Schmidt’s Week 7 game grades: Minnesota Vikings vs. Baltimore Ravens

The Minnesota Vikings are on a 3-game winning streak as they defeated the Baltimore Raves but how did each unit do in the Vikings win?

The Minnesota Vikings earned the victory by the score of 24-16. The Vikings improve to 5-2 and now alone sit atop of the NFC North division. It was defensive and special teams type game as both offenses were stymied.

The Minnesota Vikings played a similar game as last week. The team was very content running the ball and playing defense. The defense has really stepped up the last three weeks giving the Vikings a spark.

The common theme over the last three weeks for the defense has been their ability to get pressure on the quarterback. They have racked up 10 sacks in the last three games as they were able to sack Joe Flacco five times on Sunday.

The Vikings special teams had a very strong game as they were busy. The Vikings attempted six field goals as the Vikings offense couldn’t finish drives.

Minnesota’s offense has been held in check over the last four weeks after their big explosive game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they scored 34 points. They have played well enough to win games but they need to turn drives into touchdowns instead of settling for field goals.

Overall, a win is a win, as the Vikings continue to play well at home.  But let’s take a look at the game grades for the Vikings’ against the Ravens on Sunday.

Minnesota Vikings’ offensive grade: C-

The Vikings offense didn’t capitalize on many of their drives as they had to settle for a field goal six times on Sunday. The Vikings missed their opportunities.  Case Keenum has done a great job filling in at the starting quarterback but over the last three weeks, it has really come clear that is a game manager instead of opening the playbook up.

Keenum completed 20/31 for 188 and an interception. He also added one carry for nine yards.  Since his big 369 yard performance in Week 3, Keenum hasn’t been able to produce a similar game. Keenum has been more content throwing the short to intermediate routes.

Moving to the bright spot of the Vikings offense this week was Latavius Murray who ran over the century mark. Murray carried the ball 18 times for 113 yards and one touchdown. The performance looked like the Oakland Raider Murray who finished with 788 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Murray showed patience, strength, and speed throughout the game. His longest run was 35 yards and his touchdown was 29-yards.

https://twitter.com/Vikings/status/922174645024854016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The offense line deserves credit too as they were able to open the holes for him. The offense line has really improved this season allowing the Vikings to run the ball and not having to throw the ball 40 times a game. The offensive line may be the biggest difference from last years’ team who struggled on the offensive side of the ball.

Keenum spread the ball around again throwing to six different receivers. Jarius Wright led the team with 54-yards in three catches. It was his biggest game of the season and his first catch since Week 3.

Adam Thielen led the team with 12 targets but was only able to haul in five of them for 41 yards. Kyle Rudolph had the second most targets with seven which he brought in five of them for 43-yards which was the second most receiving yards for the Vikings’ receivers.

Overall, the Vikings offense has been hit hard not having Stefon Diggs the last two weeks, who is the teams’ biggest threat downfield. The Vikings ability to run the ball and the way their defense has played this season may experience more games like this for the rest of the season.

Minnesota Vikings defense grade: A

Defense wins championships and the Vikings defense is currently the leader for this team. The Vikings continued the trend of holding teams to under 20 points as they held the Ravens to 16 points. The Vikings’ defense has only allowed a 20 point game to the Pittsburgh Steelers which was in Week 2.

The Vikings created havoc on the Ravens all day and were led by their captain on defense. Everson “Sack Daddy” Griffen had six tackles to go along with two sacks. Griffen now has 9 sacks on the season which places him third in the NFL behind DeMarcus Lawrence and Calais Campbell.

Anthony Barr, Tom Johnson, and Danielle Hunter all recorded a sack on Sunday that gave the Vikings defense a total of five.

Anthony Barr has been stepping up lately has had 11 tackles which six of them were solo tackles. Barr is former first-round pick and is playing a pro-bowl caliber season. He is second on the team with 42 tackles.

The Vikings secondary had another strong performance as they held the Ravens’ receiving corp. in check. They didn’t allow any of the Ravens receivers to have 40 yards receiving. Andrew Sendejo led the group with five tackles as Harrison Smith was right behind him with four tackles.

Overall, the Vikings’ defense continues to play at a very high level. Currently, the defense is the backbone of this team as Mike Zimmer as planned. The Vikings only allowed one touchdown on Sunday which came on the very last play of the game.

Minnesota Vikings special teams’ grade: A-

The old football saying of field goals won’t win you games was not true on Sunday as the Vikings special teams were the offense on Sunday. Kai Forbath went 6/6 on his field goal attempts.

Forbath made kicks from 52, 51, 43, 43, 34 and 32 yards. He was on point with his field goals and stepped when the Vikings needed him. The 30-year-old kicker has now made all of his 11 field goal attempts over the last three weeks and improves to 17/18 for the season.

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However, on a day that he was perfect on the field goal attempts he missed his only extra point try which is his third miss extra point of the season. It was odd to see him miss the extra point has he already had made two 50-yard field goals before that extra point. Lucky for him that extra point did not hurt the Vikings in the game.

Marcus Sherels had a busy day returning kicks as found himself on punt and kick return duty. Sherels. Sherels had three punt returns for a total of 83 yards with his longest going 46 yards. He had some room to run in this game and was close to breaking one before getting tripped up around mid-field.

He had one kick return on Sunday that went for 20 yards.

Next: Ups and Downs from Week 7 vs Ravens

Overall, the Vikings special teams provided most of the offense for the Vikings scoring 18 points. In a defensive type game, the Vikings special teams did a good job winning the position battle and not allowing any big plays by the Ravens.