Lunchbreak: Takeaways from Cowboys Loss Include Missed Call 'Double Whammy'

[Viktor]

Vikings receive B+ grade despite loss to Cowboys


As mentioned above, the Vikings made defensive stops and big plays on offense, but errors on all three phases hurt Minnesota in a game against Dallas that came down to the wire.


Despite the Vikings 31-28 loss, CBS Sports' John Breech gave Minnesota a B+ grade for its Week 11 performance. He wrote:


This was not a failure by the Vikings at all, but instead they land a high grade in the loss because of their perseverance to make the game closer than it might've been otherwise – even if the second half saw the team continue its struggles from the first.


Breech tipped his hat to Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer.


[Credit] them for halftime adjustments on both sides of the ball that kept the Cowboys from scoring in the third quarter and lit a fire beneath Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen, with an honorable mention to rookie sensation Justin Jefferson. They simply needed to get either one more stop or one more touchdown, and couldn't.


The Cowboys, meanwhile, were given an A by Breech.


This was almost an A+ simply because it's the Cowboys landing their first win since Week 5, and while that factors into the high grade, it's more so driven by their refusal to lay down and die when the Vikings kept punching them in the face after halftime. Kudos to [Head Coach] Mike McCarthy and staff for having his team ready after a bye week – the defense getting two takeaways in the first half and the offense turning them into nine points. And when things looked bleak and momentum was fully in the Vikings favor in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys found a way to get stops when they needed them most, and the offense put the ball into the end zone to help seal the deal in one of the more entertaining back-and-forth games of 2020.