5 most disappointing Vikings from their Week 3 loss to the Titans

Irv Smith Jr. – TE

Like Ifeadi Odenigbo, Irv Smith Jr. was supposed to be one of the Vikings’ breakout players this season. He was coming off of a rookie campaign where he had 36 receptions for 311 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

What was most exciting about Smith was that the majority of his numbers came in the second half of the season and it was assumed that he’d be able to continue where he left off

Instead of breaking out, Smith has folded up as he has just two receptions for 14 yards on the year. Some of that can be contributed to Kirk Cousins failing to spread the ball around, but a lot of it falls on the shoulders of Smith.

He has had numerous penalties so far this year and a couple have been for offensive pass interference that negated big gains down the field.

That trend continued against the Titans. Smith had an extremely costly block in the back penalty that killed a Minnesota drive. It was during a key drive that the team needed to milk the clock out.

Thanks to the hole Smith put them in, the Vikings were forced to call plays differently during the drive and it resulted in them punting the ball back to the Titans who were able to get into field goal range and kick the game-winner.

Smith has to get better. He’s going to lose opportunities in the passing game if he continues to make bone-headed mistakes that lead to penalties and stall-out drives.