There are analysts on both sides of the predictions for the Seahawks vs. Vikings game, with the final tally being 7-6 in favor of the two-time defending NFC champions. It will be the first time the Seahawks have played outdoors in Minnesota since their inaugural 1976 season.
Advertisement
Netting a 4-1 recording November, the Minnesota Vikings had what many would call a very successful month.
On defense, Seattle now ranks fifth in rushing yards allowed (92.9 per game) and seventh in opponent yards per carry (3.7).
He leads the league in rushing yards (1164), rushing attempts (237), yards per game (105.8) and is second in touchdowns (8) behind Devonta Freeman.
The Seahawks have made stopping the run a habit. Since 2007, Peterson’s rookie season, he has run for 11,354 yards and 94 touchdowns. Who wins at the line of scrimmage when the Vikings have the football might just decide the game.
“These guys have been to the Super Bowl the last two years and they have eight guys that played that are still on the team”, he said via teleconference.
Carroll heard a lot of stories from Vikings who played outdoors at Metropolitan Stadium, the Vikings’ Bloomington home from 1961-81. The Panthers had to come back from a huge deficit to beat the Seahawks earlier this year and they’d rather not see them at all.
Minnesota (8-3) rebounded from a disappointing home loss to Green Bay with a 20-10 victory at Atlanta last week. Atlanta, for instance, won its first five games but since has lost five of six. This game is all up to Minnesota’s defense; they will need to contain Russell Wilson and force him to make off-balance throws.
“We’re heading in the right direction”, Wilson said. “I look at it in the light as there’s a lot of things, even outside of what happened past year, in my life that I am unrooting and changing in so many different ways for the betterment for me as a man and for my family as well”.
So far this season the NFL MVP debate goes something like this.
The Seahawks offense presents just as many challenges. Peterson has 329 yards in three career games against the Seahawks, most coming in a 182-yard, two-touchdown effort on November 4, 2012.
Russell Wilson, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor among the Seahawks particularly intriguing to watch against the Vikings Sunday. It’s already kind of understood: “‘If I don’t have your jersey, I want it, ‘” Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams said. While the Vikes will be doing their best to contain Wilson inside the pocket, the Seahawks would be wise to design plays to roll him out to add that extra dimension. “It’ll be a full-day affair”. The Cardinals are probably the Panthers’ biggest competition in the NFC, and Sunday’s game between Arizona and St. Louis could turn ugly. Seattle’s Thomas Rawls has run for a combined 290 yards while relieving injured Marshawn Lynch the past two games. Peterson will be front and center for the Seahawks defense, for which he has much respect. A repeat performance will be hard against the Seahawks, who have one of the best pass-rushing duos in the league. Wagner noticed from film of last weekend’s Vikings game that Falcons defenders were too jumpy and were running out of assigned gaps. During Minnesota’s three losses this season, Bridgewater was sacked 18 times.
Advertisement
Sunday’s showdown really is an important test for Minnesota.
