By Timothy An

Sunday, Oct. 11 at 8:20 P.M. EST NBC

Spread: Seahawks, -7

This Sunday night will feature two teams that were heavily favored to make it into the postseason before the year started. However, the season has not gone as expected for the 1-3 Minnesota Vikings, while the Seattle Seahawks have been led by MVP frontrunner Russell Wilson to a 4-0 record.

Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings come into Week 5 at 1-3 after getting their first victory against the 0-4 Houston Texans last week. The Vikings offense has been led by Dalvin Cook and has shown to be a dominant force in the run game, but lacks a consistent passing attack. Their offense has been able to produce a good amount of points, but the defense is where the Vikings have really struggled throughout the first quarter of the season.

Vikings Offense

The Vikings offense, led by Kirk Cousins and Dalvin Cook has actually been pretty solid this season. They rank 14th in points per game, with 26.5, and have scored over 30 points in 3 out of their 4 games this season. They excel in the running game, ranking 5th in the NFL for rushing yards per game. Dalvin Cook has been on absolute fire this year leading the league in rushing yards with 424, while second place is Aaron Jones with only 374. On top of that, Dalvin Cook also leads the league in rushing touchdowns with 6 (second place is 4) and has a backup, in Alexander Mattison, who also has contributed greatly this year with 107 rushing yards and a touchdown. This rushing attack has, and will continue to be good strong on Sunday night… the worry is whether Kirk Cousins will step up. Cousins currently isn’t even in the top 20 for passing yards, and is tied for 17th place in passing touchdowns with 6. Meanwhile, he ranks second in interceptions with six and has continued to show an inability to throw the ball downfield this season. With the emergence of rookie wide receiver Justin Jefferson, and veteran Adam Thielen, we would expect Kirk to have more success throwing the ball. We will see if Kirk is able to have success against the Seattle Seahawks dreadful secondary on Sunday night.

Vikings Defense

The main reason the Vikings are 1-3 this season is because of their defense. Their offense has been able to put up a solid number of points, but when the defense ranks 26th in points allowed, there is no way the team can expect to win ball games. The Vikings run defense has been awful, their pass defense has been awful, and their pass rush is really feeling the departure of Everson Griffin. To make matters worse, the Vikings have only forced 3 turnovers all season, which is an extremely worrying sign for the coach Mike Zimmer. The Vikings have given up over 100 rushing yards every game this season, and if they can’t stop the run again in Seattle, it will be a long, long night for the Minnesota Vikings.  

Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks come into Sunday night with an undefeated record led by an outstanding first four games by Russell Wilson. This offense is firing on all cylinders, while the defense is competent enough to win games. The weakness of this Seahawks team is the secondary, which has been giving up a tremendous amount of passing yards to opposing quarterbacks. To make matters worse, Jamal Adams has been ruled out for this game, but luckily they are facing one of the worst starting quarterbacks in Kirk Cousins.

Seahawks Offense

Russell Wilson. This man is my MVP leader so far into the season, leading the Seattle Seahawks to boast the second highest scoring offense in the league, and the third most yards in the league. Wilson ranks 3rd in the league in passing yards, and first in the league in passing touchdowns with 16 in 4 weeks. Throughout these first four weeks, Wilson has played so effortlessly, consistently making magical escapes out of the pocket and dropping absolute dimes to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett down the field. When you combine Wilson with two speedy receivers in Metcalf and Lockett, along with veteran tight end Greg Olsen, and young superstar running back Chris Carson, you create one of the most dynamic offenses in the NFL. Wilson currently leads the league with a passer rating of 136.7, and should continue to have success against a weak Vikings defense.

Seahawks Defense 

This is where the Seahawks continue to struggle, and without Jamal Adams, we will see if they can contain the Vikings offense. The Seahawks passing defense is the absolute worst in the league, ranking dead last in yards per game. They have allowed a whopping 401 passing yards a game so far in the season, and with the absence of Jamal Adams, could be in trouble again. Though their pass defense has been horrendous, their rush defense has actually been fantastic this season, ranking 3rd in the league, only allowing 75.8 yards per game. This bodes well for the Seahawks, who are playing a Vikings offense that's strength is running the ball. We will see if this Seahawks defense is good enough to slow down the Vikings rushing attack.

Prediction

Even though the records of these teams don’t show it, this is a very intriguing matchup. The Vikings strong rushing attack (ranked 5th in the league) will be facing off against the Seahawks tough run defense (ranked 3rd in the league). This matchup will most likely be fairly even, but where we will see the difference in the outcome of the game will be the Vikings passing attack against the horrendous Seahawks pass defense. We know Russell Wilson will put up points against the Vikings D, but will Kirk be able to keep up? Ultimately, I think Kirk Cousins will have the best game of the season up to this point, but the Vikings will still fall short.

SHAWN’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 28 - 17

AJ’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 38 - 20

TIMOTHY’S PREDICTION: Seahawks 35 - 31

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