The Bad News for Harrison Smith is Twofold
The Minnesota Vikings damn near defeated the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9 without Danielle Hunter, Michael Pierce, Patrick Peterson, and Harrison Smith.
Hunter tore his pectoral muscle against the Dallas Cowboys on Halloween. Pierce is recovering from a nagging elbow malady. And Peterson is battling an iffy hamstring injured when Minnesota upended the Carolina Panthers a few weeks ago.
Smith’s absence is new.
He missed the Week 9 game at Baltimore after hitting the COVID list mere hours before the all-purple showdown. His inclusion in the Vikings defense versus the Ravens was nil as his teammates lost 34-31 to Lamar Jackson’s Ravens in overtime.
Due to the timing of his positive COVID test and his reportedly unvaccinated status, the damage for Smith’s playing time is twofold. Not only did he miss the road game at the Ravens, but he will miss the next one at the Los Angeles Chargers, too.
Unvaccinated players are required to “stay away” for 10 days after a positive test, and Smith tested positive on Sunday, November 7th. The Vikings travel to Los Angeles for a date with Justin Herbert’s team on November 14th. Smith can return with a negative test on November 17th, so he will miss next Sunday’s game as well.
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In his absence, rookie Camryn Bynum filled in tremendously, snagging a crucial interception en route to a 90.5 Pro Football Focus grade. Arguably, Smith couldn’t have played better himself.
But that’s one week. One knock on rookies is stringing together consistent performances – not all of them but some of them – so a rubberstamp on Bynum looking wonderful against the Chargers is premature. Ordinarily for Smith, he does not fire up too many bad games. He’s a surer bet versus Los Angeles.
That doesn’t matter, though, because he cannot play until Week 11 when the Vikings host the Green Bay Packers. In that contest, Minnesota should receive both Smith and the aforementioned Peterson back into the starting lineup if all goes well for their respective recoveries. The Packers contest will either be a quasi-meaningless game with the Vikings owners of a 3-6 record – or an opportunity for Mike Zimmer’s bunch to even its season up [again] to .500. Those stakes depend on how the team performs at Los Angeles on Sunday.
It’s easy to announce the Vikings will hang tough with the Chargers – they did it with the Ravens; why not the Chargers? – but the forecast feels futile. In every single game against winning teams this season, the Vikings score first, go to sleep on offense while awake on defense, and then crumble on defense late with a brief resurrection on offense. Clockwork stuff. Regrettably for Zimmer in a tell-all year, the Vikings keep losing such games.
When Smith does return – likely versus the Packers – he’ll be a breath of fresh air as his consistency in Minnesota’s secondary is unrivaled. The only thing left to determine is if his return will be to a team that is lost and eyeing draft picks or in the fight to get to 5-5.
The Chargers are early 2.5-point favorites to beat the Vikings.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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