Yes, another day, another new sponsor for the SB Nation family of NFL blogs. This time it's from the folks at Mini, and with this we'll be taking a look at one of the most powerful plays from the Minnesota Vikings' most recent game, one that stood out among the others.
This week's play happened in the third quarter of Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals. The Vikings had fumbled on their first possession of the second half, and the Cardinals converted by driving for a touchdown and cutting the Vikings' lead to 28-10. At this point, those of us in the Game Thread (and, I'm sure, most of the crowd at the Metrodome) was developing a serious case of here-we-go-again-itis. After all, considering that the team had blown halftime leads of 10, 17, and 20 points this season, we were starting to wonder if a 25-point halftime cushion would be safe, either.
Well, after a holding penalty had pushed the Vikings back to a 1st-and-20 on their own 24-yard line, the Vikings generated their longest offensive play of the season.
Now, to be completely honest, I'm not sure what the Cardinals' defense was looking at on this play. Sure, it helps that safety Rashad Johnson fell down while covering Devin Aromashodu, to be sure, but when you get to the end zone view of the play, you can see that Arizona cornerback A.J. Jefferson and safety Adrian Wilson are providing double coverage on one of the Vikings' most lethal offensive threats.
I'm speaking, of course, of fullback Ryan D'Imperio, who was running a fly pattern down the middle of the field and had, somehow, managed to take two defenders with him. Like I said, I don't know how it happened, but the combination of Johnson falling down and D'Imperio ending up with double coverage made it easy for Aromashodu to turn the corner and turn a 15-yard pass into a huge 60-yard gain.
While this was a pretty powerful play. . .seriously, look at that pass from Donovan McNabb. It looks like he was throwing a Nerf football that had been soaked in water for about an hour and a half. It was a heck of an adjustment by Aromashodu to get his hands on that ball and take off with it the way he did. The play took the momentum back from the Cardinals, and they never found the end zone again.