Vikings vs. Rams: Highlights, game tracker for Week 4

The Minnesota Vikings faced the Los Angeles Rams in a huge NFC clash on Thursday Night Football in Week 4. We’ve got the highlights and more from the game.

There are virtually no teams that have had a more impressive start to the 2018 season than the Los Angeles Rams. After breaking out last year, they started off their second campaign under head coach Sean McVay looking even more explosive than before. However, many believed they’d not faced a true test yet. That was set to change on Thursday Night Football in Week 4 as they welcomed the Minnesota Vikings.

Under McVay, the Rams have had an exceptionally explosive offense. 2016 first-overall pick Jared Goff started to look the part thanks to his play-action heavy scheme, which of course is aided by the massive threat posed by Todd Gurley. Now with Brandin Cooks in the fold as well on offense, they are even ore potent with the ball.

However, the big improvements for LA this offseason came on defense. They eventually locked Aaron Donald up to a massive extension. But before that, they traded for cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib and signed Ndamukong Suh. In Week 4, though, both the corners entered the contest injured, Talib out indefinitely for now and Peters playing at assumedly less than 100 percent.

As for the Vikings, they came into this game reeling off a horrible loss last week. Everyone and their brother had them stomping on the Bills, but it was they who were on the wrong end of the boots, falling to Buffalo in a shocking blowout. That puts new quarterback Kirk Cousins under the microscope, without a doubt.

Dalvin Cook returning to the offense on Thursday should help, but the Vikings still remained down a big part of the defense with Everson Griffen dealing with off-field issues. Given that and what happened last week, it wasn’t surprising to see Minnesota on the road as seven-point underdogs against the Rams, per Odds Shark.

Highlights

Cousins to Aldrick Robinson got the scoring started on the first drive and we were off to the races.

Gurley and Goff answered quickly as the running back beat Anthony Barr on his route into the end zone to tie it up.

Following a Minnesota field goal, the explosive LA offense kept cooking as Goff and Cooper Kupp connected for a monster touchdown score.

Robinson then put another tally in the box score to give the Vikings back the lead.

It was then another encore touchdown performance, this time for the Rams as Kupp hauled in a gorgeous throw from Goff for six more points.

Goff continued to stay red-hot early on, dropping in his fourth touchdown of the first half to Brandin Cooks on a deep ball.

After a slow start to the second half, Adam Thielen and the Vikes tried to make things interesting, scoring on a deep ball and then converting a two-point conversion to make it a three-point game.

Robert Woods, however, hauled in Goff’s fifth touchdown pass of the night to essentially put a dagger in the hearts of Minnesota.

There’s a good chance that we’ll see the Vikings and Rams be heavy players in the 2018 playoffs. Of course, both teams have to get there first, even if they do both appear to be off to an early start that puts them on that track.