All the talk coming in to this week's game between the Giants and Vikings was how Minnesota was coming apart at the seams. There was talk that Kirk Cousin's isn't living up to his contract. Talk that Stefan Diggs wants out, and talk that the Vikings are a locker room divided.
On Sunday, the Giants proved to be the perfect medication.After playing well the past two weeks, rookie quarterback Daniel Jones and the Giants suffered their first loss together, as the Vikings controlled the tempo all afternoon in a 28-10 decision.
Jones completed 21 of 38 passes for 182 yards and was under duress most of the day, getting sacked four times. The Giants also struggled to run the football after Wayne Gallman left with a concussion. That means Big Blue is without its top two rushers in Gallman and Saquon Barkley who is still recovering from a knee injury suffered in Tampa Bay.
On the flip side the Giants had no answers for Cousins, who had a near perfect afternoon. Cousins completed 22 of 27 passes for 306 yards and two scores, putting to rest the calls for his benching at least for this week.
With Minnesota leading 3-0, Cousins picked apart the Giants on a long 11-play, 98-yard drive that culminated in a 15-yard score to Adam Thielen to make it 10-0.
The Giants would answer with 12:08 to go before the half, when Jones delivered a 35-yard laser to Darius Slayton to cut the Viking lead to 10-7.
However the biggest moment of the game came on two plays in the middle of the quarter. Dalvin Cook broke through tackles and looked destined for a 21-yard touchdown run, but fumbled the football at the Giants two. New York recovered. Had Cook scored, the Vikings would have been up 20-7.
No worries though, because the Vikings defense came in hard on a blitz on the next play, bull-rushing the Giants offensive line as linebacker Anthony Barr brought down Jonathan Hillman for the safety to give the Vikes a 15-7 lead. Minnesota would tack on a field goal on the ensuing drive to push their lead to 11 at 18-7. You could say the game was pretty much over at this point.
Cousins wasn't the only Viking who had a big day. Dalvin Cook ran for 132 yards on 21 carries, and Thielen hauled in seven passes for 130 yards and two scores.
At 2-3 the Giants now face an even stiffer test in four days when the visit the unbeaten New England Patriots.
Get ready for some more bumps in the road of Daniel Jones' development.
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