Minnesota Vikings: Top five takeaways vs. Tampa Bay in Week 3

Superb Secondary

With Tampa’s ground game having little effect, Dirk Koetter chose to let Jameis Winston air it out 40 times against Minnesota’s secondary. Despite having Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson at his disposal this strategy ultimately led to the Buccaneer’s demise.  Winston ended the day with 328 yards and two touchdowns but the Vikings forced him to make several mistakes leading to 3 interceptions.

Xavier Rhodes faced another elite wide receiver as he trailed Mike Evans across the field for the majority of the game. Rhodes would go 2 for 2 as he once again severely restricted one of the NFL’s best receiving options. A week after shutting down Antonio Brown, Rhodes was the main reason Evans was restricted to 7 catches on 12 targets for 67 yards. To put that into perspective Evans averaged 9.6 yards a reception against the Vikings, 5.6 less than his career average. Rhodes has certainly put himself in the conversation of the leagues best cornerback with back to back outstanding displays.

In a desperate bid to get Evans way from Rhodes, the Buccaneers resorted to playing him in the slot in the 3^rd quarter. That didn’t go well. Winston forced the pass into double coverage, Evans got his hands on the ball first but a big hit from Andrew Sendejo forced the ball free and into the waiting hands of Harrison Smith.

Both safeties had great games for Minnesota, with Sendejo taking advantage of a poor throw from Winston to record his first interception of the year. As well as his interception Smith was his typical self, flying around the field making tackles as he led the team with 8 and severely limited the opposing receivers’ ability to garner yards after the catch.

Even the often maligned Trae Waynes showed up in a big spot, intercepting Winston as he underthrows D-Jax in the end zone. Waynes displayed great speed out of his break to get in position to make the interception but make no doubt about it, had the ball been thrown accurately Jackson would have caught a touchdown as he had Waynes bang to rights.

Despite an 82.2 Pro Football Focus grade, Waynes continues to raise questions. He certainly performed better this week after getting brutalized by Martavis Bryant in Week 2, but receivers had too much success against him for my liking. As predicted the Vikings tested out some alternative options with Tremaine Brock getting a run out at the second cornerback spot. Unfortunately, that didn’t go very well as despite being in a good position to make a play on the ball Brock failed to do so and gave up a long touchdown catch to DeSean Jackson. The Vikings survived their lack of corner depth against Tampa but it certainly gives cause for concern moving forward.

In Brees, Roethlisberger and Winston the Vikings secondary has faced 3 of the leagues best passers and performed admirably each time. It won’t get any easier next week with Matthew Stafford determined to show he is worthy of the title of the leagues highest player. I for one am backing the Vikings defense to bring him back down to earth as long as they can cover up their second cornerback inadequacy.