Minnesota Vikings: Top five takeaways vs. Tampa Bay in Week 3
By Josh Clarke
King Keenum
Congratulations to those who had the foresight to start Case Keenum in their fantasy football leagues. Of course, no one did and rightly so after the career journeyman predictable struggled in his first Vikings outing in Week 2 against the Steelers. Even the optimists amongst Vikings fans couldn’t have expected this performance as Keenum rolled back the years to his College days. The NCAA career passing yards record holder passed for 369 yards and 3 touchdowns with a completion percentage of 75.8 on his 33 attempts.
If it wasn’t for the name and number on the back of the quarterbacks’ jersey you would be mistaken for thinking that Bradford was still playing for Minnesota. Just like Bradford in Week 1, when Keenum was given time in the pocket to make the correct read and he did a great job in delivering accurate balls on the majority of his passes. Keenum’s downfield accuracy was particularly impressive when you take into account his prior performances and if it wasn’t for a couple of uncharacteristic drops from his receiving core his stats would have looked even better.
With longer than a couple of days to prepare Keenum to start, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur put together a fantastic game plan to play Keenum’s strengths. Rollouts, play action and quick reads were all on display to assist Keenum in his dissection of the Buccaneers. In the Vikings two home games of the season, the quarterbacks have arguably produced career-defining performances. Shurmur’s game planning and play calling has undoubtedly played a large part in that and he deserves a lot of credit for his part in the Vikings offensive transformation.
Many feared the Vikings faced a lost season with Bradford out for an undefined period of time. However, Keenum demonstrated against the Buccaneers that as long as all of the parts perform around him, the quarterback has the ability to keep the Minnesota Vikings in contention for a playoff spot.