The Vikings bring the Rams back to earth
Navy man Belichick sports AFA gear
MINNEAPOLIS — The Los Angeles Rams arrived in Minnesota with the NFL’s highest-scoring offense, a machine averaging 33 points per game and making the team the talk of the league with this sharp turnaround under new coach Sean McVay.
Their four-game winning streak was tossed aside by a determined Vikings defense in a 24-7 defeat on Sunday in this matchup of NFC division leaders.
After a 75-yard touchdown drive to start the game, the only tangible production by the Rams was extra punting practice for Johnny Hekker. The Rams totaled just 254 yards, with 54 yards coming from on a garbagetime possession at the end of the game against mostly Vikings backups.
“We can play a lot better than we performed,” said Jared Goff, who had guided the Rams to a 144-41 scoring advantage during the streak with 1,025 passing yards and nine touchdowns with only one interception.
The Vikings started the second half by forcing four punts in a row by the Rams (7-3), who also led the league entering the week with a third-down conversion rate of 46.7 percent. They moved the chains just three times in 11 opportunities against the Vikings.
“They had some good tight coverage. They had some disguises, some different things that disrupted our timing and our rhythm,” said McVay, who declared his team “humbled” by the Vikings throughout the course of the afternoon at daunting U.S. Bank Stadium.
With the crowd noise reverberating off the translucent roof to give the defense, which ranked fifth in the NFL in both points and yards allowed, an even greater advantage, Goff often had to walk back and forth to tell his wide receivers the plays before the snap to keep McVay’s fast-paced, no-huddle scheme going.
Goff finished 23 for 37 for 225 yards. He didn’t force any dangerous throws or take any huge hits, but the unpredictable pressure the Vikings sent at him from all position levels added up over time and clearly took the second-year quarterback out of his element.
“It’ll be good to see what this adversity will do for our team,” Goff said. “We responded to every bit of adversity we faced so far and expect no different.”
NAVY MAN: Patriots coach Bill Belichick has long ties to the Naval Academy because his father spent years there as a scout and coach. That made it a little unusual for him to walk into his postgame news conference Sunday wearing an Air Force hoodie. The sweat shirt was a gift from academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria after the Patriots spent the week practicing there.
“I’ll always be a Navy man,” Belichick said. “Just want to give a shoutout and a big thanks to General Silveria and his staff at the United States Air Force Academy.”
MEXICO: The NFL announced it will play a game in Mexico each year from 2019-21.
GIANTS: Embattled coach Ben McAdoo pulled out every trick in his book in the 12-9 win over the Chiefs — using a fake punt; a halfback option that was intercepted and an odd formation with his tackles lined up 5 yards wide.