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Minnesota Vikings: Top 5 takeaways from Week 7 vs. Baltimore

Josh Clarke
Josh Clarke

The Viking Age

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings calls a play at the line of scrimmage in the first half of the game agains the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings calls a play at the line of scrimmage in the first half of the game agains the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings calls a play at the line of scrimmage in the first half of the game agains the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

What was learned about the Minnesota Vikings during their Week 7 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens at U.S. Bank Stadium?

Against a depleted Baltimore Ravens team the Minnesota Vikings continued their victorious ways, stretching their streak of consecutive wins to 3 with a 24-16 home triumph in U.S Bank Stadium.

The close score line in no way provides an accurate representation of the Vikings performance and the 8 point margin of victory severely flatters Baltimore’s performance. Offensively the Ravens had no answer to Minnesota’s ferocious defence until they scored a garbage time touchdown with seconds left on the clock. The Vikings’ defensive performance allowed their offense to enjoy a relatively pedestrian day with a few contributions from unlikely sources proving enough to secure victory.

Let’s dive in to the top five takeaways from Minnesota’s Week 7 performance and predict how they could affect the Vikings’ jaunt over to London against the Browns and beyond. Let’s started with the most important position of all and how it could define the Vikings’ season.

Unless otherwise noted, all game stats are provided by ESPN

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings calls a play at the line of scrimmage in the first quarter of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings calls a play at the line of scrimmage in the first quarter of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

#1. Bludgeon Brothers

Vikings fans stand up and clap. The Vikings offensive line turned in another fine performance against Baltimore and thoroughly deserves a standing ovation.

Not only did they pave the way for McKinnon and Murray to gain a combined 160 yards on the ground but since Case Keenum returned to the line up at halftime against the Bears he has not suffered a sack.

Sure individually they may not have all had a perfect season so far but as a unit they are starting to gel and after Baltimore racked up 5 sacks against the Bears last week limiting them to only 3 QB hits is mightily impressive.

Rick Spielman must certainly be a happy man as his two most expensive free agent additions had arguably their best days in Minnesota as detailed below by Pro Football Focus.

"LT RILEY REIFF, 83.4 OVERALL GRADE Reiff had a day against Terrell Suggs, yielding one total pressure on 27 pass blocking snaps. He added some fine work in the run game for his highest-graded game of the season. RT MIKE REMMERS, 87.1 OVERALL GRADE Both tackles get credit, where credit is due, simply because of how much they fueled the offense in this one. Remmers was also responsible for just one lone hurry and cleared the way for multiple big runs. The Vikings averaged 9.1 yards per carry on eight runs that hit off the right edge."

With Nick Easton again ruled out due to injury and two other linemen leaving the field with knee injuries (His replacement Jeremiah Sirles and Riley Reiff) getting healthy upfront will be the Vikings primary concern heading into Week 8.

Myles Garret has entered the league by living up to the considerable pre-draft hype and should the left side of the line be undermanned I fear Case Keenum may spend most of his day at Twickenham running for his life.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Latavius Murray #25 of the Minnesota Vikings runs with the ball and breaks a tackle by defender Tony Jefferson #23 of the Baltimore Ravens in the third quarter of the game on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Murray scored a 29 yard touchdown on the play. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Latavius Murray #25 of the Minnesota Vikings runs with the ball and breaks a tackle by defender Tony Jefferson #23 of the Baltimore Ravens in the third quarter of the game on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Murray scored a 29 yard touchdown on the play. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

#2. Monstrous Murray

Welcome to Minnesota Latavius Murray!

After weeks of flying under the radar and being outshined by Dalvin Cook and Jerick McKinnon, the former Oakland Raider finally proved that he can a significant contributor to the Minnesota Vikings offence after going off against the Ravens.

After gaining a miserable 28 yards on 15 carries against the Packers in Week 6, Murray had a complete change of fortune against a leaky Baltimore run defence has he gained 113 yards on just 18 carries for an impressive 6.3 yard per carry average. Murray also scored his first touchdown as a Viking on a 29 yard run in the third quarter.

https://twitter.com/NFLUK/status/922189132461375488

Whilst the majority of Murray’s yards came on his touchdown run and the 35 yard rush above that’s not to say his other 16 carries were disappointing. He had 6 carries for between 5 and 10 yards as he consistently found running room and even busted out a variety of moves landing a big staff arm and a killer juke on his long runs. Hopefully Murray is now fully recovered from his ankle operation and Sunday’s performance was a sign of what Vikings fans can expect going forward.

