1. Mesmerized Donatell embarrassed by Hurts
The Vikings shouldn't receive any fines from the NFL this week, but the league might want to charge defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and his troops the price of admission for the way they sat back in soft shell coverages and watched quarterback Jalen Hurts do pretty much whatever he wanted with his arm and his legs for far too much of a 24-7 Monday Night Football beatdown at Lincoln Financial Field. Hurts converted 5 of 8 first-half third downs, including a 19-yard pass on third-and-13, a 16-yard pass on third-and-6 and a way-too-easy 26-yard touchdown run on third-and-2. The Eagles had 347 yards. IN THE FIRST HALF! Hurts accounted for 301 of those with 251 passing and 50 rushing. He was responsible for as many touchdowns (three) as he had incompletions. Any changes Donatell made came far too late to make a difference.
2. Targeting Jefferson a good thing — for Slay
"The Griddy" got the night off, thanks to Eagles cornerback Darius Slay. Remember Week 1, when everyone, including Jaire Alexander, was asking why the Packers didn't use Jaire Alexander to shadow Jefferson? Eagles defensive coordinator and former Vikings assistant defensive backs coach Jonathan Gannon must have been wondering the same thing. He used Slay to cut down the superstar receiver who had an easy league-high 184 yards receiving in Week 1. There were five balls thrown to Jefferson with Slay paying close attention to him. Kirk Cousins completed one of those to Jefferson and two of them to Slay. Slay's picks came at the goal line. The last one officially sunk the Vikings after a Jordan Hicks interception had given them the ball at the Eagles' 9-yard line. Jefferson finished with six catches on 12 targets for 48 yards and a long of 11.
3. Puzzling read by Cousins in third quarter
This was a team loss for sure. So don't pin it all on Cousins. Look no further than Kirk's perfectly-thrown deep ball that tight end Irv Smith Jr. dropped when spreading the blame for this one. Cousins, however, still makes some puzzling decisions for a player who's as good and as experienced as he is. A good example came early in the third quarter. It was first-and-10 from the Philly 19. Alexander Mattison was to his left and Jefferson also in the backfield to his right. Jefferson peeled off to the right and was wide open behind a blitzing edge rusher. One would think the automatic hot read is Jefferson. But Cousins turned to his left and forced the ball to Mattison in heavy traffic at the line of scrimmage. One play after the ugly incompletion, Cousins went looking for Jefferson and threw his first interception to Slay.
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4. Wasn't Cook supposed to have a big game?