Vikes at Falcons Game Preview: Beware the Heart of a Wounded Champion
Joe Oberle
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With the Minnesota Vikings at 9-2, holding a three-game lead in the NFC North and in charge of their own destiny regarding making the playoffs, it is hard to avoid peaking ahead in the schedule just a bit. The Vikings travel to Atlanta to face the Falcons on Sunday—and the Falcons are a team on the rise and currently one of the NFC playoff teams (if the season ended today). The challenge ahead is substantial, yet we observers can see another road game against the Carolina Panthers the following week and three winnable games after that—so it is difficult not to dream and speculate about the future.
But the players cannot do that.
“We’ve got a team that works. I think everybody in this locker room wants the same thing, and we all want it really bad,” quarterback Case Keenum said. “So, we go to work each week like it’s the only week and we put everything we’ve got into that week. The past doesn’t matter; the future doesn’t matter. The only thing we can control is this week. We’ve yet to accomplish everything we want to accomplish. We’ve got a lot of work out ahead of us, and we’re hungry for it.”
Still, for the rest of us, it’s win these next two, and the playoffs are basically assured. Win these next two and the Vikings will have beaten all of the other potential NFC playoff teams (if the season ended today) except for the Philadelphia Eagles. Win these next two, and I (the curmudgeonly, yet benevolent, OG) will allow talk of the Vikings’ potentially capturing home field advantage throughout the playoffs—and that means all the way throughout the playoffs and the title game. Heck, even head coach Mike Zimmer, who is the ultimate “one game at a time” guy, acknowledges that he has his sights set further than just getting into the playoffs (although he hedges just a bit).
“That is everybody’s deal, isn’t it? Go out and win as many games as you can and try to get in and play as many games as you can at home,” Zimmer said. “But we have to win and we have to take one game at a time. Talking about it doesn’t do anything.”
And talking about the following game before you win the current one on your schedule does even less. So, the Vikings take on the Falcons, and it will be challenge enough to occupy their minds this week of preparation. The fact that the 7-4 Falcons, the NFC Conference defending champs, are playing more like that team that went to the Super Bowl last season warrants the Vikings’ full attention.
“We’re getting ready to play a really good team on the road,” Zimmer said. “Offensively they’re very explosive – got great receivers, runners, offensive line plays well. Obviously, Julio Jones is a tough matchup. Now, defensively they’re very solid, tenth in the league defense – good defensive line, corners are good, have a really good safety, linebackers are fast. It’ll be a really good test for us this week.”
The test for Keenum starts in the opposition’s front seven, which can get after the quarterback. On the whole, Atlanta’s defense is decent: it’s ranked 10th in total yards allowed with 321.8 per game—which translates to 20th in rushing yards allowed with 113.9 and eighth in passing yards allowed with 207.9. But sacks are a concern for Minnesota, since, as a team, Atlanta is tied for ninth in sacks with 30, and Keenum knows what’s coming.
“They’re a really good defense,” Keenum said. “They line up in a couple different fronts, but they’re always sound. They’re defensive ends and outside linebackers who line up out there and rush are great pass rushers. Sacks-wise they are one of the leaders in the conference in sacks, so I am going to definitely have to work the pocket and be able to trust my offensive line.”
On the other side of the ball, the Falcons are a team on the rise. Surviving a Super Bowl hangover in the early going, they have rebounded, winning four of their past five games in which the offense has put up an average of 28 points per game. In their most recent outing, a 34-20 win over Tampa Bay, quarterback Matt Ryan and his teammates put up 516 yards of offense.
Much of the damage was done by wide receiver Julio Jones, who caught one 25-yard touchdown pass from Ryan and a 51-yarder from wider receiver Mohamed Sanu. Up until that contest, Jones had just one touchdown in 10 games, and now the slumbering giant appears to have been awoken. Beware, Xavier Rhodes.
Throw in a running game that will see the return of Devonta Freeman (to join Tevin Coleman) from the concussion protocol, and the Vikings will have to pick their poison when it comes to defending against an offense that is clicking on all cylinders. It should be a contest between an offense that does well on third down conversions versus a defense that is good at getting off the field on third down.
“They’ve got good players,” Zimmer said of their third-down success. “Quarterback does a heck of a job. Sanu and Julio are two of the top guys on third downs in the league. They give you a lot of different things. They give you some different routes. They condense it, they move guys around. They won’t just line them up in the same place. The quarterback has a lot of confidence in them.”
Of course, the question in the Minnesota locker room is whether or not the head coach has complete confidence in his own starting quarterback. It says here that he does, but Zimmer once again would not totally proclaim Keenum as his starter for the rest of the season—and he certainly doesn’t have to since the Vikings (as purplePTSD.com has learned) can only play the games one week at a time.
“We’re just going to one week at a time,” Zimmer said. “That’s just the way it is. I’m not looking to pull him [Keenum], but every week is a different week in this league.”
And while the reporters may not all quite have that message yet, the Vikings quarterbacks do. Keenum said he will continue to do what he has done all season and prepare to start and try not to get too far ahead of himself—no matter how many times he is asked to do so.
“We don’t look at that,” Keenum said when asked if looked at the next two weeks as an opportunity to manifest their own destiny. “We’re looking at this week. We’ve got to give everything we’ve got to Atlanta. Obviously, they know how to win. They know how to win late in the season and in the playoffs, as they showed last year. This is going to be a great test for us. And everything we want is this week.”
Well done, Case. Nice scramble out of yet another pressure situation.
Minnesota-27, Atlanat-23