Vikings

Vikings Stymie Rams Offense, Pull Away Late to Move to 8-2

(photo credit: Kyle Hansen)

In perhaps the most highly-anticipated game of the season, the Minnesota Vikings made a big-time statement on their home turf, shutting out the league’s highest-scoring offense for the final 55 minutes, 42 seconds and pulling away from the Los Angeles Rams in the second half for a 24-7 victory.

The high-powered Rams, undefeated on the road, started the game with a spark — but never scored again. Todd Gurley’s touchdown run capped an impressive nine-play, 75-yard opening drive, and it looked like L.A. was off and running. But the Vikings scored the game’s final 24 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, and had the luxury of playing mostly backups on their final defensive series.

Case Keenum had another quality performance, going 27 of 38 for 280 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions as the Vikings won their sixth straight game. Head coach Mike Zimmer said it would be “hard to yank him out of there right now” as Teddy Bridgewater continues to await his first opportunity of the season.

Minnesota (8-2) rushed for a season-high 171 yards, Latavius Murray rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns and Adam Thielen continued his monster season with six grabs, 123 yards and a 65-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that pushed the lead to 21-7 and essentially sealed the win.

“This is probably the most team-oriented group I’ve ever been around,” said tight end Kyle Rudolph.

Defensive dominance

The Rams (7-3) had scored 41, 35, 27 and 51 points in their four road games, respectively. Their seven points on Sunday were a season low.

Los Angeles was 3 of 11 on third downs. The Rams were getting outgained 451-200 before picking up 54 yards against Minnesota’s backups on the final drive.

The Vikings sacked quarterback Jared Goff twice and forced just one turnover, but it was a huge one. With the game tied 7-7, reserve safety Anthony Harris — filling in for the injured Andrew Sendejo — stripped Cooper Kupp of the football at the 1-yard line and recovered the ball himself. It turned out to be the final time Los Angeles would sniff the end zone.

“The first thing was to make the tackle,” said Harris, “and the second was try to punch the ball out. I gave a punch, felt the ball come loose a little bit, and there was a recovery.”

Everson Griffen’s streak of eight straight games with a sack came to an end, but Goff felt pressure throughout the game as the Vikings bull-rushed with their defensive ends to collapse the pocket and finished with five hits on the quarterback. Danielle Hunter sacked Goff at his own 1-yard line in the first quarter, which led to a punt that set the Vikings up at the Rams’ 30-yard line.

Minnesota shut down Los Angeles’s rushing attack completely. The Rams entered play with seven consecutive games rushing for over 100 yards, yet they were held to a season-low 45. Gurley finished with 15 carries for 37 yards, a 2.5-yard average.

After allowing a season-high 30 points one week ago against Washington, Sunday’s performance was a much-needed bounce back.

“Our guys study pretty hard, and they have a lot of pride, too,” said Zimmer. “[The defense] didn’t play as well last week as they did before, so hopefully we can carry this forward.”

Evasive Case

Keenum was not sacked for the sixth time in nine games this season.

Sunday, the Vikings kept Keenum upright against a Rams defense that was tied for fifth in the league with 28 sacks and featured Pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald. While Donald managed three hits on Keenum, he also picked up a roughing the passer call in the fourth quarter that expedited a 93-yard Minnesota touchdown drive.

The defining play of the day for Keenum came in the first quarter as he avoided Robert Quinn, then ducked under a charging Connor Barwin and floated a pass to Thielen for a first down. Minnesota scored five plays later.

“He’s got a horseshoe right now,” Zimmer said of Keenum’s good fortune.

Keenum had another wild play late in the third quarter where he held the ball for 10 seconds as the play broke down before finding tight end David Morgan for a five-yard gain.

Minnesota went on to score the go-ahead touchdown on a two-yard run by Murray later in the drive, again aided by Keenum’s ability to avoid pressure.

“Case does a good job at getting rid of the ball, and he’s pretty squirmy,” said left tackle Riley Reiff.

The Vikings offensive line thrived for the second straight game with backups playing at right tackle. Rashod Hill got the start and played most of the game, but he was replaced by Jeremiah Sirles for several plays due to a minor injury.

No matter. The Vikings offensive line — one of the league’s worst a season ago — has become one of their greatest strengths. Minnesota is tied with New Orleans for the fewest sacks allowed this season (10).

Thielen keeps performing

There was a play in the first half where Thielen nearly hauled in a deep ball from Keenum against tight coverage on the back line of the end zone.

Frankly, it was surprising that he didn’t, considering how his season is going.

Thielen continued his streak of catching five or more passes in each game. His 65-yard catch and run pushed him over 900 yards for the season. He needs 84 yards against the Detroit Lions on Thursday to complete a 1,000-yard campaign.

“You’re calling a play to get a 10-yard gain and he breaks a tackle and goes for 65,” said tight end Kyle Rudolph. “He’s playing at a really high level right now.”

The touchdown to Thielen was the second-longest of his career. Singled up against Dominique Hatfield on the outside, he only needed to make one man miss to have a clear path to the end zone.

“They were cover-zero, so they were blitzing a lot of guys,” said Keenum, “and that doesn’t leave a free safety in the middle of the field to go help tackle, so we had a great play call.”

Thielen is now on pace for 1,466 yards.

“I think guys are starting to respect what I do and what this team is doing,” Thielen said. “Moving forward we just got to keep it rolling and keep getting better.”


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