Sorry its late, had a heck of a time getting home from the game. We stayed an extra day due to weather in our area, and got home late monday night, then had to dig out of 16 inches of snow. Oh, and it was 7 below for a high today. Welcome to North Dakota.
On to the game, got there an hour early. watched a little bit of warmups, grabbed a meal and a beverage. Our seats were 9 rows up on the visitors side 41 yard line. Amazing seats.
Saw some other Rams fans in our section, but they were few and far between.
Nice start to the game on a 3 and out, then drove the field for a TD. Rams lines really dominated all day long. Really wish the Rams could have punched in one of those 2 FGs. 13 to 3 was nice, but 17-3 would have been so much better. But it was obvious early on that the Shaky Stafford showed up. I mentioned it to the GF.
The second half started out as poorly as it possibly could. Stafford kept trying to give that game away, but the defense never hung its head on the sidelines, they just went to work.
And right as the crowd got back into it, that punt return right in front of us literally sucked the air out of the stadium. And Stafford made that drive in the 4th ending with OBJ scoring.
The way Kupp and Higbee and Sony played on offense and the way that defense was rolling, I really never got nervous. I knew it was over at halftime. Thats how confident I was.
Some notes:
Cooper Kupp is nuts, his footwork and effort play in and play out is unmatched. Glad I got to see him in person.
The D line dominated. AD was unblockable. All day long. Gaines and Robinson more than held their own. Gaines and AD hang out together on the sidelines and you can tell they are friends.
Jones' loss was huge, he is a baller. Reeder and Howard stepped up. But Jones and AD were the first 2 defenders onto the field every time the defense was up. He seems like a future leader.
Ramsey was impressive as well. Just so physical and smart. BTW, he and OBJ get heckled by the crowd the most. In fact, I think they were the only 2 that did.
On that timeout in the 2nd quarter when the Rams had 10 men on the field, it was supposed to be Robinson. And during the timeout, AD ran over to the sidelines and personally got Robinson. Someone messed up the personnel grouping somehow.
And in the 3rd after a Rams stop, the DBs coach (Evero) and Ramsey had a talk with an official. It wasn't heated, but the coach wanted Ramsey to talk to him for some reason.
The punt return in the 2nd that was downed at the 8 that lead to the INT and the Vikings first 3 points was awful. Blocker runs into the punt returner, so they just cleared the area and instead of starting at the 25, they started at the 8. Should have never been a 64 yard punt of whatever.
Stafford is hard to figure out. He made some real WTF throws. And he just hates throwing the ball away. Even when he should. Maybe this goes back to his Lions days when he knew the defense couldn't hold their own and tried to carry them. This defense can hold its own, and he needs to throw balls away and learn to live and fight another possession.
I know alot of fans wanted the Rams to run more, but with hendo out, it was literally all Sony with a smidgeon of Funk. Sony had 27 carries and 1 catch. Thats a monster workload for a guy with shaky knees.
Stafford forced 1 pass to Kupp when he shouldn't have, but Kupp was open in the middle of the field when he went deep for Jefferson into double coverage. Kupp is open almost every play. Its insane.
Vikings fans were numb after the game, at least the ones that stayed. Good sports, but the same comments I got consisted of: you guys should have gave us that one, we needed it more. My response was: Stafford tried.
Anyhow great win, gorgeous stadium, good fans that live up to the Minnesota nice reputation. Glad I got to see AD once in my lifetime and Kupp again. Saw him in college.
Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way. - Ragnar Lothbrok
