Vikings QB Sam Darnold got back on track, their defense kept pressure on Will Levis, and they benefited from 13 Tennessee penalties in their third win in a row.
The Vikings won Sunday for the eighth time in a season in which oddsmakers set their over-under at 6.5 wins. Their victory, their third in a row over an AFC South opponent with a losing record, was something less than spectacular.
As the singer who made her first millions in Nashville before becoming a global superstar and the NFL’s most famous significant other might say, it was a champagne problem.
Though the Vikings’ 23-13 victory over the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium was their first win by double digits since Sept. 22, it paled in comparison with the 27-point romp over the Houston Texans that helped make them a surprise early entrant to the NFC’s list of contenders. It came with tenuous moments, just like their previous wins over the Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts, and sent them home with familiar issues to fix.
The Vikings averaged a season-low 2.5 yards per rush, as their offensive line (with Dalton Risner replacing Ed Ingram at right guard) struggled to handle standout Tennessee defensive tackles Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat. The Titans sacked Sam Darnold only twice and hit him four times, but their pressures had the quarterback on the move, either to escape on three scrambles or to throw on the run.
On Sunday, though, the Vikings avoided giving a two-win opponent enough oxygen to chase them down.
The Vikings (8-2), who had turned the ball over six times in their previous two games, shook off a fumble on a botched toss play from Darnold to Aaron Jones in the first quarter and went the final 50 minutes without a giveaway. When they allowed the Titans (2-8) to get to within six points on Will Levis’ 98-yard stunner to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Darnold directed a 65-yard drive (with the help of a third-and-11 illegal contact penalty on Jarvis Brownlee Jr. on Justin Jefferson) that put the Vikings back up by 13.
Their defense ended the Titans’ last three possessions with a fourth-down Patrick Jones II sack, a fourth-down Levis incompletion with pressure from Jones and Jihad Ward, and the 36th career interception from Harrison Smith. The Knoxville, Tenn., native spun the ball on the Vikings’ sideline in celebration before Ivan Pace Jr. retrieved the memento and handed it to a team staffer for safekeeping.
Sign up for our Access Vikings newsletter
Smith had both the ball from the interception and the game ball he had been presented by coach Kevin O’Connell under his arms as he left the locker room after a victory the 13-year veteran knew not to take for granted.
She’s buying downtown Minneapolis office space, sensing ‘greatest opportunity of our lifetime’
“I think at this point in my career, there’s no homecoming games out here,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what people’s records are. Everybody has Pro Bowlers, everybody can score on one play like what happened today. There’s no easy buckets. You have to be locked in, and they all count as one. That is my mindset. It’s not thinking about too much of it, just being present. It’s kind of cliché, but that’s just the reality of it.”
The Vikings defense pressured Levis on 46.4% of his dropbacks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, generating five sacks when they rushed four or fewer. Levis beat their blitz on the 98-yard score in the third quarter, throwing deep from the Titans end zone while Josh Metellus got turned around in coverage.
Playing behind a feeble offensive line, though, the second-year quarterback operated under strife almost immediately. The Vikings pressured him four times on five dropbacks to start the game. Tennessee got the ball in position to score on its second drive after Darnold’s fumble, but a sack by Blake Cashman forced the Titans to settle for a field goal.