Philip Rivers should not concern the Vikings in Week 2

The Minnesota Vikings defense should get their confidence back against the Indianapolis Colts.

After an underwhelming performance in Week 1, the Minnesota Vikings new-look defense has a great opportunity to get back on track this Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.

Just like the Vikings, the Colts lost their 2020 season opener last week and they’ll be looking to avoid starting the year with an 0-2 record.

Having to deal with the excellence of Aaron Rodgers proved to be too tough of a task for Minnesota’s young secondary in Week 1. But in the Vikings’ second game of the season, they get to go up against the turnover machine known as Colts quarterback Philip Rivers.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback shouldn’t worry the Minnesota Vikings

Throughout his entire NFL career, Rivers has always been able to put up impressive passing yardage and passing touchdown totals each year. However, the current Indianapolis quarterback has also been known to give the ball away to the other team more often than not.

Since 2016, only Jameis Winston has thrown more interceptions than Rivers among the quarterbacks that have appeared in at least 50 games. In addition to the 63 picks the Colts current signal-caller threw from 2016 to 2019, he also lost a total of 10 fumbles.

During this span of four seasons, no other NFL quarterback has thrown more interceptions in the fourth quarter than Rivers. He just has this knack of helping his opponents out more than his team would like.

On Sunday, Rivers will be going up against a Minnesota team coached by Mike Zimmer, someone who the quarterback has struggled to have success against in the past.

In his last six regular-season games against teams who have Zimmer calling the shots for the defense, Rivers has averaged 275 passing yards per contest while throwing nine interceptions and just seven touchdowns. In these six matchups, Rivers has also only been able to lead his team to one win.

Last week in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Colts quarterback kicked off his season with 363 passing yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions, including one in the fourth quarter (contain your surprised face).

Minnesota will have to worry about a number of things when they take on Indianapolis this Sunday. But with Zimmer’s successful history against Rivers, it seems pretty unlikely that the veteran quarterback is about to do his best Aaron Rodgers impression against the Vikings this week.