Big Games, Week 2: Vikings @ Steelers

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Minnesota Vikings @ Pittsburgh Steelers

 

Matchup:

This is one of those games that could get out of hand early if Minnesota can’t get going on offense, but I also think the Steelers offense is a work in progress because of Bell not practicing until recently and Bryant’s return after a year off. This is one of those games with many offensive weapons between the two teams that could actually turn out to be a defensive battle ala Titans and Raiders from week 1, because obviously the Vikings defense is much better than either Tennessee’s or Oakland’s and Pittsburgh’s defense has been steadily rebuilding to that kind of stature over the past few years.

 

Vikings Game Plan:

Offensively Minnesota needs to run Cook regularly with a series or set of downs to McKinnon here and there. Sam Bradford may not have any damage to his knee but it would be unwise to have a pass-happy offensive game plan in week 2 after your QB has a small knee injury in week 1. Common sense says the Vikings need to run the ball to set up passes in order to protect their QB’s twice surgically-repaired knee early in the season. Let him heal up completely before opening the floodgates again in later weeks. Diggs, Thielen, Wright,and Rudolph can all get open quickly for short to intermediate passes anyway. Trust your weapons and back off of the deep shots for this week to lessen the chance that Bradford actually has a season-ending knee injury. Defensively, I actually don’t think Rhodes should follow AB all over the place. Rhodes is more built to handle traditional #1 WRs. Let him control one side of the field and let Waynes and Newman play well enough when matched up with Brown. AB will get his yards regardless of who covers him of any cornerback in the NFL. Just try to control his YAC and bring Smith or Sendejo over the top to help as often as possible. Blitz often--don’t let Ben sit back there and survey.

 

Steelers Game Plan:

The way to combat this Vikings defense is to not turn the ball over because their offense isn’t going to drop 40 on you. Run Bell and see if he’s more acclimated to the game after another week of practice. Hit Brown in the few windows of single coverage and try burning Waynes a couple of times with Bryant. Don’t force throws into this secondary and don’t run too many deep drops because Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter will eat the Steelers Tackles alive if they’re in one-on-one consistently. Defensively, they need to pressure Bradford or he will feast on their secondary with an array of underrated aerial weapons. Is Adam Thielen a household name yet? He should be. As for Steelers pass rushers--I’m excited to watch TJ Watt play, especially after he rose hell with Joe Thomas. Hopefully he’s not all over Bradford tomorrow but if he truly is a generational player like his older brother, we need to be excited about watching his evolution as a player. If the Steelers can’t pressure Bradford when the Vikings do pass, Diggs and Thielen, in particular, are going to feast on this secondary.

 

Outcome:

I think the Steelers have an early burst of points that creates too much separation. The Vikes claw back but it’ll be too little too late with the Steelers tacking on a late field goal to make it a two score game at the end. 27-17, Steelers.

 

More write-ups will be done if sufficient discussion is spurred by these first two.

Edited September 16, 2017 by BwareDWare94