Just In: What The Vikings Win Over Titans Means for…

At 7-2, the Minnesota Vikings came into their game on Sunday vs the Tennessee Titans as one of the top teams in the NFC standings. But they also entered week 11 as a team on the decline in most NFL power rankings, after they failed to score a touchdown in a 12-7 victory over a bad Jacksonville Jaguars team, in week 10.

Thus, this one became somewhat of a measuring stick contest for the purple. Yes, the Titans entered Sunday with the opposite record of the Vikings (2-7). But so were the Jags, and winning that game was anything but easy. So, the challenge for Minnesota this week was to take care of business in Nashville.

And the Titans are no joke, on defense. In fact Tennessee’s defensive unit is one of the best defenses in the NFL in yards allowed, especially on the ground. Without a doubt, they proved that vs the Vikings, who didn’t even really try to run the football today, and signaled that would be the plan by starting Dalton Risner, in place of Ed Ingram at right guard.

In the end, Kevin O’Connell & Co earned a 23-13 win on the road to Nashville, and it looks like a pretty dominant performance, on paper. Still, some untimely Vikings turnovers, combined with a couple of big 2nd half throws by Titans QB Will Levis allowed the Titans to stay within shouting distance for most of this contest. Anyway, here’s what we learned from today’s win.

Vikings defense dominant early… but leaky late (again)

It’s been a little while since this was a narrative, coming out of a game for the Minnesota Vikings. But on Sunday, some old bad habits revealed themselves against the Titans. Early on, Brian Flores’ defense was dominant. They allowed just 3 Tennessee points, holding their offense to just 86 net yards (28 rush, 58 pass), on 2.9 yards per play.

Their run game didn’t stand a chance and Will Levis looked mostly lost, especially when he had to drop back and throw. Remember, this is a game the Vikings should have run away with. Business trip stuff. In the first half, that’s what it felt like when they went into halftime up 16-3.

But then, in the 2nd half, things got away from Minnesota on defense, a little bit. It started midway through the 3rd quarter, when Will Levis took a snap from his own two yard line, dropped back, and fired one deep to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for a 98-yard touchdown. Just like that, it was a 16-10 game.

On the play, Flores gets burnt for sending a blitz that left Josh Metellus as the deep coverage guy on one of Tennessee’s fastest receivers. He made a late mistake playing the ball, Levis made a good throw and Westbrook-Ikhine did the rest.

But that wasn’t the end of the story for Minnesota’s leaky 2nd half defense in this one. After allowing just 86 net yards and 3 points in the first half, the Vikings defense gave up 208 yards and 8.3 yards per play, in the 2nd.

Thankfully, with some help of the refs (yes you read that right), they were able to hold the Titans to just that one 3rd quarter touchdown, and 10 second half points, allowing the purple offense to ride this one out for a 10 point victory.

We’ve seen just how dominant this defense can be, but they can absolutely be had, if they start bringing five or six man pressures, and the quarterback can hang in long enough to find the open man. There is plenty of time for Flores to fix the leaks, before playoff time. But it’s possible the problem can’t be fixed and certainly a narrative worth watching, as we get deeper into this stretch run.

Sam Darnold will be fine

The biggest concern for the Minnesota Vikings, in last week’s way too close win over the Jags, was Sam Darnold, who threw three untimely interceptions and single-handedly kept the offense out of the endzone. Head coach Kevin O’Connell told everyone this week that he still had 100% faith in the Vikings’ bridge QB.

But on Sunday, he put his game plan where his mouth was, and rode Sam Darnold against a Tennessee defense that they had no interest running the ball against, especially early on. For the most part, though, Darnold was pretty damn good this afternoon. Far from perfect, but good. And some of the plays he made were downright jaw-dropping, putting on full display the talent that made him a No. 3 overall pick back in 2018.

When the dust settled, the 27-year-old NFL vet was able to bounce back from the most difficult outing of his 2024 season, finishing 20-of-32 (62.5%) for 245 yards through the air. Most importantly, he threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. It wasn’t his fault, but the league leader in fumbles lost another one on Sunday, when Aaron Jones inexplicably dropped a mostly on-target toss that resulted in three of the Titans’ 13 total points on the day.

He was especially good in the first half, completing 12-of-17 passes (70.5%) for 148 yards and a touchdown. His protection was much better in the first half too, where it appeared the swap at right guard between Risner and Ingram was paying dividends.

Even after looking a bit shaky at times, in the 2nd half, it’s safe to say this was absolutely a bounceback game for our interim QB1. The Tennessee run defense is what got it to the top of the league, as a whole, but the pass defense is no joke either, and Sam Darnold more than held his own.

The Minnesota Vikings are a good (but flawed) football team

Here’s where we get to the most important takeaway from Sunday’s win. It plays into the first two points in this article, too. The Minnesota Vikings are a good football team, which is something that many around the league have been doubting in recent weeks.

As long as they hang onto the football and the defense doesn’t get itself into trouble, when trying to bring pressure, the Vikings can hang with any team in the NFL. Yet… for the second straight game, you can’t help but feel like they left meat on the bone vs a lesser opponent.

After outpacing the Titans 192 yards to 86, in the first half, Minnesota finished with just 24 more total yards of offense (318 vs 294), and were beat 10-7 in the 2nd half. That was enough to get a win on Sunday, but it should have been much more convincing. The head coach clearly feels the same way.

Running back Aaron Jones, one of the most reliable players on offense the entire season, dropped the previously mentioned toss from Darnold in the first half, then butterfingered away another one at the start of the 2nd half. Both killed momentum in a game that appeared in full control, at the time.

Add those offensive mistakes to the big plays allowed in the second half, by the defense, and it’s easy to pinpoint why the Minnesota Vikings only secured this win by 10 points, and the Titans had a chance to cut the lead to a single possession multiple times in the 4th quarter. Against better teams, the purple cannot make those mistakes.

But in the end, the Vikings are 8-2, and still just one game behind the division leading Detroit Lions for the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC. Next up on the schedule is a road game vs the 4-6 Chicago Bears, who lost a heartbreaker 20-19 vs the Green Bay Packers today.

As long as this team stays healthy and fixes some of these issues on both sides of the football, anything could happen. Yes, the Lions look dominant, after defeating the Jaguars 52-3 on Sunday, but the Vikings still have one game left in Detroit and there is a lot of season left.