Vikings top Titans, earn AFC South sweep, but they know they have bigger fish to fry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Somewhere in the lower bowl of Nissan Stadium, wedged between hundreds of Minnesota Vikings fans, a man yelled.
"Levis! You're awful!"
This was early in the afternoon, hours before the Vikings put the finishing touches on a 23-13 victory over the hometown Titans . But the man was just getting going. He continued to holler his thoughts about Levis, voicing his displeasure in the second quarter.
Even after Levis aired out a 98-yard touchdown, and even though he finished with 295 yards passing, the man remained undeterred.
"Levis! We've seen enough!"
The exasperation felt warranted for a franchise huffing down the tracks without a light in sight.
-13 victory over Titans: TakeawaysViewed from the Vikings' perspective, it also felt poignant.
Sunday marked the team's third consecutive ugly win against an AFC South foe. The first opponent, the Indianapolis Colts , received national attention for benching their promising young quarterback for a 39-year-old before transitioning back to the player they benched. The second team, the Jacksonville Jaguars , lost 52-6 on Sunday amid a report that surfaced the night before that their coach could be fired . The third team, Tennessee, has had its fans thinking about the NFL Draft from the beginning of the season. All three situations are layered with dysfunction, meddling ownership and missed quarterback evaluations.
The story of this midseason stretch is the unquestionable reality that the Vikings, projected before the season to struggle like these three other teams, reside on starkly different ground. They're better. They have higher expectations and bigger goals. That's not something any Vikings staffer uttered Sunday even if it was obvious. Rather, head coach Kevin O'Connell oriented his press conference around the need for further improvement.
"The same way I'm old enough to remember nobody thought we were good," O'Connell said, "is the same way I'll speak now. We've just got to continue to get better."
; can they take AFC No. 1 seed, too?The 2024 Vikings may be 8-2 and staring down a playoff spot, but they are far from perfect. And they know it.
"We have to put it all together the whole game," said superstar receiver Justin Jefferson, who caught six passes for 81 yards on Sunday.
Minnesota still turns the ball over too much offensively. On the first possession Sunday, quarterback Sam Darnold pitched the ball to running back Aaron Jones , and the ball bounced off his chest and into the hands of a Titans defender. The fumble was Minnesota's seventh over this three-game stretch. The only teams with more? Indianapolis and Jacksonville.
Allowing explosives in the passing game is another problem. As of Sunday evening, only three NFL teams had given up more passes of 16 yards or more than Minnesota. Levis completed six of those throws Sunday, including a third-down heave in the third quarter from his own end zone toward the right sideline. The combination of Levis' velocity plus Vikings safety Josh Metellus' misjudgment of the trajectory led to the 98-yard score and nearly altered the momentum of the game.
And then, of course, there is the question of the interior of the Vikings offensive line. Minnesota replaced third-year right guard Ed Ingram with veteran Dalton Risner on Sunday, but the Titans front still constricted pockets, forcing Darnold to look, at times, like he was dodging bullets in "The Matrix." Minnesota's offense also struggled to run the ball consistently between the tackles, finishing with 2.6 yards per carry on designed rushes.
If the Vikings get bounced early in the playoffs, or if they have to fight even to reach that point, these are likely to be many of the conversation points. They were Sunday afternoon as well, despite Darnold's solid 20-of-32 outing for 246 yards and two touchdowns.
But remember, the NFL is designed for parity and close games.
"There's no homecoming out here," Vikings safety Harrison Smith said. "It doesn't matter where people's records are. Everybody has Pro Bowlers. Everybody can score on one play like what happened today. There are no easy buckets."
In the broader analysis of this organization's direction, it is also worth remembering the circumstances surrounding this season for the Vikings. They ditched veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins for a reclamation project (Darnold) and a first-round draft pick ( J.J. McCarthy ), and in doing so they absorbed nearly $68 million in dead money for 2024, the third most in the NFL.
Contrast these conditions with the five teams with the same or better record. The Buffalo Bills , Kansas City Chiefs , Philadelphia Eagles , Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers are spending an average of $45.5 million in cash on their current quarterbacks for 2024; the Vikings are spending $10 million. Only the Bills absorbed more dead cap. Furthermore, four of those five teams had double-digit preseason win projections. The Vikings' number was around seven.
So much of what the Vikings spent their remaining dollars on — an enhanced defense, and, specifically, pass rush help — showed up again Sunday. Minnesota blitzed Levis on 11 dropbacks. The Vikings were most effective when rushing four or fewer defenders, recording five sacks on those snaps, according to Next Gen Stats. Edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel and edge rusher Patrick Jones II each blasted Levis twice, while linebacker Blake Cashman got him once. Minnesota's 35 sacks rank third in the NFL, and its 37.3 percent pressure rate ranks seventh.
Unlike Darnold, whom O'Connell called "the driver" of the Vikings' offensive production with his pocket movement and ball placement on Jordan Addison 's 47-yard touchdown and running back Cam Akers' 3-yard touchdown, Levis often escaped awkwardly and was left to fling passes out of bounds. Following Smith's game-sealing interception on a deep-ball attempt, Levis aggressively unstrapped his helmet and beelined to the bench.
That's when the fan tested his lungs once more, spouting his frustration for all to hear. It seemed like the cherry on top of a three-game stretch that was rocky, yes, but also illuminating.
Unlike the three AFC South musketeers, the Vikings have an infrastructure capable of lifting a team beyond its expectations. They did not reach for a quarterback the entire building was not sold on (Titans). Neither their general manager nor head coach were retreads who had been fired before (Jaguars). They were never going to waver from their quarterback development plan (Colts).
None of this guarantees anything for later this winter or the years to come, other than folks in purple infiltrating towns like this one with a reason to believe.
