Vikings potent passing game threat for Seahawks secondary
Coming one win away from a Super Bowl appearance last season and armed with an upgrade at quarterback, the Minnesota Vikings expected to be one of the front-runners for the Lombardi Trophy in 2018.
While Kirk Cousins has lived up to his mega-deal for the most part, the Vikings have disappointed in the standings, currently sitting in second place in the NFC North with a 6-5-1 record and fighting for their playoff lives.
Despite these struggles, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll holds great respect for the Vikings heading into Monday’s “tough matchup” with postseason implications galore. He’s especially concerned about the presence of Cousins piloting Minnesota’s high-octane passing attack.
“It just seems he’s at his very, very best,” Carroll said when assessing Cousins. “As the guys keep growing, he’s the same year I think as Russ (Wilson), they just keep getting better as they grow and learn and they have great coaching and they just take advantage of it. They continue to become more in command of the game. He looks like he’s totally got it wired.”
After signing a three-year fully guaranteed deal worth $84 million in March, Cousins has thrown 23 touchdown passes and completed a career-best 71.3 percent of his throws in his first season with Minnesota. He’s quickly developed a rapport with top targets Adam Thielen and Stefan Diggs, connecting on 15 combined touchdown passes with the league’s best receiving duo.
Thielen has evolved into one of best receivers in the game, as the ex-Minnesota State product has already caught 98 passes for 1,166 yards this season. As for Diggs, despite battling through some injuries over the course of the year, he’s still produced 84 receptions and 839 receiving yards.
“They seem extremely well connected with Cousins. The intricacies of the things that they’re running, the timing that they’re able to show consistently on really good concept stuff,” Carroll said in regard to Thielen and Diggs. “The guys come through and make the catches, they’re both good after the catch, they both get down the field. They’re possession guys, they’re down-the-field guys, they have all that ability in them. … The execution is as good as it gets.”
The Seahawks ranked among the league’s best defending the pass during the first half of the season, but Carroll’s secondary has regressed over the past few weeks.
Two weeks ago, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton completed all 14 of his first-half pass attempts. Even against third-string quarterback Nick Mullens last weekend, Seattle surrendered over 400 passing yards, a problematic development as the team pushes for a playoff berth.
Playing against one of the best passing teams in the league, Carroll didn’t sound overly concerned about the yardage totals given up in recent weeks. But he knows that a young secondary featuring second-year cornerback Shaquill Griffin, rookie cornerback Tre Flowers, and second-year free safety Tedric Thompson will have to tackle more effectively than they did last week working against stud receivers such as Thielen and Diggs.
Wanting to avoid a repeat performance from last weekend, Carroll told reporters, “We missed three crucial tackles that were worth about 80 yards after the miss. So, it’s a couple errors we need to clean up and the tackling needs to be better and the game would be different.”
Fitting in nicely with Carroll’s primary theme about finishing, there’s no question tackling will be vital on Monday. Thielen (309 yards) and Diggs (293 yards) both rank in the top 20 among NFL receivers in yards after the catch, possessing the ability to make defenders miss and pick up big chunks of yardage while presenting a major test for Seattle’s secondary.
As always, Carroll welcomes the challenge and understands what’s at stake for his team with only four games left on the schedule.
“We need tough matchups with teams that really challenge us in many ways and this is one of them for sure,” he said. “So we’ve got to get it cranked up, have a good week, and get ready to go for a big opportunity on Monday night.”
SERIES HISTORY: 15th regular-season meeting. Seahawks lead series, 9-5. Prior to moving to the NFC West in 2002, Seattle beat Minnesota in four of their first six matchups as out of conference foes. Since realignment, the Seahawks have won five out of eight contests between the two franchises, including the last three regular-season meetings. Seattle edged Minnesota 10-9 in the 2015 NFC Wild-Card round amid below zero temperatures in their most recent game in January 2016.