Most dominant elements of the 2022/23 NFL playoffs: What to look out for in the postseason

#7. Justin Jefferson’s jittery elusiveness and Minnesota’s late-game madness

NFL Regular Season - Minnesota Vikings v Buffalo Bills

The first part of this has certainly lost some weight due to the most recent showing against the Green Bay Packers. Justin Jefferson was held to just one catch for 15 yards in a blowout loss. However, if we’re looking at the rest of the NFL season, this guy has been the most dominant receiver in football.

He demanded a gameplan that saw safety help over the top on the majority of snaps, along with an All-Pro level corner in Jaire Alexander playing man on him, This held him to under 98 receiving yards for just the third time since Week 3.

Across the three prior contests, Jefferson had hauled in 35 of 47 targets for 479 yards and a couple of touchdowns. When he went up against Green Bay in the season-opener (a game in which the Packers played a lot more match-zone) number 18 in purple went off for 184 yards and two TDs.

NFL Regular Season - New York Giants v Minnesota Vikings

He has simply been phenomenal this season. Despite leading the NFL with 174 targets and 599 routes run, Jefferson is still number four in yards per route run (2.93) and second in yards per team pass attempt (2.92).

When you watch this guy attack defensive looks, there are just so many things he can do to stress rules and put individual players in conflict. Jefferson is really unique with his elusiveness off the line and then the herky-jerky type of twitchiness to create separation out of his breaks. The way he can put guys under stress (who want to control reps by getting into his frame) as he slithers by them, or shakes them off with one of his signature rocker-steps, makes him a nightmare to match up against in true man-coverage.

He has the football IQ to find voids in zone coverage and he tilts his body to get safeties leveraged the wrong way. That approach isn’t a whole lot better. I think we all saw the nasty triple-move he had for a touchdown in their historic comeback against the Indianapolis Colts, where he left Stephon Gilmore behind in the dust. It’s the way he runs those backside digs that really stands out to me.

On top of his route-running excellence, Jefferson tracks the ball tremendously well over either shoulder and has some spectacular catches in contested situations. Most notably, that unreal one-handed on fourth-and-19 against the Bills, which allowed Minnesota to take the game to overtime, where they ultimately won.

That leads me into my second point here, which is the late-game craziness we’ve seen by this Vikings squad and how they’ve managed to pull wins out of their hats. While three of their four losses have now come in blowout fashion (against the Eagles, Cowboys and Packers) and you can question how legitimate they are as championship contenders in the NFC, if you let these guys hang around, they will do something nuts to come out victorious.

That’s how they’re still a perfect 11-0 in one-score affairs. Their 10.2 points scored on average in the fourth quarter are 1.6 better than any other team and they’re tied for 11th, surrendering just 5.7 on average. It’s really a combination of all the different elements.

One is Kirk Cousins being a tough son of a gun and hanging onto the ball as a defender is barreling in on him. His prayers thrown up to Jefferson are being answered.

They have an opportunistic defense with multiple veterans creating takeaways, along with a couple of pass-rushers getting to the QB when needed most. Plus a couple of big plays on special teams being sprinkled in, such as a fourth-quarter kick return touchdown by Kene Nwangwu (in a tight affair with the Patriots back in Week 11).