack, resulted in a five-play series for -1 yard. With the Broncos already up 17-0, Cousins took a sack and fumbled the ball deep in Vikings’ territory. Luckily for them, the Broncos were held to just a field goal. Overall, the Vikings’ first half was 23 plays for 37 yards and zero points. There must’ve been one heck of a pep talk at halftime because the Vikings came out and scored touchdowns on all four of their second-half possessions. Cousins connected with Diggs on two deep balls in the second half and overall, it was a different quarterback than the one we saw in the first half.
Running Backs
- Dalvin Cook: 11 carries, 26 yards, 1 TD | 6 targets, 5 receptions, 31 yards
This is not what I expected out of the Dalvin Cook, who was second in the league in yards from scrimmage coming into this game. The touchdown saves you and if you’re in a PPR league, the five catches are nice, but 57 total yards are surprising. Overall, there isn’t much to report here. The Broncos seemed to focus on shutting Cook down and dared Cousins to beat them with his arm and that’s exactly what happened. Regardless of this performance, Cook remains a top-end RB1 for the rest of the year.
Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends
- Stefon Diggs: 5 targets, 5 receptions, 121 yards, 1 TD
- Kyle Rudolph: 5 targets, 5 receptions, 67 yards, 1 TD
- Bisi Johnson: 9 targets, 6 receptions, 35 yards
- Irv Smith, Jr: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 20 yards, 1 TD
Stefon Diggs saw coverage from Chris Harris most of the game, but even the stud corner couldn’t shut Diggs down. Diggs’ first official target didn’t come until the third quarter, but in the 2nd quarter, Diggs caught a deep pass that would’ve gone for 30 yards if not for an offensive holding penalty. That would’ve made three deep completions to Diggs on the day. Kyle Rudolph continued his strong recent performance catching all five of his targets and finding the end zone on one. That makes four of the last five weeks that Rudolph has found paydirt. With Adam Thielen out, Bisi Johnson saw nine targets; however, the majority of those were short targets. Johnson saw two deep targets that fell incomplete. Even with Rudolph being productive, Irv Smith, Jr. managed to find the end zone. If something were to happen to Rudolph, Smith could sneak into weekly fantasy relevance.
-Rich Holman