Minnesota Vikings preseason week 2: Top 5 takeaways vs Seattle

Unsecure Secondary

Last week I wrote about the Minnesota Vikings first team defense allowing a concerning amount of big plays against Buffalo. that trend regrettably continued in Seattle, particularly against the aerial attack. Russell Wilson played the entirety of the first half, gaining 206 yards on 18 attempts for a very impressive 11.4 yards per attempt average and connected on passes of 20, 27, and 37 against the Vikings’ starters.

Doug Baldwin had a field day with 4 catches on 4 targets for 69 yards. Baldwin made Terence Newman look his age and perplexed Mackensie Alexander. You can see examples of both below.

Baldwin wasn’t the only Seahawks receiver who had success getting open against the Vikings secondary missing Trae Waynes and Andrew Sendejo. Jermaine Kearse got wide open over the middle for an easy 20 yard gain and Kasen Williams made Xavier Rhodes look average by making this fantastic one-handed catch.

The Vikings can take some solace in the performance of two of their back up defensive backs. Marcus Sherels and Jayron Kearse impressed the analysts at PFF both grading out in the top 5 Vikings players with 82.6 and 83.7 respectively. Kearse’s performance is further broken-down below.

"FS Jayron Kearse was targeted three times in coverage, he allowed one completion and recorded two pass breakups. Kearse was also solid when playing in the box, recording a run defense grade of 81.4."

Hopefully once the Minnesota Vikings secondary returns to full strength their ability to restrict chunk plays will increase, but the current performance of the depleted unit does give reason to be concerned when a starter is inevitably injured at some point in the season.