Offseason Genius: Vikings Best and Worst vs Titans

The Minnesota Vikings kept things interesting on Sunday afternoon but beat the Tennessee Titans by a score of 23-13 in Nashville, which featured a heavy Minnesota contingent.

The Vikings needed a few things to go their way on Sunday and the referees obliged. They called a multitude of penalties on the Titans, with 13 accepted penalties for 91 yards, including an illegal formation penalty that wiped out a 51-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Ridley.

Sunday’s studs and duds for week 11 are pretty obvious, especially when you look at how the Vikings won the game.

Stud: GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

The Vikings are now 8-2 and have surpassed their Las Vegas win total across the board. Arguably the biggest reason for that was the work that Adofo-Mensah did in the offseason to build up the roster.

Over the first two seasons, there were significant salary cap constraints that were left over from the old regime and he finally has some cap space to play with, even though they have over $60 million in dead cap. The signings of Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman have been three of the most impactful across the entire National Football League and will have Adofo-Mensah in the running for Executive of the Year.

Dud: Vikings coverage

The Vikings pass rush was getting home on Titans quarterback Will Levis consistently no matter if it was a blitz or just rushing three or four. Their offensive line has struggled all season long and players like Greenard have been constantly in the backfield. Unfortunately, the Vikings haven’t been able to capitalize consistently.

Levis has done a great job staring the pressure in the face and attacking down the field. He hit Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on a 98 yard touchdown with a rusher in his face and Calvin Ridley on a 51-yard post route that ended up getting called back. The Vikings secondary has taken really poor angles and their weaknesses have been exposed in a major way. They desperately need to adjust their scheme to help those players.

Stud: QB Sam Darnold

After multiple bad games this year, including a near disaster last week, Darnold was excellent against the Titans. Now, the box score is only going to tell you so much about how good Darnold was, but his management of the pocket has been nothing short of excellent.

When he was pressured, Darnold was great in maneuvering around in the pocket and escaping when he needed to. He also played mistake-free football unless you blame the fumble on the pitch to Aaron Jones on Darnold. He completed 20-32 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. If they can get this from Darnold every week, the Vikings will be a force in the playoffs.

Stud: OLB Jonathan Greenard

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Greenard’s case for Defensive Player of the Year. He isn’t getting a lot of the publicity that players like Myles Garrett and Nick Bosa get, but his performance has been arguably just as impressive.

Greenard was everywhere on Sunday, getting pressure on the quarterback and also occupying blockers in droves, which was a major factor in the Vikings getting five sacks on the day. He’s been the best player on the Vikings’ defense this season and deserves a lot of recognition.