Despite huge games from Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson, the Minnesota Vikings defense gave in to Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans offense in the 31-30 loss. While it stings, the Vikings at least looked competitive in this contest, and there are some positives to take away.
Here are four things we learned about the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3:
Justin Jefferson is a stud
The Vikings took Jefferson with their first-round pick in last year’s draft to replace Stefon Diggs, and today we saw why. Jefferson went off for seven receptions for 175 yards and his first career touchdown. He made some great grabs in tight coverage, bounced off a couple of tackles for extra yardage and burned the Tennessee defenders on his way to the end zone.
One other thing that was abundantly clear about Jefferson: this kid is brash as hell. Whether it is the finger-pointing in the face of a defender after making a first down grab, or dancing his way into the end zone, Jefferson has plenty of confidence in his abilities. He’s the kind of player that fans love if he’s on their side and hate if he’s wearing opposing colors. Despite the loss, the Vikings learned that Jefferson needs to be a major component of their offense every single week.
Good things happen when you feed Dalvin Cook
Fans, beat writers, bloggers and basically anyone else who pays any attention to the Vikings knew the team needed to feed Cook this game. The superstar back had only seen 26 carries through the first two weeks and was basically ignored once the Vikings got behind in games. Today, Gary Kubiak decided to actually use his best offensive weapon, and the Vikings almost upset a very good 2-0 football team.
Cook brings so much to the offense, and it was evident Sunday: Whether it is making a cut on a dime and then turning on the burners to burst through a hole and pick up yardage, or busting outside and outrunning a defender, he does things that other backs simply can’t. He showed his home run ability on his 39-yard touchdown scamper, and that helped open up things for the Vikings in the play-action passing game.
Cook still isn’t getting the number of receptions a game he needs to, but the fact the Vikings used him almost twice as much this week as they had the week prior — and how much the offense improved — shows that no matter what, the Vikings need to keep feeding Cook every single game.
the defense is still a problem
The Vikings defense looked good for the first half of this contest. While the Titans were able to move the ball down the field on them, they were able to hold them to field goals. There was decent pressure up front as Yannick Ngakoue was able to get pressure on Tannehill, and Zimmer also brought plenty of blitz with players like Harrison Smith coming through and causing Tannehill to get the ball out earlier than he wanted to.
Something happened to this unit after the Jefferson touchdown and the team went up by 12. They lost whatever mojo they had going, couldn’t get to Tannehill anymore and the young corners reverted to how they looked the last few weeks and gave up huge plays to something called Kalif Raymond.
The lack of pressure can be attributed to being worn down from having to tackle Derrick Henry over and over, but leaving receivers wide open as they streak down the field was disappointing. The good news is that eventually they’ll get a shot in the arm when Dantzler, Hughes and (hopefully) Hunter return, but the fact they couldn’t strap up and shut down the Titans when the offense did their part was a major let down.
This team is better than they looked in the first two weeks
The Vikings took a tough loss in Week 3, but at least they finally looked competitive. The team had the lead until late in the game and had well over 400 yards of total offense, putting 30 points up on the board. Cook ran for 181 yards and Jefferson put up that 175, and the team finally realized if it properly utilizes these two weapons it can go toe to toe with a very good team like the Titans. Unfortunately, the defense, after playing well the first half, couldn’t keep it up and allowed them to crawl back into the contest with some explosive plays of their own.
If the team we saw in Week 3 would’ve shown up in Indianapolis, there is no doubt they would’ve won that game. This squad played with fire and looked like they wanted to be on the field this week, which as sad as it is to say, is something that didn’t ring true through Weeks 1 and 2. The Vikings aren’t going to be a playoff team this year, but they should end up with a handful of wins and be even better when they get some of their players back from injury in the coming weeks.
