The Patriots took care of business over the New York Jets in Week 11, 10-3, while the Vikings were abused in their house by the revenge-minded Dallas Cowboys. The Vikings loss marked the first time that the franchise hadn’t scored a touchdown in a game in six years. <\/p>\n
Nothing went according to plan for Minnesota, and the Cowboys defense smashed quarterback Kirk Cousins for a career-high 7 sacks. With that in mind, Minnesota hosting New England is not<\/em> what the doctor ordered, as the Patriots defense and pass rush is arguably better<\/em> than Dallas’.<\/p>\n And while the Patriots defense is indeed the best in the world per expected points added — and Bill Belichick fears no one — the Vikings offer a change of pace for New England, whose recent slate of opponents and quarterbacks is a little head-scratching.<\/p>\n Throughout this stretch, New England’s defense rose to power, turning heads as a true-blue vintage Belichickian defense.<\/p>\n Therefore, it is fair to ask — was the Patriots first-in-the-NFL defense inflated by a serendipitous stretch of offenses and quarterbacks? <\/p>\n Probably. <\/p>\n Of course, many would argue Kirk Cousins isn’t leaps and bounds better than most of the Patriots recent opposing quarterbacks. But let’s be frank. Aside from Rodgers not encountering a poor season, Cousins is markedly more productive and experienced than all <\/em>of that list. <\/p>\n Add Cousins’ weaponry — Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, T.J. Hockenson — and the arsenal is the best New England has faced in months. Put bluntly, New England hasn’t played a finely-tuned offense since Week 3 against the Baltimore Ravens. And if you don’t like the Ravens offense, before that, it was Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins because Week 2 was another tap-in versus Mitchell Trubisky’s Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n The Vikings offense cannot be classified as finely-tuned<\/em> yet — it has its moments — but the talent assortment represents more than Belichick has encountered since September. <\/p>\n In that vein, the Vikings<\/em> pose a real test for the Patriots — not the ominous notion of, “how will the Vikings solve the Patriots defense?” New England carved out its lofty defense status on the backs of men named Sam Ehlinger<\/em> and Zach Wilson<\/em>. <\/p>\n If the Vikings aren’t effectuating vibes reminiscent of the loss to Dallas<\/a>, the Patriots should be the squad experiencing a rude awakening. <\/p>\n Dustin Baker<\/em><\/a> is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, <\/em>VikesNow<\/em><\/a>. He <\/em>hosts a podcast<\/em><\/a> with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with <\/em>Raun Sawh<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Sal Spice<\/em><\/a>. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).<\/em><\/p>\n The post Vikings May Have Rude Awakening for Patriots<\/a> appeared first on Vikings Territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Owning the NFL’s top-ranked defense via EPA\/Play, the New England Patriots travel to Minneapolis for a date with the Minnesota Vikings on Thanksgiving. The Patriots took care of business over the New York Jets in Week 11, 10-3, while the Vikings were abused in their house by the revenge-minded Dallas Cowboys. The Vikings loss marked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/USATSI_19473772-788x444-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8905,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8904\/revisions\/8905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachbytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/vikingsterritory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/USATSI_19473772-788x444.jpg\")
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