How the Minnesota Vikings can beat the Rams in L.A.

Make your blitzes count

As Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Bills’ rookie Josh Allen have shown us in two weeks’ past, it appears that someone may be getting inside information on the Vikings’ blitz packages. What has been so effective for Mike Zimmer throughout his history has certainly proven less hazardous to opposing offenses in 2018.

Blitzing Jared Goff will be dangerous. It should be done with care. Rams’ head coach Sean McVay is aware the Vikings’ will be missing their best defensive lineman. He will have his team well-rehearsed in blitz pickups and “hot read” passing plays that exploit missing linebackers, corners, and safeties.

Protect Kirk Cousins blindside at all costs

Last Sunday against the Bills, Vikings left tackle Riley Reiff, working off a bad foot, let Buffalo DE Jerry Hughes intimidate, harass and strip sack Kirk Cousins for almost four quarters. If the Rams show they can pressure Cousins from that side to start, the game could get ugly.

Minnesota Vikings

Certainly, the Vikings need a strong performance across their offensive line tonight. They will now finally add second-year center Pat Elflein to their starting rotation, and that should show dividends to a truly roughed-up unit.

Cousins needs to set the clock in his head to three seconds as he executes his passing reads, not the two seconds he was afforded from his blind side in last Sunday’s 27-6 loss.

Play with passion

In the NFL press this short week, there has been talk of the Rams seeking a certain vengeance on the Vikings for their 24-7 drubbing in Minnesota last season. But at 3-0, it just doesn’t seem terribly authentic.

Minnesota, however, has wounds that are still fresh to the touch, as their loss to a previously bedeviled Buffalo Bills team has embarrassed them and their fans.

Feelings of disrespect often seem to be a resource of some strength for some professional athletes and teams. Let’s hope this is the case for the Vikings’ tonight.

The Rams’ are a big play offense ascending into the NFL spotlight. The Vikings, in contrast, have now been much-diminished. The Minnesota Vikings will have to show that this game will not follow the predicted route of one advancing team pushing the other even further back on their heels.

As Minnesota coaches Mike Zimmer and John DeFilippo match wits with their Los Angeles counterparts, Sean Mcvay and Wade Phillips, the Vikings need to out-play, out-hit and out-hustle the Rams in this Prime-Time Thursday night game. Understand that it is their job to whip the man in front of them and play the type of football that they’ve proven they are capable of.

That’ll take passion, and it’s the way to win this one.