5 Bold Predictions: Minnesota Vikings vs. Kansas City Chiefs – Week 9

Hill will score two touchdowns

As the season has played out, the back end of the Vikings secondary with Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris has been spectacular. On the outside, however, the Vikings have had issues keeping up with receivers and it has led to a down season from both Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes.

According to Pro Football Focus’ grades chart, it will be Rhodes who will match up with the Chiefs’ top threat Tyreek Hill. This is not a good thing as Rhodes has had his share of issues going up against younger, faster receivers this season giving up a pair of touchdowns to Marvin Jones in Week 7 and getting burned by Darius Slayton before that.

If there is a silver lining, it’s that while Rhodes has given up completions with 34 catches allowed on 40 targets, he’s done a good job of keeping the play in front of him, allowing 317 yards (or 9.3 yards per catch). The problem will be doing that with Hill, who already has two of his three touchdowns on deep passes over 20 yards this season.

This will be even more of a problem if Mahomes can play as he ranks sixth in deep passing attempts (20 yards or more) with 39 in 241 attempts (16.1 percent of his overall attempts). While Matt Moore’s number was half of that last week (3 of 36 attempts, 8.3 percent), the Chiefs could try to drag Hill for some YAC situations to help get chunk plays. That should open things up and Hill could be a major thorn in the Vikings’ side.