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

What were the five biggest takeaways from the Minnesota Vikings week 3 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, September 24, 2017?

With Sam Bradford once again ruled out due to his ongoing knee issues, Minnesota Vikings Fans went into Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers expecting the worst. The Vikings quickly disproved those expectations by producing another dominant home performance turning a 21-3 halftime lead into a comfortable 34-17 victory.

On a day where the entire world was watching the actions of players on the sidelines the Vikings dominated on the field. After opening their season with an impressive performance against Chicago, an injury-hit Buccaneer’s defense was completely exposed by the Vikings offensive firepower (I still can’t believe that is an accurate statement) as they gave up 494 yards to Case Keenum and company. Defensively the Vikings once again shut down their opponent’s ground game, forcing them to the air and redeploying the successful bend but don’t break the formula that worked so well against the Saints in Week 1.

More good news followed after the game with Mike Zimmer announcing that Bradford has avoided structural damage to his knee and remains a week to week proposition, per Pro Football Talk. Hopefully, Bradford will return for next weeks divisional clash with the Lions but as my top 5 takeaways from the Vikings’ victory will tell you, even if they are without their starting quarterback for several weeks their remains hope in Minnesota.

Unless otherwise noted, all game stats are provided by ESPN

Tremendous Trench Play

The Vikings offensive lineman unquestionably came under a lot of criticism after their Week 2 performance in Pittsburgh as Case Keenum faced pressure throughout the game. Week 3 however provided a completely different narrative as Keenum was kept upright for just about the entire game.  The new look offensive line played admirably against a stout Buccaneer’s defensive line as they pitched a shutout on the sack front and only allowed 3 quarterback hits. Not only did they prevent Keenum’s jersey from getting dirty but they did so cleanly. After giving up a whopping 5 holding penalties last week the offensive line reduced it to 1 against Tampa.  You know it’s been a good day at the office when Mike Remmers gets an 83.6 grade from Pro Football Focus.

It wasn’t only in the passing game that the big boys impressed as they paved the way for the Vikings to rush for 125 yards on the ground. With Gerald McCoy up front for Tampa, the Vikings were always going to struggle to move the ball up the middle but the interior line didn’t shy away from the challenge. The offensive line certainly didn’t win on every rushing attempt but overall they were able to hold their blocks long enough for Dalvin Cook to find a crease and as we know by now that is all the rookie needs.

Not to be outdone the Viking’s defensive line also played admirably. They may have only sacked Jameis Winston twice and hit him a further 3 times but considering the Vikings once again blitzed infrequently the front 4 had a solid pass rushing performance.  Everson Griffen led the way, getting his 4^th sack of the season early in the 3^rd game of the season and looks poised for a huge year.

After limiting Le’Veon Bell last week, the Vikings once again shut down the run.  Sure you could argue Tampa had little choice but to take to the air in their effort to close the gap but after averaging less than 3 yards on their 9 carries the Vikings forced their hand.

After 3 weeks the Vikings have shown that when they win on both sides of the trenches they are a force to be reckoned with. Linemen on both sides of the ball will face some challenging opposition thorough out the remaining schedule but early indications suggest they well equipped to match them.

Wide Receiver Weapons

With Brent Grimes, Tampa’s best cornerback, ruled out before kick-off the Vikings wide receivers must have been licking their lips at the opportunity of a big game. Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen certainly made the most of their opportunities as they followed up their big performances against the Saints with another on Sunday.

Adam Thielen has led the Vikings in receiving yards over the first two games of the season and he put together another exemplary performance against the Buccaneers. Thielen has demonstrated that he can consistently get open against NFL corners and that success continued on Sunday as he hauled in 5 catches for 98 yards. His best catch of the night, however, came when there was little separation between Thielen and the opposing corner. Racing down the left sideline, Thielen had a step on the Bucs’ corner tempting Keenum to unleash a howitzer of a pass ahead of him. Thielen tracks the ball well but just before it arrives the Tampa defender slips and inadvertently (or intentionally) drags him down. Normally that would be an issue but Thielen continues to follow the ball and stretch out to make an incredible falling catch.

Thielen may have had the catch of the night but Stefon Diggs easily outpaced him to lead the Vikings in receiving yards. Diggs overcame two early drops to catch 8 of his remaining 9 targets for an impressive 173 yards and 2 touchdowns.  His first touchdown came in the two-minute warning of the second half, spotting Diggs one on one with Vernon Hargreaves on a corner route Keenum put the ball and Diggs out-jumped the former Florida Gator to haul in the TD.

Diggs’ second touchdown was equally impressive. Keenum delivered a ball on the money, hitting Diggs in stride but he appeared to be headed out-of-bounds. Diggs, however, was able to stop in his tracks, shake a defender and raced 59 yards into the end zone. Diggs may garner some criticism for celebrating 15 yards out allowing the incoming Tampa player a shot at jarring the ball loose but if Diggs continues to play like this I say let him celebrate wherever he damn wants.

After 3 weeks of the season, the Vikings’ wide receiver duo is taking the league by storm, remarkably averaging just under 100 yards a game. They may struggle to keep up this pace for the entire year but opposing teams are certainly going to struggle to shut them both down.

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.

Home Cooking

After wowing Vikings fans with his first performance at U.S Bank stadium, rookie running back Dalvin Cook picked up exactly where he left off. Due to Cook’s breakaway speed, he remained a threat all game on the ground and in the air, racking up 169 total yards.

Running the ball Cook slugged it out on 27 carries for 97 yards. Looking at his stat line you may think that Cook struggled with a 3.6 yard per carry average but time and time again the Vikings opted to pound him up the middle. Whilst Cook’s main successes on the ground had come on outside runs during the first 2 weeks of the season, he demonstrated a toughness that few thought he possessed and he did some great work between the tackles gaining 82 yards after contact.  On his longest run of the game, Cook exploded through the B gap, shook an ankle tackle and juked the safety before eventually being dragged down 27 yards downfield.

Cook scored his first touchdown in the NFL in the first quarter and excelled as a receiving option out of the backfield as he caught all 5 of his targets for 72 yards. Cook’s longest catch of the day came in the 4^th quarter, receiving the ball in the flats accelerating past a tackler down the right sideline before cutting inside for 36 yards. The Buccaneers may be the last team to leave him so open. If they aren’t, Cook will punish plenty more teams with his breakaway speed.

Through 3 weeks Cook has shown that he was a steal in the second round and finds himself entrenched in a battle for the league rushing title and rookie of the year honors.

Adrian who?

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.

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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.