Minnesota Vikings Best and Worst: Week 9 vs. Kansas City Chiefs

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Let’s be absolutely honest. If not for the play of Harrison Smith, this game could have been a blowout. Smith had a beautiful pass breakup in this game where he pried the ball out of the receiver’s hands.

In addition, the safety led the team in tackles. His eight total takedowns (six solo) isn’t surprising since he’s usually among the team’s best in the category. Add in his sack of quarterback Matt Moore, and you have a really well-rounded game from the defensive back.

Here are some other good things to come out of Week 9 for the Minnesota Vikings:

• A career-high in yards! With Thielen sidelined, the pressure of picking up the slack landed on the shoulders of Laquon Treadwell and Bisi Johnson. While the latter caught a touchdown this game, Treadwell led the team in receiving yards for Minnesota in Week 9, catching three passes for 58 yards.
• Knocking the ball out. The Vikings defense and special teams made it a point to go for the ball this week, and it was clear that it was successful. Minnesota caused three fumbles on the day, two of those being committed by Matt Moore. One of them was recovered by the purple and gold.
• Tossing touchdowns. On a day where Kirk Cousins was struggling to be efficient consistently, the quarterback still found the end zone on three occasions. One of those scores was a strike to Kyle Rudolph which had a very small window to complete. Most of the time, zero turnovers and three passing touchdowns would be enough to get a win, but that wasn’t the case this week.