The Three Most Impressive Vikings Stats from the Week 3 Win over the Texans
The Vikings played wonderful football in Week 3, as the statistics suggest.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Kevin O’Connell, Brian Flores, and the roster deserve a pile of credit. Minnesota is sitting at a perfect 3-0 record, putting them in first in the NFC North and in the NFL more broadly. What do the numbers from the Week 3 win tell us?
The Vikings and The Week 3 Statistics
1) The Rushing Numbers
In fairness, Joe Mixon wasn’t in the game. Maybe the RB1 would have made a difference for the Texans. But, to be sure, Minnesota was dealing with their own injury turmoil, missing players like Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, Ivan Pace, and Dallas Turner (among others).
Cam Akers, the former Viking, got the nod for Houston. He didn’t do a ton with his opportunity, but he did score his team’s lone touchdown, an eight-yard pass that involved overcoming a Byron Murphy Jr. tackle attempt.
Running the ball didn’t go quite as smoothly. Akers rushed 9 times for 21 yards. Crunch the numbers and that’s just a 2.3 yards-per-carry average. Other players ran the ball, but the overall team output was very bad for Houston. Their 14 carries went for 38 yards and a 2.7 YPC average.
Making the Texans one-dimensional was a major part of the victory.
Oh, and on the other side of things, the Vikings did quite well. Aaron Jones turned 19 carries into 102 yards (5.4 average) and he tossed on a touchdown (but as a pass catcher). As a team, Minnesota ran the ball 28 times for 118 yards and a 4.2 average. Not elite, but exactly what the purple doctor ordered in this one.
2) The Plays Behind the Line of Scrimmage
For a few days, the Vikings were down in 2nd place. The Jets played on Thursday Night Football and pushed their team sack total to 14. Minnesota, meanwhile, was down at 11. The game against the Texans involved 5 sacks, so Flores’ Fiends are again in the pole position. The season has led to 16 sacks and counting.
Plus, the tackle for loss total is sitting at a very impressive 9. Guaranteed: Brian Flores would be thrilled if each game involved 5 sacks and 9 TFLs.
Jonathan Greenard’s 3 sacks stand out and so, too, does Andrew Van Ginkel’s sack stick in one’s mind given how excellently the former Dolphin has been playing. But don’t forget that Jalen Redmond got a sack, Jonathan Bullard tossed on a pair of TFLs, and Stephon Gilmore picked up a TFL. Patrick Jones, too.
3) The Kicking and The Haircut
Last week, we learned that Will Reichard has a bit of a strange ritual involving his hair.
Matt Daniels relayed the news that the K1 cuts hit hair prior to the season beginning and doesn’t touch it until he misses a kick. Well, he’s three games into his NFL career and hasn’t had any issues. In fact, the man drilled a 58-yarder in the Texans game. His full day of work meant going 2/2 on field goals and 4/4 on his extra points.
The season as a whole has involved more of the same. Mr. Reichard has made all fifteen of his kicks, going 5/5 on field goals and 10/10 on extra points. At some point, the kid is going to miss, but enjoy the kicking success while it lasts.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.