Whilst the Vikings will unquestionably the dynamic Cook for the rest of the season, Murray and McKinnon have stepped up admirably in his absence and their continued success will be crucial to Vikings for the remainder of the season.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Anthony Barr #55 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates a sack in the third quarter of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Anthony Barr #55 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates a sack in the third quarter of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

#3. Barr at his best

A week after breaking the hearts of Green Bay Packers fans and receiving some scrutiny from the national media for his hit on Aaron Rodgers, Anthony Barr made headlines for all of the right reasons.

Barr absolutely wrecked the Ravens by flying around the field making 11 tackles (2.5 for a loss), severely limiting the Raven’s ability to sustain drives and making Joe Flacco even more miserable than he normally is.

Barr played at an elite level on Sunday, not only did he help shutdown the run but he excelled against the pass.  He broke up a passes, had a drive ending sack on Flacco and most importantly severely limited the yards after catch Buck Allen could generate by corralling him after several check down passes.

There is no question that Barr has recovered from a disappointing sophomore season and is deservedly gaining praise from fans and critics alike as he received an 83.0 grade from Pro Football Focus.

Many are calling the Vikings the leagues best defence after 7 weeks and Barr’s return to form has played a large part in their success. If he can continue to perform at his current level, Barr should find himself on his way to Orlando and widely recognized as one of the leagues premier linebackers.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Danny Isidora #63 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates a successful field goal attempt with kicker Kai Forbath #2 in the first half of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Danny Isidora #63 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates a successful field goal attempt with kicker Kai Forbath #2 in the first half of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

#4. Can Kai Kick It?

Kai Forbath continues to both fascinate and frustrate Viking’s fans in equal measures.  Forbath was arguably the Viking’s most important player on Sunday as he scored 18 points but once again shanked an extra point.

On his 6 field goal attempts the former UCLA kicker was perfect and displayed the ideal combination of power and accuracy as he kicked 2 from over 50 yards. Forbath is now 17 for 18 on the season, which is a massive positive for Vikings fans who suffered through Blair Walsh’s inconsistencies in recent years.

That isn’t to say Forbath was without fault on Sunday. With his missed extra point he has now failed to convert 3 already in 2017 as well as missing another makeable field goal from a similar distance.

Fortunately, none of his misses have had a direct result on any of the games they occurred in. The Viking can’t ride that luck for ever and for those familiar with the Vikings’ history with kickers I have a terrible feeling that if this trend continues the Vikings are destined to lose a game by a solitary point.

If Forbath can overcome his complacency on short field goals he is poised to have a fantastic year but if he can’t I dread the consequences.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings passes the ball to Adam Thielen #19 in the second half of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 22: Case Keenum #7 of the Minnesota Vikings passes the ball to Adam Thielen #19 in the second half of the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 22, 2017 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

#5. Is Case good enough?

The Vikings quarterback roulette wheel was spinning at full speed this week with Teddy Bridgewater returning to practice and Sam Bradford’s status once again up in the air. When the dust settled Case Keenum trotted out on the field to continue his stint under center by producing another pedestrian outing.

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Case ended the game with 188 yards after completing 20 of his 31 attempts for a 6.1 yard average and a quarterback rating of 69.8.  As the numbers suggest Keenum was very much in dink and dunk mode and whilst he was accurate enough on his intermediate throws, several of his deep passes were off target.

Fortunately due to the nature of the game Keenum wasn’t called on to make big plays and with the Vikings in defence continuing to dominant his average performance was all that was required.

Keenum will certainly be able to help the Vikings swat aside the Browns in England but after the bye week the schedule goes up several notches in difficulty and from Week 10 4 of their next 5 games are away from home.

Next: Week 7 Defensive MVP

With his performances in purple and gold ranging from incredible to average, Keenum has shown that he isn’t consistent enough to help the Vikings run that gauntlet. Let’s hope that by the time the Vikings travel to FedEx Field a quarterback whose names begins with B is starting.

Josh Clarke

Josh Clarke

Veteran Vikings fan, Rookie contributor to The Viking Age. Hailing from the UK soccer was his first love but Josh turned to the gridiron a decade ago, tragically following the Vikings ever since. Josh briefly played running back for the Norwich Devils, evoking Toby Gerhart comparisons but just like Gerhart he never fulfilled his potential.