Scouting the Minnesota Vikings: Three things you should know for Sunday’s Panthers game
Bryce Young’s ankle is good to go, and Andy Dalton is once again the understudy.
With the Carolina Panthers facing another team also desperate for its first win, the table is set for the Panthers’ franchise rookie quarterback to try to get things moving in the right direction when they host the Minnesota Vikings (0-3) at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday.
Dalton, Carolina’s veteran backup quarterback, jump-started the Panthers’ anemic offense during their 37-27 loss in Seattle, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the Panthers (0-3) fare offensively with Young barking out the signals following his one-week hiatus.
Here’s a quick rundown of three things Panthers fans should know about Carolina’s opponent and a couple of players to keep their eye on:
Vikings ‘O’ is scary good
There’s a statistic called explosive play rate. It measures the number of times a team completes either a pass of 16 or more yards, or a rush of 12-plus yards.
Kirk Cousins is extremely familiar with the stat.
The Vikings quarterback is engineering an offense that ranks second in the NFL in explosive play rate and Cousins leads the league with nine passing touchdowns and 1,075 yards. Cousins and Minnesota has also been great at piling up chunk yardage.
Cousins already has recorded 17 passes of 20 or more yards, which is tops in the NFL. His No. 1 target, Justin Jefferson, has reeled in a league-best 458 yards and also boasts 12 receptions of 20-plus yards.
Add it up and the Vikings could give Carolina’s defense fits.
Struggling on ‘D’
It’s been a rough start defensively for Minnesota.
Not only are the Vikings among the league’s bottom third in points allowed at 27.3 per game, Minnesota has allowed the 10th-most passing yards. The 1,019 yards the Vikings have yielded amounts to 339.7 per game, making them a prime candidate to be carved up. The Los Angeles Chargers totaled 445 yards in their 28-24 win in Minnesota last week.
The Vikings aren’t much better stopping the run either, as evidenced by the 259 yards Philadelphia posted in Week 2.
Training room
Minnesota is limping into the game with a rash of injuries and is going to be without at least six notable players.
Chief among them is outside linebacker Marcus Davenport (ankle). He got sidelined in the season opener, in Week 2 and last week. The Vikings ruled out safety Lewis Cine due to a hamstring injury.
But Minnesota may have center Garrett Bradbury (back) in the mix again. Bradbury got banged up just a few plays into the season and has been rehabbing and eyeing a return.
Safety Josh Metellus (shoulder), cornerback Byron Murphy, Jr. (hip) and linebacker Pat Jones II (knee) are each expected to be available for the Vikings.
Fantasy football sleepers for Vikings-Panthers
Alexander Mattison, Minnesota Vikings, RB: Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said the Vikings “haven’t committed” to the rushing attack yet, but that could change this week after the way the Seahawks cut through Carolina’s defense on the ground last week. Seattle ran for 146 yards, ripping off a couple of lengthy ones — a 36-yarder and another for 12 yards — and keeping the Panthers on their heels. Getting Mattison going would also open up the play-action pass for Kirk Cousins, providing Minnesota’s potent offense with another way to attack Carolina’s struggling defense.
Jordan Addison, Minnesota Vikings, WR: With the majority of the coverage focused on containing Justin Jefferson, who leads the league with 458 receiving yards, it should free up others to roam into a Panthers’ linebacking corps without Shaq Thompson, and a secondary missing safety Xavier Woods. Sure, Woods collected just 52 yards last week and didn’t reach the end zone. But he produced at least 60 yards and a touchdown in the season’s first two games. He could be due.
Adam Thielen, Carolina Panthers, WR: With his former team on the opposing sideline, the veteran wideout should be poised for a big game. He’s been targeted 25 times this season and has posted 20 receptions for a team-best 211 yards. His 70.3 yards per game won’t necessarily scare the Vikings, but Minnesota has yielded at least 100 yards to three different players through the first three weeks. The Vikings have also surrendered touchdowns to six players and their 25th-ranked pass defense is giving up nearly 262 yards. Thielen should know where holes are in Minnesota’s scheme, presenting the perfect opportunity for him to flourish.
