Schmidt’s Week 2 game grades: Minnesota Vikings vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

Vikings’ Special Teams Grade: D+

The Minnesota Vikings dealt with Blair Walsh missing kicks last year and now they are dealing with Kai Forbath missing kicks in 2017. For the second straight week, Forbath missed an extra point. The miss came at a crucial point of the game, as the Vikings just scored and were about to only be down by a touchdown in the third quarter.

Minnesota Vikings

Forbath was perfect all preseason, but he has struggled in the regular season. He could be playing to stay on the Vikings next week. If he misses another kick, you would expect the Vikings to let him go.

The punt team was involved a lot this past Sunday. Ryan Quigley had six punts with three inside the 20 and his long was 55 yards. He has proved to be a solid punter for the Vikings.

However, the play that he will be most remembered for on Sunday is the fake punt the Vikings called on the first drive of the second half. Quigley tried to lob a pass to one of the Vikings’ tight ends, but it fell incomplete. It was an aggressive play-call by the Vikings that was not executed well.

The kick and punt return game was held in check for the Vikings as they didn’t get an explosive play by either Marcus Sherels or Jerick McKinnon.  The biggest take away from this side of the ball was McKinnon returning kicks that were about 8 to 9 yards deep in the end zone. Each return failed to make the 25-yard line, where the ball would have been placed if he took a knee.

Next: Sherels sets Vikings record against Steelers

Overall, it was mistakes that hurt the special teams on Sunday. The missed field goal is tough to swallow as the Vikings were hoping to have fixed that need from a year ago. Also, the Vikings were called for a penalty on a field goal attempt that was missed. The penalty gave Steelers kicker Chris Boswell a retry, which he made.