Minnesota Vikings 21, Cleveland Browns 17 | Between the Lines

Minnesota Vikings 21, Cleveland Browns 17 | Between the Lines

[Music] This is Between the Lines. I’m Tatum Everett alongside Ben Liieber. And the Vikings are now undefeated and continue to be undefeated in London as they beat the Browns 21-7. Ben, that was an exciting up and down game. All capped off by that great game-winning drive led by Carson Wentz. It was 10 plays, 80 yards to take the lead. What were your impressions of that drive? You know, there was a thought in my mind that we we kept going to Justin Jefferson throughout the whole game. I’m like, well, it’s great. I mean, he is our he is our best receiver and one of the best players in the whole league, so I get it. But I kept thinking to myself, I’m like, okay, we’re getting Hawinson involved a little bit there. He had that nice little middle of the field throw to kind of get us down there. Like I’m like, somebody else is going to have to make a play because if I’m the Browns, I’m taking Justin Jefferson away in this situation. And obviously, you know, KC being such a great play caller, he obviously understood that, too. They get they get Addison out there in a one-on-one situation with a little separation. It was a great throw, great finish, and uh I was standing right there for the celebration. It was great. Okay. Very cool. I mean, what was it? I mean, I mean, jacked up. It was Everyone was jacked up. I I think I was recording the thing and then I was like in in the the recording. I’m like I think I said like he did it maybe. He did it. He did it. And then and then Carson comes running over and he like gives a big like Tiger Woods fist pump. Yeah, it was it was really fun. I love that. No, I mean speaking of Wentz, he had an questionable designation at one point in the game, comes back in the second half and sticks all the way through. What impressed you the most about just his uh his gumption, the ability to stay in there? I mean, I’m I’m only speculating here, but I’m guessing that he went out with that shoulder because of how physical he was running the football whenever he felt like he had to scramble. He wasn’t sliding. I don’t think I saw him slide one time. I mean, he was he was playing the role of running back. He was both shoulders going forward trying to take out what whatever defender that he could and try to get some extra yards. So, I think I think the guys on the team just appreciate his his physicality and just wanting to be a football player and that there is a fine line. I’m sure that a lot of the offensive coaches were like, “Easy, dude. We don’t need to lose you just because you want to play a little hero ball and get an extra yard or two.” But I appreciate it. a lot of those runs were, you know, sort of like third down, got to have its he was right at the sticks and he’s just trying to get that first down. So, um, I think the physical play, the way that he’s able to step up in the pocket, the way that he just commands the huddle and again, there’s no flinch out of him at all. Even when he’s playing with an offensive line that has four rotational backup players in there and uh, he never he never looked a different direction. He never got happy feet, he never saw ghosts, he played fantastic. Let’s talk about that O line because that was something that you come in, you have four O line on the inactive list. Yeah. So, you’re playing with a lot of your backups, guys like Joe Huber who got his first start today. Uh Blake Branddale, who got his first start at center in the NFL today. They played the entire game. They allowed no sacks in the first half, a couple of there in the second half, I think three in the second half, but they were able to put together drives and really hang in there. What does that say about their ability to just keep fighting? Well, it also speaks volumes to Chris Cooper and his staff, the offensive line coach, and what they’re able to do. Um, you know, getting these guys ready not only to play a position that they think they’re going to play at at the start of the season, but having the flexibility and the and the versatility to move around and, you know, I watched I know Huber had he had a penalty in there. I think he gave up one of the sacks uh that you’re talking about, but I thought he played really well in his first this is this is the probably the best defensive front four in the league. Best run defense, that’s for sure. Yeah, that’s for sure. But, you know, when it comes just just the front four, those guys might be the best in the league and they’re truly thrown into the fire. I thought I saw a lot of good things out of out of all of them. Um it sounds like Darasaw, even though he played most of the game, was going to be on an intentional pitch count and so, you know, Rouse was ready to go in there. they didn’t miss a beat with him. I didn’t see a ton of, you know, having to chip the guys on the edges. I didn’t think that we had to really, you know, put a lot of fullbacks in the middle and we didn’t see Josh Oliver trying to scanning, taking care of some of the blocking scheme. They really trusted those guys up front. Of course, there was some mistakes to be made, but that’s a really good front that they’re playing. Those guys get paid, too. But when it mattered in that last drive, Carson was clean, he was protected, and he was confident. You mentioned uh you mentioned Josh Oliver there and that was a interesting way to start the game. We had Cam Acres, one of the running backs, throw the first touchdown of the game for the Vikings to Josh Oliver. It was the first non-QB touchdown for the Vikings since 2008. Yeah, crazy. Uh third longest by a non-QB in team history. It was a 32 yard. Uh I wasn’t expecting the Wildcat. I know that Kevin’s got some trickery up his sleeve, but I wasn’t expecting the Wildat when you saw that happen. like what was your first reaction? Well, I just thought the whole the whole day it seemed like their staff kind of they relied on some creativity, not so much like trick plays, but we saw a tackle over situation with Darasaw goes from left tackle, he goes and lines up in the tight end spot on the right side. Uh we saw the counter flip play, we saw jet sweep, you know, we just saw we saw middle screens, which we don’t always do, at least the setup of some of these things. So, I really think the