What are some Minnesota Vikings milestones to keep an eye on during Week 2?
As a disclaimer, this assortment of observations does not seek to offer outlandish predictions like “Dalvin Cook breaks the all-time single-game rushing record” or “Yannick Ngakoue sacks Philip Rivers eight times.” The following factoids are realistic happenings that will likely unfold before your eyes this Sunday when the Vikings take on the Indianapolis Colts. Each week, many Vikings set milestones that fly under the radar. While the feats are not cosmic in their ripple effect, they are interesting milestones for Vikings loyalists who enjoy the historical stuff.
Here is an example of an active milestone that met its demise last week versus the Green Bay Packers. The Vikings had held opponents under 40 points in 96 consecutive games. It was the longest such current streak in the NFL until last Sunday. The Packers, of course, ruined this intriguing statistic, and the Vikings now reset the meter to zero in this metric. The two current teams with active streaks of holding opponents under 40 points are the Chicago Bears and those damn Packers. Both teams are now at 51 consecutive games.
That’s the sort of milestone that will be mentioned in this analysis. All milestones pertain to the Vikings and all are seemingly on the line when Minnesota travels to Indianapolis in Week 2 for the first time in eight years.
Let’s begin.
1. The Vikings have never beat the Colts at their house
The milestone here would be the Vikings finally take down the Colts in their building. Minnesota has played the Colts in a combination of Baltimore and Indianapolis ten times throughout history and has never defeated their horseshoe foes in a road game. As a matter of “recent” rationale, the Colts successively plucked quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck from drafts. Both men, especially Manning, played wonderfully in their respective careers. With these men at the helm of their offenses, the Vikings lost to the Colts on three consecutive occasions from 2000 to 2012.
In this Week 2 matchup, the Vikings are teetering on a desperation game. It’s not that an 0-2 start would relegate the team to a doomsday, all-is-lost attitude, but teams that begin a season 0-2 are far less likely to turn a season around.
In fact, the only time in Vikings history that they started a year with two losses and still made the playoffs was 2008. A second-year Adrian Peterson did his damndest to drag the Vikings to a postseason showdown in Philadelphia with the Eagles — one that was meritless.
2. Kirk Cousins will surpass Warren Moon on the Vikings all-time TD leaderboard
In the 1990s, signal-caller Warren Moon played for 2.5 seasons with the Vikings while accruing 58 touchdown passes. Current quarterback Kirk Cousins has played the equivalent of two seasons (32 games) with the Vikings and sits at 58 touchdowns passes, too.
Unless Cousins encounters a stinker of a game, he will take over Warren Moon’s spot for sole possession of No. 6 on the Vikings all-time touchdown passes list. And, he will do so in six fewer games than Moon. An argument can be made, though, that Moon and Cousins’ eras are uniquely different because the NFL has evolved into a pass-heavy league. While true, Cousins will own Moon’s spot regardless.
After that, Cousins is in hot pursuit of Brad Johnson. The Super Bowl champion quarterback tossed 65 touchdowns for the Vikings in 68 total games. Should the Vikings maintain a usual pace of offensive production by Mike Zimmer’s standards, Cousins will overtake Johnson in a few weeks.
3. Mike Zimmer could topple the Colts for the first time as a head coach
It’s tempting to file this factoid in the “who cares” cabinet but hear us out.
There are only five NFL teams that Mike Zimmer has not defeated as head coach of the Vikings: Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, and of course, the Colts. Zimmer will have the chance to cross two of these teams off the list in 2020. He will get a crack at the Colts this Sunday and then the Seahawks — for the fifth time — in mid-October.
The preceding occasion that Minnesota and Indianapolis matched up was, to date, one of the low points of Zimmer’s head coaching career. The year was 2016, and the Vikings owned a 7-6 record. The Colts came to U.S. Bank Stadium in its inaugural year where they proceeded to thrash the Vikings and effectively squashed Minnesota’s playoff hopes. Moreover, Indianapolis entered the game with a 6-7 record, so the team was not all that formidable on paper.
