Minnesota Vikings Travel to Carolina to Face the Panthers

Week 6 takes the Vikings on the road where they haven’t been for three weeks now to take on a tough Carolina Panthers. The Panthers are coming off back-to-back losses while the Vikings have just beaten the Lions at home in a close game.

A close low scoring game would not be a surprise as both teams have tough defenses with many playmakers. The Minnesota Vikings need to find a way to involve more people than just Justin Jefferson and Alexander Mattison. If the Carolina defense is able to double Jefferson as play for the run other players are going to need to step up and make their presence known.

The Minnesota Vikings defense needs to control the running backs of the Panthers. Whether it is Christian McCaffrey or Chuba Hubbard both backs are lethal out of the backfield catching passes and both are able to rip off massive runs. The other important key is to watch out for DJ Moore who has is by far the best receiver on the Panther team with 35 receptions, 440 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns which succeeds the second best receiver by a wide margin so controlling Moore’s touches and impact will be important for the Vikings.

Robby Anderson is always a threat to break away for a long pass that can break a defense wide open so watching out for that play and keeping Anderson in front of the safeties will force him to make more difficult catches. Also, as surprising as it is Sam Darnold has transformed into a somewhat dual-threat quarterback with five touchdown runs which is the most on the team. The Vikings would rather have Darnold be a runner than have open receivers down the field.

If the Minnesota Vikings are able to have many contributors to their offense and their defense continues to play the way they have the past three weeks, the Vikings could come away with their third win in the last four weeks bringing them back to .500 for the entire season.