{"id":274252,"date":"2025-11-06T02:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T02:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/274252\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T02:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T02:27:08","slug":"vikings-call-kalif-raymonds-block-on-andrew-van-ginkel-a-cheap-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/274252\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings call Kalif Raymond’s block on Andrew Van Ginkel a ‘cheap shot’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kevin SeifertNov 5, 2025, 07:20 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Kevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n

EAGAN, Minn. — Minnesota Vikings<\/a> linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel<\/a> produced one of the team’s most impressive plays of the season Sunday in a 27-24 upset of the Detroit Lions<\/a>, tackling running back Jahmyr Gibbs<\/a> for a 1-yard loss after a crushing block he never saw coming.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Van Ginkel was one of several players in the Vikings’ locker room to call out the block from receiver Kalif Raymond<\/a>. Van Ginkel called it “a dirty play,” and linebacker Eric Wilson<\/a> said it was “absolute bulls—” and a “cheap shot.”<\/p>\n

On the play, Raymond lined up as an outside receiver before going in motion. At the snap, he sprinted directly toward Van Ginkel — who was facing the other way as he was taking his first steps as a pass rusher — and shoved him to the ground with a block to the left shoulder. Van Ginkel slid across the artificial turf at Ford Field, but when he stopped, he was at Gibbs’ feet.<\/p>\n

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“Obviously, getting hit on the side, I’m just going to pass rush,” Van Ginkel said. “And all of a sudden I get whiplash because the guy blindsides me. I’m not going to go into too much detail about it, but I wasn’t too pleased with it.”<\/p>\n

The block was not penalized and does not appear to fit the NFL’s definition of either a crackback or blindside block. But Van Ginkel made clear he did not think it was safe.<\/p>\n

“I think that it’s something that the league should look at if it’s something that they need to take out of the game,” he said. “Because we can’t be doing that. … When you’re pass rushing like that, you are not anticipating someone blindsiding from the side. I’m trying to get off the ball, get a good pass rush. I had no clue he was there. How are we supposed to protect ourselves in those cases?”<\/p>\n

Van Ginkel was a second-team All-Pro last season but had missed five of the Vikings’ previous six games entering Sunday because of a neck injury and a concussion. Coach Kevin O’Connell<\/a> showed a clip of the play to the entire team during a meeting this week to emphasize Van Ginkel’s resourcefulness after the block.<\/p>\n

“He provides so many layers of things to our defense,” O’Connell said. “That allows [defensive coordinator Brian Flores] to be who he wants to be as a playcaller. And then Gink helps everybody else around him, not only himself, play at a high level.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin SeifertNov 5, 2025, 07:20 PM ET CloseKevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-274252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}