Penalty Party
With Case Keenum forced into action at short notice the Vikings were going to need to have a great game to escape Heinz field with a Victory but as the game played out they did themselves no favors, continually shooting themselves in the foot.
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Under Mike Zimmer, undisciplined isn’t a word you can use often to describe the Vikings but against the Steelers the Vikings got sloppy, committing 11 penalties for 131 yards and 4 first downs. To put that into perspective, Pittsburgh had 28% of their total yards handed to them by the referees. We’ve already mentioned the chunk yardage given up in defensive pass interference penalties and the first downs negated by holding calls. You could argue that those penalties were inescapable as, without them, big plays and sacks would have followed. What was inexcusable were the frivolous penalties that gifted the Steelers points.
It began on the Steelers’ opening driver where Brian Robinson jumped offside on 4th & 1, the drive would ultimately lead to the games opening touchdown. On Pittsburgh’s first possession of the second half, Chris Boswell missed a 51-yard field goal, setting the Vikings up with fantastic field position. At least they would have been if Nick Easton hadn’t lined up over the center drawing a 5-yard penalty. Predictably Boswell nailed his second attempt.
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The Vikings were also not helped by poor execution on special teams. Not only did Kai Forbath miss an extra point for the second week running but twice in the second half McKinnon opted to return very deep kick-offs only to fail to get to the 25-yard line. The pièce de résistance of special teams inefficiency was a horribly executed fake punt pass on 4th and 4 from the Vikings own 36 yard line. Not only did Ryan Quigley display that is he is no Jonny Hekker but you have to question the choice to call that play in your own half and risk setting one of the leagues best offenses with a very short field.
Should Keenum continue to be the Vikings starting quarterback for an extended period of time the team and coaching staff are going to perform at a higher level if they wish to win any games without Bradford.