whole idea was to keep the defense guessing the whole time. And then yes, as a defensive player, you see Wildcat, certain things go through your head and you it’s almost instinctful to to think a little faster, to think, okay, this is going to be an very obvious run. This is going to be some sort of like, you know, Wildcat power play. Watch the pulling guards. I got to get downhill. And the ability for that direct snap and to him for to to get outside just what three or four steps, that’s all you really need because as a defensive player, you’re thinking downhill, downhill, downhill. And that’s why the play works. And so they kind of just bite on it, right? Absolutely. It’s it’s a play action without being a play action. Okay. And it works beautifully. Let’s talk about the defense a little bit because without their ability to stop the explosive play in this game, the victory may not have been there. It was touchandgo for a while, but but despite that first, you know, touchdown in the game, they had a clean sheet. They were they were able to force three and outs. They were able to force them to p put them in a field position battle. What did you make of their ability to keep this V this Vikings team in the game? Well, it it really was like a bend but don’t break. I mean, they they had a bunch of chunk runs. I’m sure you know the the run game absolutely has to be figured out and I know it’s going to be addressed during the by-week. Um but that was another issue that popped up today and you know they even had a big one called back because their own their own holding call. Um so we were a little bit leaky but when it mattered in the red zone we stepped up. uh we we were controlling the line of scrimmage when it mattered and they got inside the 20. So again, I think in the critical moments we were just better than they were. At what point were you like this team will be able to pull this off the whole time? No, not really. You know, um I’d like to say that I had faith the whole time. Um but I also knew how good of a defense we were facing. You know, I certainly didn’t expect us to be so surgical on that last drive. And um you know it was it was a thing of beauty and the way that we were able to kind of counter some of what they were doing thinking that we were just going to try to get out of bounds and I referenced that Hawinson pass over the middle. You know those are the unconventional thoughts that have to go through your head of like if we have enough time to get up get on the football if that ball’s completed then we kind of steal a down a little bit and we steal some yardage. Uh because everybody thinks that we have to get out of bounds and try to stop the clock. So I thought it was very smart. Uh they executed well, but I gotta be honest, Tatum, like I I can’t say that I was like, well, we’re we’re we’re absolutely gonna win this game because it was just such a slog for three three and a half quarters. And when you think about the ability to overcome two turnovers, a negative two turnover margin plus the seven penalties when you were in the locker room speaking to those players, what were their conversations like after being able to pull off the win knowing the odds were stacked against them? You know, I think they just keep talking about character and resilience and they never batted an eye. They know that what they’ve built here and they know the type of players that they have here and they’re like, you know, they’re not losing faith until I think I think Jonathan Gard told me he’s like, I don’t lose faith until I see all zeros on the clock. Yeah. Because I know what type of team we have. I know the guys that can make plays and I know the coaching staff that we have. So, um, yeah, I obviously a very happy, celebratory locker room. Um, they understand that penalties have to get cleaned up. Uh, they understand defensively they got to do a better job of of stopping the run. But so much so much praise to the offensive line. I mean, from both sides of the ball, you know, so much praise to Jordan Addison to coming out and and balling out the way he did and Justin Jefferson. So, again, they know they have special players and they’re just waiting for all of them to make special plays in the right moments. So these players now head into a byee then and as a former player yourself, how do you attack by week as a team who’s three and two and still trying to find that consistency? You know, I think the biggest thing and and we’ve talked about this a lot as players, you have to be very raw and honest and brutally honest with yourself. You know, the by-week is a time to physically get better, to really get your feet up in the air, to rehab, to get your body right for a long stretch of the season where you’re not going to get a break except for maybe these baby buys after the Thursday night games. But the point is like don’t shy away from the things that you need to work on during the by-week. You know, everybody, every player, every um every group of te of players, you know, the position groups, they’re all doing good things, they’re all doing bad things. You can’t just focus on all the good things that you’re doing. You really have to critically look at it. And it’s hard, you know, you you really want your brain to shut down. You really want to be like, I want to take a break. Yeah. But I would suggest in in being there that I I forced myself in the first couple of days, the 48 hours leading into the bye. That’s when I attacked that. I looked at everything critically because I wanted to enjoy the bye-week. So, I got sort of the dirty stuff out of the way early and I didn’t want that lingering later in the week. Awesome. Well, thanks Ben for your insight. We have to wrap this between the lines up because we need to get back on the bus, take us to the airport so we can get you at home in our beds really soon. Yes. Oh my goodness. Can’t wait. Can’t wait. Well, the Vikings are victors on their way back to America. We thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you not next week, but the next when we are back at US Bank Stadium when the Vikings host the Eagles.

Vikings Entertainment Network’s Tatum Everett was joined by Ben Leber to break down the Minnesota Vikings win over the Cleveland Browns in London during Week 5 of the 2025 NFL season.

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