The Minnesota Vikings were favored over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, despite both teams being in poor shape a season ago. As the game got closer, more and more people favored Minnesota, but if you were expecting a blowout, you were probably surprised. The Vikings walked away with a 26-23 victory in overtime that inspired little confidence in the team going forward.
But how are the players feeling about all of this? Not great, as it turns out. According to Tom Pelissero of ESPN Twin Cities, All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen says that the Vikings simply got lucky to get out of there with a win on Sunday:
"When you are terrible on first and second down," Allen said, "you get no rhythm for the game and it opens their whole playbook up, so the whole time we are guessing. "We have to be a lot better. Thank God we got lucky and we got a win."
It was the worst in the first half, as the Vikings defense just couldn't get off the field. They missed several tackles and let the Jaguars hold onto the ball for 19 minutes, amassing 170 yards of offense in the process. The luck Allen is referring to can be a lot of things, but it mostly boils down to the first-and-goal play on the Jaguars' opening drive in which Blaine Gabbert missed a totally wide open Justin Blackmon in the end zone.
If not for that bad pass, it's likely Minnesota would be 0-1 right now with a discouraged young quarterback. Instead, they're 1-0 with a long list of things they need to correct before their Week 2 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts rolls around.
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