Survive and advance

The Vikings beat the Tennessee Titans in another ugly win -- but they are 8-2 nonetheless

© Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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By Matthew Coller

Who needs style points?

The Minnesota Vikings beat the Tennessee Titans 23-13 on Sunday in a game that featured only a handful of impressive drives on offense, a lot of impressive sequences on defense, several penalties that were extremely beneficial to the Vikings and some glaring miscues that nearly allowed Tennessee back in the game.

At the end of the day, the Vikings left Nashville with an 8-2 record, which is all that really matters. They remained right on schedule to chase the top spots in the NFC with the Chicago Bears coming up next.

Here’s how it went down….

Will Levis opened the game with a third down conversion on a checkdown. It doesn’t seem like the fact the Vikings could have drafted Levis last year comes up in conversation very often because he hasn’t had much success with his woebegone franchise. Maybe he thinks about it more than Vikings fans do because he would be in such a better situation now than with the Titans. He definitely had to be thinking about it when the Vikings sent a blitz that confused his offensive line sacked him with Blake Cashman.

Right from the jump it doesn’t feel like the Titans have the slightest chance of moving the ball against the Vikings defense.

The offense picked up where they left off last week by being sloppy as heck. After a quick completion and a Titans unnecessary roughness penalty for hitting Sam Darnold late (a miracle!), somehow Aaron Jones dropped a simple pitch and the Titans recovered.

Is it going to be like that today?

Levis got to work with his legs, running a read option and scrambling for a first down to put the Titans in field goal position. On third-and-9, he completed a fade pass deep down the sideline to Calvin Ridley to bring Tennessee to about the 10-yard line. But the momentum was ended quickly as the Vikings stuffed two runs and then Patrick Jones came up with his first sack in weeks. Field goal. 3-0 Titans.

Back to work for the Vikings offense.

They started off with a pitch, maybe just to remind Darnold and Jones that it’s possible to execute. Then Darnold got comfortable. The Titans completely forgot to cover Jordan Addison and Darnold found him wide open for a 47-yard touchdown. It looked like something you might see in a high school game. Nobody was around him, nobody even got close enough to attempt to tackle him. 7-3, Vikings.

A review of the play showed the Titans sending a blitz off the edge and leaving a single high safety that the Vikings exploited. Did Tennessee even watch last week’s game?

We weren’t seeing a bumbling Levis in the first quarter. Coming off a game where he completed nearly 80% of his passes against the Chargers, he seemed more confident than previous weeks. After a holding call set the Titans back to first-and-20, he hit a 19-yard throw and then Viking killer Tony Pollard slammed forward for a first down.

The Sam Darnold Experience got back to making the audience flinch, ooooh and ahhhh. He threw a high pass that nearly got Addison killed when a Titans safety put a wrestling move on him, then Darnold spun out of pressure and converted a pass to Trent Sherfield for a first down. His mobility — a gift and a curse sometimes.

It was more gift than curse two plays later as he escaped again from pressure and found Justin Jefferson for another big first down. Early on, it seems the only people capable of stopping the Vikings passing game are the Vikings. On TV, they flashed a graphic showing Jefferson getting closer to setting the all-time record for most yards in the first five years of a receiver’s career. It doesn’t feel like the world totally appreciates his greatness because of the uptick in good receivers around the league and his lack of attention-drawing.

Anyway, on third-and-6 inside the red zone, Darnold again scrambled. He came close to a first down but didn’t quite get it, bringing up fourth-and-1. The Titans jumped, like the super disciplined team they are, giving the Vikings a first down. It already feels like another touchdown will bring the game to an end.

For some reason, O’Connell drew up a fade route that fell incomplete and then the Vikings proved once again that they can’t pound the rock into the end zone as former Viking James Lynch stuffed Aaron Jones. Another Titans penalty bailed out the Vikings as their safety smashed Addison in the head as he was trying to catch the ball. It was pretty clear on the replay that it was a hit to the chest but nevertheless, the Vikings slammed in for a touchdown.

You can’t blame the refs for anything this week. Parker Romo, last week’s hero, missed the extra point, putting the Vikings up 13-3.

With the Titans offense, a 10 point lead might as well be 43 points. Levis overthrew his intended target on third down and Tennessee went three-and-out. Then they committed a 15-yard penalty on the punt.

No matter how you feel about this Vikings team’s chances to actually compete for a Super Bowl, you have to look over at the Titans and think that this franchise is in a good place. Everything about the Titans is a wreck. They can’t block, they can’t throw, they can’t stop committing penalties, their coach is in over their head, they don’t have young players on the way up, they can’t even figure out if their quarterback can play because everything around him stinks. It’s a bad scene.

Annnd back to the field the Vikings offense goes. Cam Akers came in the game to give Jones a rest and caught an 8-yard pass. Darnold sneaked (snuck?) forward for a first down — the only workable running play for short yardage — and the Vikings were sitting at midfield with four minutes left in the half with a chance to put the dagger into the lowly Titans.

Addison, feeling freed, caught another pass, this time for 16 yards to put the Vikings in field goal position. Akers smashed forward for another first down. Addison nearly made a circus catch by the sideline that would have put the Vikings at the goal line but he didn’t get a second foot down and Romo was forced to boot the ball through the posts to give the Vikings a 16-3 lead.

The biggest development of the half might just be that Addison got rolling again. Even if the catch didn’t count, he was a central figure in the offense. That’s how it needs to be. Underneath passes to Hockenson are nice but Addison’s ceiling for explosives is higher. Darnold getting on the same page as Addison could be important down the stretch.

In the final minute of the first half, Levis finally got some time to throw on a single play and ripped a bullet to Ridley for a first down. Flores did not appreciate that and sent Harrison Smith on a blitz on the next play and he knocked away a Levis pass. Andrew Van Ginkel then sacked the young QB… twice. His back-to-back sacks ended the drive and had Flores smiling on the sideline.

While you may have been displeased at some of the events of the last three games, here’s the yardage total advantage since the Vikings loss to the Rams: 1,009 to 456.

To start the second half, Addison couldn’t bring in a sliding catch and then Darnold got sacked on third down trying to scramble again. With a shot at really running away with the game, a three-and-out.

Not that it matters. Jonathan Greenard destroyed Levis in the backfield on a read option on third-and-1 and forced the Titans to punt. The color analyst use the word “splattered.” I need to use that word more.

Alright, preseason football continues…