Oct 6, 2024; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Indianapolis Colts cornerback Jaylon Jones (40) warms up before a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images.
The Minnesota Vikings will look to halt a two-game losing streak when they host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football. The matchup starts a run of “favorable” games for Minnesota, which they need to take full advantage of if they want to remain Super Bowl contenders this season.
The Colts are in second place in the AFC South division with a 4-4 record. They have some good players but are looked down upon as a team due to their quarterback situation, which sees young quarterback Anthony Richardson being replaced in the starting lineup this week.
As the home team, the Vikings will be expected to win this one, but I certainly wouldn’t expect it to be easy. Here are some of the critical personnel battles that will decide the outcome.
I had hoped to discuss the potential of Brian Flores blowing Anthony Richardson’s brain. The young Colts quarterback has been struggling this season. After completing only 10 of 32 passing attempts against the Texans last week — taking his completion percentage for the season down to just 44.4% — the Colts are wisely pulling Richardson for the Vikings game.
The veteran Flacco certainly gives the Colts a better chance of winning this one. Flores’ exotic blitzes and disguise would have had Richardson’s head in a spin. At 39, Flacco has seen it all and is proficient in the middle-of-the-field passing that the Vikings defense continues to have issues with. Flacco proved in five games last season with the Cleveland Browns and three games so far this season with Indianapolis that he can still play good football.
DeForest Buckner is a force at the line of scrimmage. Ed Ingram, quite frankly, isn’t. Expect the Colts to try to pick on Ingram with Buckner, while the Vikings are going to have to try to give Ingran some help. That has become more problematic with the loss of franchise LT Christian Darrisaw to a knee injury. The Vikings will have to shuffle their OL around for this one.
Buckner has had his own injury problems this season, spending five weeks on IR with an ankle injury. He returned in Week 8 against Houston with a sack, tackle for loss, and two QB hits. It’s vital for the Vikings that they don’t let Bukner wreck the game. There is the possibility that Dalton Risner will take Ingram’s place on the Vikings’ OL, but he hasn’t been put on the active roster yet.
Jonathan Greenard is a pressure-making machine on the edge for the Vikings. He may only have five sacks through the first seven games, but he has 43 total pressures. The Vikings are too reliant on Greenard, who has a pass-rushing grade of 82.2 from Pro Football Focus. The rest of the defense is struggling to make any penetration or pressure. Hoping to keep Greenard in check, the Colts have Bernhard Raimann, who continues to impress in just his third year in the league.
Raimann’s 84.3 pass-blocking grade from PFF is the eighth-best grade among tackles. It should be an intriguing battle, and the Vikings will need Greenard to win if they can’t get pressure from elsewhere.
The Vikings have two excellent wide receivers, and the Colts have a couple of good cornerbacks to match up against them. Kenny Moore is into his eighth season on the perimeter for the Colts, where he has been a consistently good player. Moore is now partnered on the outside with Jaylon Jones. A seventh-round pick in 2023, Jones was thrust into a starting job due to injuries last season. He kept the job to start this season, and after a shaky start, Jones is beginning to look the part with coverage grades from PFF north of 80 in three of the last four games.
The Vikings duo of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are a test for any CBs. How a team handles Jefferson is always a considerable part of the game plan for opposing teams. From a Vikings perspective, they need to get Addison more involved. He has yet to have more than three catches in any game this season.
Minnesota is set to welcome back TJ Hockenson, which will give opposing defenses even more to think about and potentially create more space for Addison. Though he has been getting open plenty, Sam Darnold hasn’t been finding him with any regularity.