All or Nothing
Pass or Fail
Right or Wrong
Good or Bad
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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Six weeks into the season and the phrase "trials of various kinds" certainly applies. No doubt It applies to what just happened in Charlotte, so let's get into it!
The first three games the offense was the story, then the defense took the reins for the next two which left everyone who roots for the Purple just wanting a showing by both in the same contest. While there's room for improvement which will be discussed below, the two main phases played complimentary football today. If nothing else is taken away from the game it should be that. Even though it ended the same way it was about as different of a showing by Minnesota from one week to the next as should be expected.
One play into the game and it was evident that the performance would be different. Sure, all they technically got out of Breeland's INT was 3 points but it set the tone for the whole game and all the play makers made plays. Look no further than the 30 & 40 yard ones that CJ Ham & Tyler Conklin pulled out of nowhere for proof of how deep the well went!
28 points given up by the defense isn't good for fantasy but the way that 15 of them were scored leaves an odor of flukiness which isn't being held against them. Carolina's receivers failing today is reminiscent of Cleveland's struggles a couple weeks ago. The only commonality would be Zimmer's pet so maybe MN is doing things on defense which are wreaking havoc but don't show up in stats or even obviously while watching. Perhaps a nugget or two will be gleaned from the rewatch the Wednesday before Halloween. Either way, 13 points is a very acceptable allowance!
Overall it was a game they deserved to win and even the pre-overtime coin knew it. That hasn't been the case often this season, so enjoy it!
Now for the negatives
For all the positives during this one, the margin of victory was still a mere handful of plays. Unlike previous games it can't be said that "killer instinct" is to blame yet they still struggled so mightily to close the game out. If they could do it over the defense would likely not have missed on the fourth down plays, but there are no redos and the season very well could have gone down the drain because they weren't sharp enough in the biggest moments.
The pressure also could have been alleviated had Greg Joseph not missed his final two field goal attempts. His three makes helped propel them to the win but one more would have been the difference in avoiding overtime & not leaving the game up to a coin flip.
With a murderers row of competitors upcoming they'll need to iron-out those issues while maintaining all the positives that got them to the 28 - 17 lead! Here's hoping we haven't seen the best of the complimentary game!!
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