Entering Week 8 and a showcase home game, this season had gone almost perfectly for the Minnesota Vikings with a 5-2 start that had them in contention in the NFC North. Coming up against an inconsistent Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad this was surely their chance to make a statement in a nationally televised game.
Well they made a statement but it wasn’t the one they were hoping to make as the Buccaneers rode into town, capitalized on some sloppy play and recorded their third win of the year. Here the Bucs were ruthlessly efficient in extending their decade long hex over the Vikings that dates back to their NFC Central days. Here are some of the key performances on both sides that shaped the seventh Thursday Night Football of the 2012 season.
Tampa Bay – Three Performances of Note
Doug himself out of a hole
From the second drive of this game, Doug Martin (+1.7) set the tone of his performance for the evening. A dash of frustrating errors mixed with some outstanding ball carrying that was more than good enough to overshadow his mistakes. He opened Tampa Bay’s second drive with a dropped pass (his sixth of the season) but followed it up with an excellent 41 yard run cutting out of traffic and exploiting some poor back side defense from the Vikings to set up the Bucs’ first score.
Martin would follow that first drop with a second (also adding a false start) to give him an unwanted mark of seven dropped passes on 25 targets this season, dropping 28% of his targeted passes. However it is to his great credit that those drops didn’t overshadow his game and that he still recorded a high running back grade is proof of just how well he played outside of those snaps. Martin forced five missed tackles running the football and gained 78 of his 79 receiving yards after the catch. The Vikings struggled to defend LaRod Stephens-Howling of the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in a victory and they struggled just as much with Martin last night with this time the Bucs’ back exploiting those defensive frailties in a match winning performance.
Bennett leads the line
After a fast start to the season Gerald McCoy came up with a quiet performance on Thursday night, so the job of the leading the Bucs’ defensive line was left to Michael Bennett. After a couple of subpar performances out of the bye week Bennett rebounded with a strong all-round game in Minnesota. He made his presence known as a pass rusher (one sack, one hit and three hurries), was solid as ever in run defense, and forced one of the fumbles that helped turn the game in Tampa Bay’s favor. There Bennett exploited some poor ball security from Viking wide receiver Jerome Simpson in pursuit to a slant route to create the turnover which set up the Buccaneers’ drive to a 13 point lead. The brother of Martellus made his presence known from the first snap of the game, reading a play action rollout from Christian Ponder to force a throw away, and kept chipping in all night long. His night culminated in a sack of Ponder in garbage time as he comfortably got the outside of Phil Loadholt to register his first sack since the bye week. Just another workman like performance from one of the more underrated defenders in the league.
Raising the standard at corner
In recent seasons the Buccaneers have become used to sloppy coverage and sloppy tackling from their cornerbacks. This week they caught a glimpse of a rookie who could go some way towards remedying that. Earning his most considerable game time to date Leonard Johnson (+2.4) impressed for much of the game and was rewarded for that fine play with an interception to close the game out. There were blots on his copybook both in his special teams play (a pair of penalties) and his coverage (a pair of slants in garbage time where he was caught playing far too soft against Michael Jenkins) but he made plenty of meaningful contributions to the Tampa Bay cause in this game. His pass break up against Percy Harvin showed his coverage ability, sticking stride for stride with Harvin down the sideline, and his tenacity as well, not accepting that the play was over when he was second to the ball. After a display like this the Buccaneers may need to give some thought about persisting with this lineup at cornerback when Brandon McDonald (-6.5) returns from injury.
Minnesota – Three Performances of Note
Defensive Letdown
For the second time in five days the Vikings’ defense put in an underwhelming performance against what could hardly be described as one of the league’s best offenses. On Sunday it was their abysmal tackling (17 missed tackles in all) that let them down, whilst last night it was simply a disappointing all-round performance. In run defense they showed poor discipline at times allowing Doug Martin to break out of good defensive situations while also missing five tackles. Meanwhile their pass rush was entirely disappointing with the strongest and most consistent disruption being Brian Robison’s batted passes in the first twenty minutes of the game. Combine that with some poor coverage plays in some crucial situations and you get to see why the Vikings were so ineffective in keeping the Buccaneers within range to mount a comeback. Minnesota will be keen to recover the defensive form they showed in Week 5 against the Titans to rebuild some momentum.
Fumbles don’t blight the power
Much like his counterpart in this game Adrian Peterson overcame a major error on his part to put in a strong display which included his longest rush of the season, and his first carry of fifty yards or more for more than a season (Week 7, 2011). Fumbling is a problem that Peterson has eradicated from his game in recent seasons and he will have been frustrated to have put the ball on the ground for the second time this season, especially with it proving so costly in allowing the Buccaneers to re-establish a two score lead close to half-time. Around that fumble Peterson racked up another five missed tackles on only 15 carries which takes his season total to 28 on 151 carries meaning that he is forcing a missed tackle on roughly one in five carries. This offense does at last run through Peterson and Percy Harvin, and though this loss was disappointing that duo should ensure the Vikings win a few more games at least in the second half of the season.
A Ponder-ous performance
When you struggle to connect on screen passes to your slot receiver you can be fairly confident that you’re going to be in for a long night and that was certainly the case with Christian Ponder this week. Twice he missed his most dangerous receiver, Percy Harvin, on what is surely the simplest pass in a quarterback’s arsenal and he struggled to spark the offense from there. There was some solid play in between but yet again Ponder struggled with his game outside of plays where he was not pressured. On nine pass attempts when he was pressured Ponder completed only one pass for four yards and he was no better against the blitz either completing only 5-of-10 passes for 37 yards. The Vikings short passing game is predicated around yardage after the catch and his receivers making people miss. Usually that would be a good recipe for facing the Bucs but this week they missed only three tackles in coverage and only once allowed Harvin to turn a short pass into a long gain. His interception to end the game may have been inconsequential but it fittingly capped off a disappointing night for Ponder and the Vikings.
Game Notes
– Brian Robison recorded three batted passes in the first 20:21 of this game; that is more than he has recorded in his previous 23 starts for the Vikings (1).
– In his last two outings Doug Martin has forced 16 missed tackles, as many as he forced in his first six games of the season.
– Da’Quan Bowers marked his return from injury with his first 14 snaps (including two pre snap penalties) of the season in last night’s game. His sole contribution was to down Christian Ponder after the Vikings’ botched snap at the end of the third quarter.
PFF Game Ball
In spite of his drops and his false start Doug Martin showed off his game-breaking ability in this game. He continued his fine vein of form and in his debut on prime time he announced himself to a national audience with one of the most rounded games of his career to date.
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