The writers from The Viking Age share how they feel the Minnesota Vikings will fare this week against the Cleveland Browns over in London, England.
For this week, the 5-2 Minnesota Vikings will be facing the winless Cleveland Browns. Should be an easy win for the Vikings, right? Not so fast.
The game is located in London, England this week and strange things seem to make a normal appearance whenever NFL teams travel across the pond for a matchup.
Take a look at what happened back in Week 3 when the Jacksonville Jaguars took on the Baltimore Ravens. The Jaguars of all teams managed to somehow finish their day with 44 points. Not exactly what anyone saw coming.
Despite all the shenanigans that end up happening when teams face off in London, Minnesota should not have a difficult time taking on a Browns team without left tackle Joe Thomas or rookie defensive end Myles Garrett.
A winless Cleveland team playing against a Vikings team with an rich history of consistently finding new ways to disappoint their fan base. Should be fun.
But that’s why the writers from The Viking Age have come together to share their predictions and attempt to bring the collective heart rates of Minnesota fans down to a semi-healthy level.
Adam Carlson:
Vikings win 30-10
As soon as the schedule came out, it is unlikely any fan of the Minnesota Vikings became concerned about their Week 8 game against the Cleveland Browns in the NFL’s annual International Series. Since then, the Browns have given little to no reason to fear them at all, struggling offensively and unable to find one quarterback to rally behind.
Offensively, the Vikings should be okay. The Browns will be without their top draft pick Myles Garrett, but still give up the ninth fewest yards per game. In addition, the Browns currently own the best yards per rushing attempt defense in the league, allowing 2.96 per carry. Sure, some of those are teams taking knees to run out the clock or run plays with a huge lead, but that is still something Minnesota should take seriously.
While I don’t expect any Minnesota running backs to reach or exceed 100 yards on the ground, the passing game will be huge. Cleveland allows a very generous 70% completion percentage and 10.18 yards per catch. Even though the Vikings aren’t known for having many explosive plays lately, their ability to pick up yards after the catch will allow them to break some big plays and get points on the board. Expect Adam Thielen to get over 100 yards and two other Vikings pass-catchers to have 60 or more.
On defense, the Vikings will have a great day. I anticipate them getting three turnovers from the Browns as well as Everson Griffen to continue his streak of sacks while the team racks up at least four in total. Like last week, I do expect the Browns to get one touchdown, but it won’t be until late in the game when it doesn’t really matter anymore.
The final score will be 30-10. And casual NFL fans will be changing the channel because the Browns won’t be worth checking out in this game.
Adam Patrick:
Vikings win 30-6
Being that I live on the west coast, I am not going to be very happy if I have to get up at 6am just to watch the Vikings lose to the Browns. But just by looking at basic logic, the chance of Minnesota actually falling to Cleveland on Sunday seems very, very slim (very slim).
That being said, I expect the Vikings to come out of this week in London with another win added to their current total this season.
Minnesota will get two touchdown passes out of quarterback Case Keenum and running back Jerick McKinnon will add another. Vikings kicker Kai Forbath will convert on all three of his field goal attempts (and extra points) to get the team’s point total up to 30 for the day.
With left tackle Joe Thomas out for the Browns, Minnesota’s pass rush will be virtually unstoppable on Sunday. Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen will tack on two more sacks to his impressive season total and Minnesota will finish the day with at least six sacks all together.
The Vikings’ vicious pass rush, combined with their excellent coverage in the secondary, will result in the Browns finding it very hard to accomplish anything on offense this week. Cleveland finishing with under 200 total yards on Sunday doesn’t seem too far fetched.
Oh yeah, one more thing. The Browns will be leaving Hue Jackson behind in London after this week as Sunday will be his last game as the team’s head coach.
Jordan Schmidt:
Vikings win 31-10
The Minnesota Vikings defense has been the best unit over the last couple of weeks. Now they face a rookie quarterback in DeShone Kizer of the Cleveland Browns that has thrown 11 interceptions on the year.
The defense will lead the Vikings to their sixth win of the season. Minnesota’s defense will create havoc all game. They have the potential of creating plenty of turnovers in this game and should set up the offense with great field position.
The Vikings’ offense moved the ball last week but failed finish their drives as they settled for field goals. This week, they figure out how to finish their drives as they rely on the run game heavily this week. Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray will both get at least 20 touches in this game.
Minnesota is also banged up at the quarterback position, so they will content running the ball.
Spencer Suckow:
Vikings win 27-13
Mike Zimmer said this week that the Browns “are not that far away” from being a decent team, but let’s be real: Cleveland is bad.
I don’t know if Zimmer genuinely believes that the Browns are close or if he’s just being complimentary for the press, but the Browns are 0-7 for a reason. Their offense is dead last in points per game with an average of 14.7, and the team is also last in the NFL in turnover margin at -11.
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While Cleveland’s defense is better than you’d probably expect, the team suffered a huge blow this week when they found out that they’ll be without number one overall pick Myles Garrett for the game due to a concussion. The Browns front-seven is talented and can make plays, but the Vikings should be able to exploit Garrett’s absence offensively.
The Vikings don’t usually put up a ton of points offensively, and with the game being played overseas, I don’t expect that to change this week. It probably won’t be a blowout, but with how dominant the Vikings’ defense is and how terrible the Browns’ offense is, this game should be a relatively easy win for Minnesota.
Next: Are the experts picking the Vikings to beat the Browns?
If it’s not, this team will have some serious soul searching to do during the bye week.