Stock Market Report 2.0 Vikings-Lions

The Vikings get their first home win and its only 2 months into the season! Minnesota beats Detroit to move to 3-5 and 3rd place in the NFC North. After writing the report after listening to the radio call last week I was able to watch the game this week. Now Detroit looked like hot garbage most of the day, but the Vikings did against the lions what they failed to do against Atlanta, win. Now on to our report!

Blue Chip Stocks:

Dalvin Cook: 206 yards rushing, 46 yards receiving, and 2 rushing TDs. Dalvin was on fire today and continues to drive the Vikings offense. If he keeps up this pace he might sneak into the MVP conversation.

Detroit's Top Redzone Receivers. Eric Wilson, Eric Kendricks, and Harrison Smith were excellent receivers for Detroit today intercepting Matthew Stafford and Chase Daniels. The Vikings defense showed up in a big way and these three guys helped lead the charge.

Irv Smith: Irvember started off with Irv getting some great catches against the Packers. Now it continues with 2 TDs on very well run routes. Irv seems to be heating up and that is excellent news for the Vikes down the road.

Justin Jefferson: Jefferson keeps up, every week since week 2 he is contributing and with Irv Smith heating up the young guys are shining. Jefferson had an excellent 35 yd catch to help extend the Vikings 1st scoring drive of the 2nd half. He also drew a pass interference penalty later in the drive to help set up Irv's 2nd TD.

DJ Wonnum: DJ was all around Stafford today. He did not get any sacks this time around but was constantly applying pressure. I am looking forward to seeing how he develops the rest of the year, and potentially playing along side Hunter next year.

Solid Investments

Ezra Cleveland: It was great to see Cleveland getting some good blocks out there today. He seemed to do a great job pass blocking and getting out in front to block for Dalvin and Mattison.

The Offensive Line: In general the Oline was solid today, they did an excellent job run blocking as usual but, more importantly held up well in pass blocking. Other than a cornerback blitz on Cousins blindside, they did not allow a sack. Holding Everson Griffen in check was a good job. So true to my word last week, they get a shout out. Also CJ Ham blocker extraordinaire, he doesn't get enough credit in these reports but he is pulling his weight every week.

The Defensive Line: The Dline looked good today too. Shamar and Herc got a shared sack which was excellent to see, and I saw Armon Watts in with Eric Wilson on that 2nd sack of the game. It has taken some time but the interior tackles are looking better. Ifeadi Odenigbo also played well.

Adam Thielen and Kyle Rudolph: The pass catching old guard was solid again today. They took a bit of a back seat to the young guys but they both helped move the chains and draw coverage their way.

Jeff Gladney: The secondary played pretty well overall today. Gladney stood out on a tackle for loss when he flew into the backfield to hit AP.

Minnesota's Backup Running Backs: Boone, Mattison and Abdullah all had big plays for the Vikes today. Abdullah had and excellent touchdown catch and run with a spectacular finish for Minnesota's 3rd score of the 1st half. Boone showed excellent awareness by jumping on the 1st blocked punt by Detroit. Even though he didn't get the first down it was still a good heads up play to save a touchdown. Mattison of course did a great job in relief of Cook.

Kirk Cousins: Kirk remains a solid investment today. He took a bad sack, but helped the Oline out by stepping up in the pocket and moving around to extend plays. He made some excellent throws down field to JJ and Thielen while hitting Irv on two TD passes. He did miss Thielen in the endzone late, but didn't throw any picks despite having to put it in the air more than last week. Maybe he was just getting bad kirk out early in the season.

Junk Bonds:

The Punt Team: My word, two blocked punts today. Yeah other than Boone and our punt return team, the punt team was bad today. Special teams have been pretty good for Minnesota so far but today was not their day.

Dan Bailey: So Dan has actually been solid but he missed that extra point and probably cost somebody -25 points in the Norse Code Fantasy League. But in seriousness Dan is not really an issue. I just needed to fill this section out a bit.

Tajae Sharpe Signing: I liked this trade in March but Tajae has not been active the last few games and hasn't had much of an impact, I wish they had kept Kline instead but hindsight is 20/20.

Penny Stocks:

Kris Boyd: Boyd looked pretty good out there today, he was in position and making decent plays. He also came close to an interception. For a guy who was not expected to see a ton of playing time this year he has held up pretty well.

Harrison Hand: Watching Hand I think he has solid potential. He was in position and is working hard to make plays. He isn't there yet but again being forced into action early, he is holding up better than I expected.

KJ Osborn: Osborn is doing a pretty good job as a return man and I think will only get better. I would like to see him out as a wide out now and then but he may be able to fill the Marcus Sherels role as punt returner and will they get cut candidate for the next 50 years.

Buy/Sell:

Buy: This Team can make a run. Yes I am more interested in potentially drafting a top QB next year but I think the Vikings can make the moves necessary in the offseason. Minnesota has some very winnable games coming up and could sneak into the last playoff spot. It is probably possible to win the division if they go undefeated the rest of the year.

Sell: We just need to keep getting into the playoffs. I know some people hated my draft pick take last report. That is fair and I love when the team wins. But while getting into the playoffs increases the chances of a Super Bowl, I don't want the Vikings to be the new version of the Marvin Lewis Bengals. So far Zimmer has been good to win us one playoff game and then get blown out the next one. I think the Vikes need to be willing to make some changes to move into the next level and a young franchise QB would be the best bet to take. We are going to be set up to be more competitive the next few years and a young QB on a rookie contract could put us over the top.

Buy: Zimmer has coached up the defense. Yes Zimmer has done a much better job with the defense these last few games and is actually making a strong case to remain the head coach of the Vikings.

Sell: Zimmer has cleared up all doubt. My earlier statement about the Marvin Lewis Bengals applies here. Zim can coach but I think we still have to seriously consider if he can take this team to a Super Bowl. There is a lot to be said about this team being fun to watch. Even when we lose the Vikes are pretty entertaining, but we need to keep all options open in our quest for a Lombardi.

Buy: My attempt to improve the punctuation and grammar. I've tried to clean this up a bit since I've been writing these. Hopefully this is a little better.

Sell: It's perfect. Yeah there will still be issues but I honestly try to include some fun/more silly takes in these buy/ sell sections.

Buy: It's just as exciting to listen to the game on the radio as to watch it. Man the radio call is fun to listen to and sometimes it can be just as good as watching it on TV.

Sell: Writing this report off of the radio broadcast. I get a much better idea of how folks are doing by watching it on TV. It means that some of these will be late since I work most Sundays and can't always watch the game until later but I also think the report is better after watching and not just listening.

In conclusion the Vikings are still fun to watch and a home win is great, personally I also hope we can crush the bears and cowboys because that is always fun. Also thank you folks for reading this I missed these from Ted and I'm glad I can write them for you.