Andrew Zimmel | KBMW 1450
Sports Philosophers have been pondering this question for ages, can your team have multiple heartbreaking losses to start a season and still make the playoffs? Or do the heartbreaking losses so early into a team’s campaign ruin your season before it even starts?
The Minnesota Vikings sit at 0-2, but they get to play their first home game and are facing one of the strangest teams in the league this Sunday in the Seattle Seahawks.
The Seahawks have literally never played in a normal game.
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) November 12, 2019
The Seahawks aren’t the team of years prior, This is not a team competing for a title with a great running game and a hard nosed defense that is captained by an outspoken secondary. No, this year’s iteration of Seattle is piloted by a QB who may or may not want to be there and a run game and defense that has plenty of questions.
Seattle lost a 33-30 game against the Tennessee Titans last week with Derrick Henry running all over the Seahawks defense for 182 yards and 3 touchdowns. Julio Jones was able to get involved, catching sx passes for 128 yards and Ryan Tannahill threw for almost 400 yards. Seattle’s defense is not what it once was. Russell Wilson had to do everything, throwing for two touchdowns in the loss. The bright spot for Seattle has been Tyler Lockett who has been one of the best deep ball receivers early in the season.
Minnesota looked completely lost in their season opener, but the hope is that playing in front of a home crowd for the first time since December of 2019 will be the spark of energy the Vikings need to get the job done against a team they haven’t beat since 2009.
On offense, getting Cook going early will be important. Seattle has split their first two games, and it comes down to their ability to stop the run. In their 28-16 win against the Colts to start the season, Seattle allowed only 90 yards from Jonathn Taylor and Nyheim Hines combined, forcing Carson Wentz to throw the ball. The North Dakota State alum threw for 251 yards and two scores, but it wasn’t enough. Tennessee was a different story.
If Cousins continues to play the way he has; no interceptions, game managing, making the big play when it’s made available down the field; then I have some trust in the Vikings offense. The defense is a different story.
As of now, I have zero clue if Athony Barr will be available to go on Sunday. The Viking pass rusher has been out all season and was limited in practice Wednesday. Optimistically- I would hope that he suits up for the first time in the home opener, but smart money says the knee injury that has kept him sidelined holds him out one more week.
The Vikings this season have had one of the worst defenses through two games. They are allowing 30.5 points per game and almost 300 yards in the air. Against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, it’s going to be imperative for the secondary to hold up and keep everything in front of them, otherwise this could get ugly.
My prediction, the Vikings will get their first win of the season against Seattle. The conversion on Monday will be less “Vikings get their first win” and more “How did Seattle lose that game?” Vikings open up as a two point underdog at home with kickoff at 3:35 on FOX.