Inside The Vikings

Vikings-Cardinals Takeaways: Za'Darius Smith, Christian Darrisaw, Red Zone Success

The Vikings' stars stepped up on both sides of the ball in the team's fifth consecutive win.
Will Ragatz|
Vikings-Cardinals Takeaways: Za'Darius Smith, Christian Darrisaw, Red Zone Success
Vikings-Cardinals Takeaways: Za'Darius Smith, Christian Darrisaw, Red Zone Success

In this story:

Minnesota Vikings

It's getting harder and harder to make the argument that the Vikings are a fraudulent contender. By beating the Cardinals on Sunday, they're now 6-1 and haven't lost a game since Week 2, when they fell to the still-undefeated Eagles on the road. This was a highly impressive win for the Vikings, who still have plenty of things they can improve on over the final ten games of the regular season.

NFL games are decided by coaching, star players, and execution in the big moments. In Kevin O'Connell, the Vikings appear to have a fantastic young head coach. They have stars on both sides of the ball, which has been apparent all year. And week after week, they get the job done when it matters most. This Vikings team wins the turnover margin, doesn't beat itself with silly mistakes, and has all the confidence in the world that it'll emerge victorious in close games. That's a recipe for continued success. 

Here are three takeaways from the Vikings' big win over a talented Cardinals team.

Kevin O'Connell's red zone brilliance

Coming into this game, the Vikings had scored a touchdown on 59 percent of their trips into the red zone — a solid but unspectacular rate. Settling for field goals had been an issue at times, including in the Vikings' win over the Saints in London.

It wasn't an issue on Sunday. The Vikings scored a touchdown all five times they reached the red zone, bringing their season conversion rate up to almost 67 percent. O'Connell's play calling was excellent, and the Vikings' entire offense deserves credit for executing at a high level.

On their opening drive, Kirk Cousins took off and ran on third down, finding open space on the sideline and diving to the pylon for a touchdown. Two offensive possessions later, O'Connell dialed up a beautiful play — featuring all kinds of deception and misdirection — that got Johnny Mundt wide open for a one-yard touchdown pass.

In the third quarter, the Vikings ran for two touchdowns in a span of less than two minutes, with Alexander Mattison and Dalvin Cook each getting one. The latter was a great example of complementary football, as it was set up by a Harrison Smith interception that gave the offense a short field.

Then, in the fourth quarter, the Vikings added to their lead on a great throw from Cousins to K.J. Osborn for a five-yard touchdown.

"That's what marrying the run and the pass is all about," O'Connell said of his team's red zone success. "Those mantras and philosophies matter and situational football, especially when you are a team that wants to be diverse in the red zone and apply a lot of different types of pressure to the defense. But when that field shrinks, some of the illusion can be hard to come by sometimes if you don't have the ability to run it or protect in the pass game. That five of five is a credit to all those guys."

Za'Darius Smith continues to dominate

Through eight weeks, the Vikings adding Za'Darius Smith looks like one of the best value free agent signings of the entire offseason. He had three more sacks against the Cardinals and has been Minnesota's most consistently dominant defensive player.

Smith blossomed into an elite pass rusher with the Packers, making the Pro Bowl in 2019 and 2020. But after missing nearly all of last season with an injury, he was released by Green Bay. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings swooped in, signed him to a three-year, $42 million deal, and have gotten the peak version of Smith so far. 

One week away from the NFL season's midway point, Smith is tied for the league lead with 8.5 sacks and ranks sixth among all players in PFF's pass rushing productivity metric. He is firmly in the conversation for defensive player of the year at this point.

Making it even sweeter for the Vikings is that he has just a $3.34 million cap hit this season. The Packers, meanwhile, are paying an $11.4 million dead cap charge to watch Smith ball out for their division rivals.

What makes him so dangerous is that he can line up anywhere. Smith is fully capable of beating tackles around either edge, but he does a ton of his damage by locating an offensive line's biggest weak point on the interior and making that player miserable. His combination of burst, strength, and experience makes him incredibly dangerous, especially on obvious passing downs. Smith has perfected the rip move where he knocks away the lineman's hands and gets by them into the backfield.

Against the Cardinals, Smith had a sack in the first quarter and another in the second quarter, both of which led to punts. But he wasn't done. With Arizona trailing by 8 late in the fourth quarter, Smith broke up a pass and then sacked Kyler Murray a third time in the game's final seconds.

"(His versatility is) huge because it's really hard to have a protection plan for a guy that can be in any one of five spots up front," O'Connell said. "We can use him to manipulate the protection call if we want. We can use him to try to isolate somebody in protection if we want. Za'Darius, clearly a game ball again, the three sacks. Right before that last play he made, I went over and asked him, I said, 'Hey, I need one more.' He goes out and gets it and he was the first one to tell me about it."

Dalvin Cook, Christian Darrisaw lead resurgent ground game

Cousins played well in the passing game for the Vikings, throwing the two short touchdowns and connecting with Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen for a combined 12 catches and 165 yards. But this offensive performance was all about the Vikings' ability to run the football. With 173 yards on the ground, it was their most productive rushing attack of the season by nearly 50 yards.

When the Vikings are able to run the ball effectively, everything else opens up off of it. That was the case on Sunday. Cook ran 20 times for 111 yards and a touchdown, adding another 30 yards as a receiver, and Mattison had 40 yards and a touchdown of his own on five carries.

The two backs obviously played well, but credit also goes to O'Connell and the coaching staff for designing good runs and calling them at the right times — and to the Vikings' offensive linemen, tight ends, and receivers for their blocking.

One player in particular deserves to be highlighted once again: left tackle Christian Darrisaw. The second-year LT out of Virginia Tech continues to play at an incredibly high level, and he had another elite game on Sunday. Darrisaw earned a 91.7 grade from PFF, dominating in both pass protection and in the running game. He's now PFF's No. 3 tackle in the league, trailing only Andrew Thomas and Trent Williams.

Darrisaw gets a lot of praise for his pass pro, which is justified considering he hasn't allowed a sack all year. Still, it shouldn't be overlooked that he's a truly special difference-maker as a run blocker. Many of the Vikings' biggest runs against the Cardinals, including Cook's touchdown, happened with Darrisaw out in front, paving the way and opening up big holes. The Virginia Tech product continues to make a case from himself as an All-Pro left tackle and a top-three player on the Vikings' entire roster. His year two leap has been enormous for O'Connell's offense.

Other standout players from Sunday's win: Patrick Peterson, Jordan Hicks, Justin Jefferson, Ezra Cleveland, Garrett Bradbury, Harrison Phillips, Camryn Bynum

Thanks for reading. Make sure to bookmark this site and check back daily for the latest Vikings news and analysis all offseason long. Also, follow me on Twitter and feel free to ask me any questions on there.

Published
Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

Share on XFollow WillRagatz
Home/News