Vikings' Defense Gashed by Alvin Kamara, Saints in Shootout Loss
This was not a particularly merry Christmas for the Vikings. In front of a national TV audience, their injury-ravaged defense gave up historic numbers to Alvin Kamara and the Saints, with the end result being a 52-33 loss that dropped the Vikings to 6-9 and eliminated them from playoff contention.
Kamara ran for six touchdowns on a Vikings front seven missing Eric Kendricks and several others, becoming the second player to ever accomplish that feat in an NFL game (the other guy did it literally 91 years ago). He finished with 172 yards from scrimmage, breaking what seemed like an endless number of tackles in an embarrassing outing for Minnesota's defense.
The Saints, as a whole, racked up 583 yards of offense, which is the most the Vikings have ever allowed in their 60-year history. New Orleans became the second team to exceed the 500-yard threshold on the Vikings this year; the Packers did it back in Week 1. Prior to this season, that had happened just three times since 2001. Just looking at the ground game alone, New Orleans ran for 267 yards and seven touchdowns. It was the first time the Vikings have allowed that many rushing yards since 2005, and the first time they have ever allowed that many rushing TDs (their previous record was five).
The Saints' 52 points, by the way, were the most the Vikings have allowed since 1963.
This was simply a horrendous outing for the Vikings' defense, particularly against the run. Given that they were without Kendricks and backup linebackers Todd Davis and Troy Dye, practice squad-caliber players like Hardy Nickerson Jr. and Blake Lynch were thrust into action. But that doesn't explain all of the struggles. The defensive line was awful, as it has been all year long without Danielle Hunter and Michael Pierce, and the Vikings' secondary missed plenty of tackles of their own.
The Saints averaged 8.8 yards per play in the first half, converting 21 first downs, and things didn't get much better from there. A frustrating moment for the Vikings occurred at the end of the first half while trailing by ten. Awful clock management meant they didn't get a shot at a field goal or a long Hail Mary, and Kirk Cousins ran off the field visibly angry.
This was actually a close, back-and-forth game until the fourth quarter, if you can believe it. The Vikings cut the deficit to four points twice in the third, but just couldn't slow down the Saints' offense in the slightest.
The crazy part about it is the Vikings won the turnover battle 2-0 and still got blown out. Harrison Hand and Nickerson intercepted Drew Brees (and Eric Wilson came inches away from doing so on two other occasions), but it didn't matter because the Vikings were forced to punt four times and, as mentioned, gave up the most total yards in franchise history.
Offensively, the Vikings were fine for the most part. They did some good things, scoring five times and executing well for much of the afternoon. Dalvin Cook scored his 17th touchdown of the season, New Orleans native Irv Smith Jr. scored twice, and both Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson went over 80 receiving yards. Cousins didn't turn the ball over once, but was let down several times by his offensive line, which has been the case all season long.
Once the Vikings fall behind in games, which has happened a lot this year, the O-line's struggles in pass protection become extremely glaring.
The Vikings will head to Detroit next week for a meaningless regular season finale before entering the offseason. There are a some key weaknesses and questions that need to be addressed, but the 2021 season holds a lot of promise with key players coming back from injury on defense and a standout rookie class continuing to grow.
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