The Minnesota Vikings found a way to beat the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday by a score of 34-26.
Throughout the game, there weren’t a lot of backups that played in the game. This has been a trend throughout the season, especially with how good the Vikings injury luck has been this season.
Despite all of this, there are a few interesting takeaways from Sunday’s snap counts.
Offense
One of the biggest surprises during the game on Sunday was Johnny Mundt getting the start over Irv Smith Jr. He also outsnapped him by nine. It didn’t help that Smith Jr. injured his ankle late in the game.
Dalvin Cook saw one of his highest snap counts of the season with a 76% snap share and he looked as healthy as ever.
Ed Ingram, along with the rest of the starting offensive line, received 100% of the snaps but his play wasn’t worthy of that. Next week could tell a different story.
Defense
The Vikings played in nickel defense the entire game with the starting five in the secondary and Eric Kendricks playing every snap.
The defensive line saw the most rotation. Ross Blacklock got the start and saw a season-high 19 snaps. Khyiris Tonga saw his first 16 snaps in a Vikings uniform.
Once Dalvin Tomlinson went out, the snaps appeared to go more to D.J. Wonnum than the rest of the backup defensive lineman as he played in
Despite all the talk about getting Brian Asamoah more snaps, he only saw three in the game. Jordan Hicks saw 90% of the snaps in playing against his former team.
snapsSpecial teams
The backup defensive backs were the mainstays on special teams with Josh Metellus, Kris Boyd and Theo Jackson playing in 80% of the snaps.
Akayleb Evans and Andrew Booth Jr. played in 15 and 12 snaps respectively. This is the ideal role for them as they continue to develop.
