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Stats That Stood Out: Vikings-Jaguars in Week 13

The Vikings overcame miscues and outlasted the Jaguars in overtime for a 27-24 win Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

A muted celebration followed a game that included four takeaways by the Vikings defense and an offensive performance with a couple of big milestones thanks to a rally in the third quarter.

Here are three stats that stood out presented by GEICO:

1. Improbable completions

According to Next Gen Stats, the Vikings fell victim to the least likely completion of Week 13 (does not include Monday's two games or Tuesday's contest). Minnesota, however, countered with a pair of passes that were in the top 11 "improbable completions" on Sunday.

NGS calculated Mike Glennon's 34-yard pass to Collin Johnson with a completion probability of 16.5 percent.

Kirk Cousins' 40-yard pass to Justin Jefferson, which displayed impressive accuracy as well as smooth concentration by the rookie, ranked as the fourth-most improbable (25.1 percent).

The 20-yard touchdown pass from Cousins to Jefferson — on which the first-round pick crossed the rare 1,000-yard threshold — ranked 11th with a completion probability of 30.4 percent.

2. Under pressure

Cousins finished 28-of-43 passing for 305 yards with three touchdowns and an interception that resulted from he and Dalvin Cook not being on the same page (Cousins placed responsibility on himself for in-huddle communication after the game). His passer rating of 99.5 snapped his five-game streak of games with a rating of 100 or higher but was still quite impressive, considering the amount of pressure that Jacksonville was able to apply. (Note: Cousins passer rating would have been 109.2 if the interception had only been an incompletion.)

Press box statisticians tallied a whopping 14 hits by Jaguars defenders on the quarterback, including four sacks by a team that entered the game with 11 sacks on the season.

View game-action images as the Vikings take on the Jaguars during Week 13 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Vikings defenders were able to record seven hits on Glennon, according to press box stats. Minnesota recorded two sacks on the day, including a safety by Ifeadi Odenigbo, who led the Vikings with three quarterback hits.

Harrison Smith and Hercules Mata'afa combined for the other sack, getting to Glennon in 3.64 seconds, which was 14*th*-fastest of any sack in Week 13.

Glennon opened on fire, completing his first six passes for 107 yards, but Minnesota was eventually able to affect him. He finished 28-of-42 for 280 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions (passer rating of 73.5). After those first six completions, Glennon's passer rating was just 49.9 the rest of the game.

1207StatsStoodOutChart

3. Loaded box

Cook ran uphill to and from work on Sunday. He entered the game on the injury report with an ankle issue stemming from activity in a pile with Panthers in Week 12.

And once he lined up against the Jaguars, he faced a loaded box with eight or more defenders 53.1 percent of the time. That was the third-highest rate in Week 13.

By comparison, Jacksonville's rookie standout James Robinson faced eight or more defenders in the box 16.7 percent of the time (tied for 15th-highest rate).

Despite Jacksonville's best efforts to deter Cook on a day Minnesota was without Alexander Mattison, the fourth-year pro rushed 32 times for 120 yards and added 59 yards on six receptions.

Minnesota limited Robinson to 78 yards on 18 attempts while generally leaving an extra defender or more to focus on other aspects.

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