Joshua Dobbs was in a hostile opposing stadium, playing for a brand new team, essentially trying to learn a new language on the fly.
The Vikings quarterback, thrust into the purple spotlight after a midweek trade sandwiched between injuries to last week’s starting quarterback (Kirk Cousins) and Sunday’s starter (Jaren Hall), described his relief effort in the same way a student might describe a panic.
“It’s like if you were taking [AP] Spanish all year, you showed up and Wednesday, someone told you that you have that AP French exam on Sunday,” Dobbs said. “Someone’s got to talk to you in Spanish and translate it to French. That’s kind of what was going on out there.”
From the couch, to a casual football observer, Dobbs just looked like a quarterback making some impressive but improbable plays as the Vikings pulled out a 31-28 win at Atlanta — a comeback covered extensively with Patrick Reusse on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Behind the scenes, Dobbs had head coach Kevin O’Connell in his earpiece on every play until the play clock reached 15, translating plays into a makeshift workable language that Dobbs could at least passably understand.
Dobbs’ ability to improvise and make plays with his feet? Those are football instincts and athletic talent. His ability to decipher enough of the Vikings offense to make clutch throws, including the game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds?
That’s what had football legends like Kurt Warner impressed.
A great example: Dobbs’ game-winning TD throw to Brandon Powell, a play design he had watched the Vikings run in practice this past week but had never practiced himself. We saw Dobbs throw to the open receiver. Knowing when to throw and who was going to be open on your first rep? That’s next-level processing on the fly.
How impressive was it? Here’s Hall of Fame Vikings receiver Cris Carter.
Another Vikings Hall of Famer, Carl Eller, said he was “inspired” by the performance. Former Vikings QB Tommy Kramer said the “immediate future looks good!” while Cousins himself had a three exclamation point tweet.
That’s the kind of day it was. Dobbs has the highest Total QBR of 26 qualified quarterbacks who have played so far in Week 9, and his 86.6 mark is the 19th-best of any game for any quarterback this season. It was the second straight week a Vikings QB led the league in that metric; Cousins’ 92.5 QBR against Green Bay was the best a week ago and the fifth-best all year.
A lot of that big number came from Dobbs’ work with his feet, with key scrambles leading to all three of the touchdown drives he directed. But plenty of it also came from his arm and his head.
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