Week 4: Keys To Victory This Week

The Vikings will be taking a plane ride across the world to England today and will take on the Saints in a week 4 matchup in London. Looking to build off last week’s win against the Lions and improve to 3-1, there are a couple key things the Vikings need to improve on if they want to win again.

1. Get Jefferson involved, but also other playmakers. The stud wide receiver for the Vikings has been fairly limited the past two weeks and will look to get back to his week 1 form. However, if teams are going to continue to triple him like the Lions did, then continue to look for other receivers like Thielen and Osborn who can easily beat their 1 on 1 matchups. Kirk needs to not be Jefferson-dependent because when he wasn’t, he led the Vikings to a game-winning drive last week.
2. Stop the run and get pressure to quarterback. These past two weeks the defense has struggled to get to the quarterback and it’s showing. Offenses have been picking apart the Vikings in the passing game as well, since they have had all day to throw. Hunter and Smith were brought in to be an unstoppable pass rush, but since Week 1 the duo hasn’t really been able to do much. However, the d-line can also do a better job to contain the Saints’ run game because every time they get 6 yard runs it only makes it harder to watch the Vikings’ offense sitting on the sideline.
3. Play With Intensity. It seems as if on weeks 2 and 3 the Vikings came out pretty low energy and not really showing up to play at all in the first quarter. Better teams won’t allow you to comeback, like the Eagles, as that game was pretty much over after the 14-0 start. The Vikings have to get stops and points up early and play with that lead. If not, this is going to be another long season just like the last 2 years. I hope Kevin is able to light a fire under this team, otherwise they will continue to be a very inconsistent, near 500 team.