As an act of vengeance and an opportunity to put another checkmark on his resumé, Zimmer will try to solve the Colts in Week 2.
4. Dalvin Cook may climb the Vikings all-time rushing leader chart
For the time being, Dalvin Cook sits at No. 16 on the Vikings all-time list of rushing yards leaders. He will climb to the next rung on the ladder soon. It’s just a matter of when at this point.
The infamous Herschel Walker currently resides at the 16-spot with 2264 rushing yards in 42 games with the Vikings from 1989 to 1991. Dalvin Cook sits 110 yards behind Walker with 2,154 rushing yards and thus needs 111 yards to surpass him. He has an optimistic chance to lap Walker this weekend versus the Colts but will assuredly do so in Week 3 against the Tennesse Titans, barring injury.
What’s more, Cook sits at the No. 15 position in rushing touchdowns on Minnesota’s all-time leaderboard. Cook has chipped in 19 rushing scores in 30 career games. This, too, trails Walker but only by one touchdown. Walker walked in for 20 touchdowns in his Vikings career.
With a good day at the office, Cook could reach both milestones this weekend.
5. Minnesota has scored a touchdown in 55 straight games
This one is rather unique as only three teams currently have longer active streaks. The New England Patriots have scored a touchdown in 71 consecutive games, the Los Angeles Chargers in 70, and the Houston Texans with at least one touchdown in 63 straight contests.
Ironically, Minnesota’s last game without a touchdown was the aforementioned and hideous showdown with the Colts in 2016. You know, the very reason that Mike Zimmer has yet to beat Indianapolis.
Therefore, the Vikings have built and maintained this nifty streak for over four seasons, and this includes playoff games. It’s also the third-longest such streak in Vikings history. The most lengthy span of games in which the team scored one touchdown or more in every single game took place from 1995 to 2001. This was a period of seven seasons that Minnesota played hot-potato at the quarterback position, so this streak is especially applaudable. All told, the streak lasted 96 games.
The predominant playmakers of this era that had the most to do with keeping the streak alive were none other than Cris Carter and Robert Smith — and Randy Moss for the last half. These men were the common denominators of the 96-game streak.
6. There are seven NFL teams Kirk Cousins has yet to defeat — the Colts are one of them
Here’s the rub: Kirk Cousins has never attempted a single pass attempt against the Indianapolis Colts. Cousins is now a nine-year veteran. It’s rather odd that he hasn’t butted heads with the Colts franchise, not even once. That changes this weekend.
These are the teams that Kirk Cousins does not own victories over: Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Colts. Cousins is nearly guaranteed to take a stab at three of these teams in 2020 and would have to meet one of the AFC teams in a Super Bowl matchup if the stars aligned for the Vikings.
But those are the seven. Outside of the Panthers, Cousins has at least one win against every team in the NFC. The Texans host the Vikings in Week 4 of the 2020 season, so Cousins will attempt to put a checkmark next to Houston in the win column before too long.
7. Consecutive Games with a receptions streaks are ongoing
Full disclosure: On the scale of importance, this one is quite low.
Running back Dalvin Cook has caught a pass in 23 straight games that he has played. This is an illustrative example of how the Vikings implement his playmaking prowess in their passing game and a tiny testament to him for making the catch in 23 consecutive contests. The streak began in November of 2018 and will probably extend beyond the Colts game.
Next, second-year wideout Bisi Johnson has a blossoming streak of his own on the line. Johnson as emerged as a decent pass-catching option for Kirk Cousins by hauling in a catch in 14 straight games. Unless he is unceremoniously shut out for some reason, this streak, too, should continue because Johnson is the WR2 in the wake of Stefon Diggs’ exodus from the team.
Lastly, 21-year-old tight end Irv Smith Jr. has a reception in 12 consecutive games. Like Johnson, his streak is noteworthy because he entered the league just one season ago. Both Smith Jr. and Johnson are getting themselves involved in the offense early in their career, which is a good omen.