Ever since Mike Zimmer, formerly a Defensive Coordinator with the Bengals, Falcons, and Cowboys, took over as Head Coach of the Vikes effective in 2014, Minnesota has just kept getting better. Even in his first season as Head Coach, the W7-L9 were W5-L3 at home with only a -18 point differential, after going W5-L10-T1 in 2013.
Last year (2015), the Vikes won the NFC East Division at W11-L5 going W6-L2 at home with a +63 point differential. Meanwhile the NY Giants were W6-L10 in 2015, W3-L5 at home, with a -22 point differential.
Which brings us to Week #4 of the 2016 Regular Season, which finds the Vikes now W3-L0, with a +24 point differential, and the Giants W2-L1 with a W1-L1 record at Home, and a +2 point differential.
The most impressive part of the Vikings game to me is that their Defense creates turnovers, which the Giants love to give up. Thru 3 games the Vikes Offense has no picks and lost only one fumble, while their opponents Offense has been intercepted 5x, and lost 4 fumbles by the Vikings Defense. In fact, Zimmer has created such a dominate Defense that, so far this year, they are 2nd in points allowed, 2nd in yards per play, and 6th in total yards allowed at 295 yards per game. Minnesota is both 9th in the NFL in Run D giving up 84 yards per game, and 9th in Pass D yielding 211 yards per game. Last week, Vikings DE Everson Griffin was named "NFC Defensive Player of the Week" making 3 tackles, 3 sacks, and 9 QB hurries in their win over the Panthers.
On the other hand, Eli has throw 3 picks, and the G-Men have lost 4 fumbles, while their Giants Defense has forced only one fumble and made no picks. In addition to the loss of their 2 starting Running Backs to injury, Pro Football Focus (PFF) ranked the Giants O-Line as #20 out of #32 NFL teams at the beginning of this season. According to PFF, the weakest link of the Giants O-Line is LT Ereck Flowers who allowed 69 pressures in 2015. PFF also ranked RT Marshall Newhouse 68 out of 76 graded Tackles. After not being re-signed as a free agent by the Packers in 2014, Newhouse signed a 1-year contract with the Bengals, but was benched after starting 5 games, and then not re-signed. So the Giants signed Newhouse to a 2-year contract for 2015 and 2016 because now Head Coach Bob McAdoo knew this player from his time in Green Bay. According to SB Nation, former Giants O-Lineman Will Beatty was supposed to start instead of Newhouse in 2015, but a torn pectoral muscle ended Beatty's season, and Newhouse became the starter at RT. In 2016, for whatever reason, the G-Men did not draft an Offensive Lineman, so essentially the same shoddy O-Line for the Giants from 2015 (W6-L10) remains. As a result Newhouse, will have to find a way to keep Vikings DE Everson Griffin from putting a serious hurt on Eli in this game. Obviously, Newhouse will need help, and the Giants will have to adjust their resources, already spread thin, accordingly.
The bottom line is that the G-Men do not have the ability up front to stop the Vikes D-Line from creating havoc for Eli and whoever runs the ball. Expect Eli to be pressured, and as a result that will probably create some more turnovers for that Vikings Defense.
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MNF - Giants or Vikings?
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