Rams Will Welcome Minnesota Vikings With Eyes Set On 4-0 Start
The Minnesota Vikings won’t have much time to lick their wounds from last Sunday very long as they travel to California to take on one of the NFL’s last unbeaten teams in the Los Angeles Rams to open the Week 4 slate.
These two teams last met in 2017 back in Week 11 when the Minnesota Vikings shutdown Todd Gurley and the Los Angeles Rams in a 24-7 victory at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Things have changed on the Vikings side at quarterback as Case Keenum — who finished the game 27-for-38 for 280 passing yards and 1 TD — has been replaced by Kirk Cousins, who Minnesota signed to a three year/$84 million contract this past March.
A huge matchup early in the season between two teams with huge title aspirations favors Los Angeles, according to Las Vegas Sportsbook, which lists Los Angeles a -7.0 favorites.
Before the matchup, we’ll take a look at three headlines heading into this NFC battle.
Let’s get started below!
What Will The Response Be For The Vikings?
The Vikings (1-1-1) are coming off a embarrassing 27-6 defeat vs the Buffalo Bills at home in which they were 16.5 point favorites coming in. Finishing 13-3 last season, head coach Mike Zimmer’s team is faced with a truly adverse situation of trying to bounce back from a defeat that stings the team to the core.
A loss like the one they suffered vs a Bills team that coming in had the worst point differential in the NFL (-55) and were 0-2 can’t be swept under the rug as just a ‘bad game’.
The Vikings allowed a rookie quarterback making his first career road start to finish the game 15-for-22 for 196 passing yards and 3 TDs (2 rushing). A team that’s fundamentally one of the best teams in the NFL defensively looked clueless, unfocused and lacked intensity from the start vs a team without their top offensive weapon in LeSean McCoy (ribs).
The character of his football team will be put to the test vs a team that remembers last season’s loss which played a factor in Los Angeles settling for a wildcard home playoff game.
Can The Rams Mask Losses At Cornerback?
The Los Angeles Rams (3-0) will be short handed one way or another at cornerback on Thursday night as both Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib — who the Rams picked up this past offseason — may both miss the game with separate injuries.
Both Pro Bowl cornerbacks suffered injuries last Sunday vs the Los Angeles Chargers. Aqib Talib suffered an significant ankle injury that will require surgery while Peters suffered a calf injury and needed help getting off the field.
Head coach Sean McVay said on Tuesday that Marcus Peters is a ‘game-time decision’ for Thursday’s game, but unless Peters has magical healing powers or likes exaggerating injuries, it’s almost certain he will miss the game.
Veteran cornerback Sam Shields and backup Troy Hill are the next cornerbacks on the depth chart who will likely be tasked with trying to cover a dynamic wide receiving combo of Steffon Diggs and Adam Thielen.
Will The Rams Front Four Combo Finally Break Through?
The defensive tackle combo of Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh haven’t gotten off to a blazing start in Los Angeles.
Together the nightmare combo has not provided the kind of impact in terms of sacks and pressure on the quarterback as many would’ve expected. Combined, the two only have one sack combined, with Suh recording a sack this past Sunday vs the Chargers.
Donald is seeing heavy attention and teams are trying to get the ball out of their quarterback’s hands quickly to negate the pass rush. Suh, meanwhile, is also getting his share of double teams.
There’s reason to be optimistic going into Thursday if you’re a Rams fan. Watching the Buffalo Bills-Minnesota Vikings game, it was hard not to notice just how easy the Bills front established the tone vs the Vikings ailing offensive line which lost Nick Easton to a season-ending injury before the regular-season.
Buffalo sacked Kirk Cousins four times and minimized the time Cousins had to make his progressions. If Buffalo — who couldn’t lay a finger on Philip Rivers or Joe Flacco in the first two weeks — can accomplish this, Thursday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum could get ugly quickly for Cousins and the Vikings.
What are your thoughts regarding Thursday night’s Vikings-Rams matchup? Leave your comments below!
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