The Minnesota Vikings possessed an insane amount of good fortune in 2022: they won all 11 of their one-possession games, which is an NFL single-season record. After an 0-3 start to 2023, the magic pixie dust has returned to the Twin Cities as the Vikings have won six of their last seven games to run their record to 6-4, good for the seventh and final playoff seed 10 weeks into the 17-game season. They have won their last five in a row without 2022 Offensive Player of the Year wide receiver Justin Jefferson, and in the last four of these victories, they haven’t been favored.
Should they defeat the 4-5 Broncos in Denver on Sunday night, Minnesota would become the first team since the 2011 Broncos — aka Tim Tebow’s Broncos — to win five in a row without being favored. The quarterback for the last two wins and seemingly the rest of the season is journeyman Joshua Dobbs. The Vikings are the fourth team he has received snaps with in his NFL career, and he was forced into action in Week 9 at the Atlanta Falcons five days after joining the team via a trade with the Arizona Cardinals despite not taking a snap in practice. Rookie Jaren Hall soaked up all of the practice snaps in place of the injured Kirk Cousins (torn Achilles), so Dobbs had to teach center Garrett Bradbury his cadence during a timeout in the middle of the game while not really knowing the playbook.
“It’s like if you were taking AP Spanish all year and you showed up on Wednesday and someone told you you have an AP French exam on Sunday, and you have to go execute,” Dobbs said postgame, via FanNation, when asked about learning a brand new offense and playing without practice reps after scoring three total touchdowns and racking up over 200 total yards in a 31-28 victory. “Someone’s gonna talk to you in Spanish and translate it to French.”
Last week, Dobbs had a slightly better grasp of the playbook, and he threw for a season-high…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ranking-levels-of-regret-for-teams-that-moved-on-from-qb-joshua-dobbs-browns-steelers-top-list/
Author : Garrett Podell
Publish date : 2023-11-16 15:12:31
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.