Adam Thielen knows that Case Keenum will be ready if the Buffalo Bills call his number on Sunday. He spent ample time with him, watching Keenum prepare as Sam Bradford’s backup in 2017. We all know the rest. Bradford injures his knee again; Keenum replaces him in Week 2 and leads the Minnesota Vikings to a 13-3 record. His touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs that beat the New Orleans Saints and allowed them to the NFC Championship is etched into Vikings lore.
Thielen saw it from the beginning. He knew Keenum was ready.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s always a dangerous guy to be in the backup role because he is one of the most prepared people,” says Thielen. “I spent a lot of time with him, just seeing the way that he prepares, the way that he stays positive through everything, and just encourages — I know guys on that team love that guy because that’s the type of person he is.
“I know he’s prepared to play if he needs to and that he’ll play at a high level if he needs to get out there.”
Everyone wants to see Josh Allen on Sunday. Like Patrick Mahomes, he’s the it quarterback right now. Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell describes him as Cam Newton in the run game and Ben Roethlisberger as a passer. He says Keenum has many of the same qualities, just without the “special stuff.” Allen may be country strong, but he’s as slick as black ice on the freeway. Minnesota learned that first-hand in 2018 when he hurdled Anthony Barr in 2018.
The Vikings are preparing for Allen, even though he missed three-straight practices. They also saw what we saw. They know his arm bent the wrong way when New York Jets defensive end Bryce Huff reached to intercept his throwing motion. Allen launched a nearly-70-yard bomb shortly after that. However, he gripped his wrist and clenched his fist, then reached for his elbow in a way any baseball fan would be familiar with. He strained his UCL. Pitchers get Tommy John surgery to repair that. It’s unlikely he’ll play on Sunday.
There is a portion of the Vikings fanbase that wants to see Allen. They’re practically goading him to walk out of the tunnel and line up under center. Why? Because Minnesota has a way of never letting us know how good they are until it’s painfully obvious. There’s always a caveat. Last year, the win over the Seattle Seahawks looked great until everyone realized Seattle was bad. The road win over Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers looked great until a sneaking suspicion set in that they’re poorly coached. Beating the Green Bay Packers looked great until they lost to the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions immediately after.
Still, we didn’t get our answer until the Vikings played at Lambeau in Week 17. After a year of hovering around .500, they finally broke.
It’s different this year, of course. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah committed to the old core, and Kevin O’Connell sprinkled them with some Vitamin D. The former San Diego State quarterback brought a little California sunshine to a November gray locker room, and it sprung to life.
But here come the caveats. The Week 1 win over Green Bay looks worse because the Packers have fallen apart. They only led Detroit for 45 seconds at home and let the Chicago Bears back into a game they led 21-3 midway through the second quarter. Last week, they needed a comeback against old friend Taylor Heinicke and the Washington Commanders to win. Outside of the Packers in Week 1, the only two games people have seen on national television are the 24-7 Monday night fiasco in Philadelphia and the game where they let the New Orleans Saints hang around in London.
Therefore, a win over Allen in Buffalo would go a long way to soothing any anxieties about Minnesota’s 7-1 start. That sentence seems absurd, but a glance at the Vikings’ margin of victory suggests otherwise. And it’s that margin of victory that ties them to Mike Zimmer’s teams. They’re like the bizarro version of last year’s team. One where the players are chasing a positive feeling, and Kirk Cousins dances shirtless with thousands of dollars of jewelry around his neck on the plane ride home.
Keenum will likely walk out of that tunnel on Sunday, though. But a Keenum-led Bills team offers a unique opportunity. He represents the moment the Vikings chased for the final four years of the Zimmer era. That perfect defense that stayed healthy all year. The underdog story of a backup quarterback connecting with Diggs, who was overlooked because he stayed home instead of joining a bigger program. That euphoric moment when everyone realized that one Saints defender had tackled his teammate minutes after Sean Payton trolled the U.S. Bank Stadium with a mock Skol chant.
That moment when it seemed like everything had changed.
“Somehow, it was more than a miracle,” wrote local scribe Jon Krawczynski, a Minnesota native, after the game. “It was an exorcism of so much of the bitterness and cynicism that festers in the subconscious of Vikings fans young and old.
“It was a cleansing of the sludge that stains the spirit of even the most optimistic of the team’s supporters.”
Those words feel hollow in hindsight. Nick Foles and the Eagles trounced the Vikings 38-7 and then won the Super Bowl in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Miracle was cathartic but hardly cleansing. Still, it felt that way after the game, and the Zimmer regime chased that moment until it shattered on the frozen Lambeau soil last year.
Buffalo won’t be the same team if Allen doesn’t play. And even if he does, he likely won’t be the same player with a UCL injury. The betting line dropped from Bills by 9.5 to Bills by 3.5 after Allen missed practice. But two familiar faces will stand on the opposing sideline on Sunday. One who launched a prayer toward his best receiver on the sideline. The other nearly suffocated during the celebration.
Beating Keenum and Diggs would be one step toward finally exorcising those demons. Beating them would allow the Vikings to start to convince their fans and people around the league that they’re legit. They could create their own identity, away from the old regime. Keenum will be ready no matter what happens. He always is. Will the Vikings?
