Vikings Get off the Schneid with a Win in Carolina
Joe Oberle
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Vikings Territory Breakdown Podcast:
It came four games in but the Vikings finally notched their first victory of the season with a 21-13 win over the Panthers on the road in Carolina. It started very good on the first drive, when incredibly pear-shaped (as they say) with a 99-yard pick-six return for the Panthers and then came around back to goodness with a defensive score for the Vikings (a sack strip by Harrison Smith leading to a fumble return TD for D.J. Wonnum). When all was said and done, the Vikings had a victory, but it wasn’t very pretty.
Kirk Cousins had one of his worst games as a Viking, yet still threw for two touchdown passes to Justin Jefferson. The defense struggled to put much pressure on the rookie QB Bryce young early, but a number of Brian Flores blitzes, several great plays by Smith and a couple of Marcus Davenport sightings perhaps will stave off the trade Cousins and tank for Williams talk for at least a week.
The win put the 1-3 Vikings back into the conversation in the NFC North division, although by virtue of the Lions beating the Packers last Thursday, Green Bay has a one-game lead on the Purple while Detroit holds a two-game edge. Still that conversation may be short lived as the defending World Champion Kansas City Chiefs come to town next week (perhaps even with their new No. 1 Fan Taylor Swift) and they will have something to say about the Vikings Divisional title defense going forward.
We will have something to say also–(Joe Oberle from vikingsterritory and purplePTSD and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune —on the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast. There is plenty to unpack in this first win and plenty to fear in this next game coming down the pipe—so tunie in and check it out!