2023 Week 4

Minnesota Vikings @ Carolina Panthers

By Callum “Cee-Jay” Seymour

 

 

Season back on track baby! Or are we jumping the gun a little bit!?

Our beloved Vikings headed to Bank of America Stadium to meet-up with a favourite ex-Viking Adam Thielen. Thankfully for our Boys in White and Purple on this particular instance, Adam and Co. weren’t the ones taking the W so desperately needed, meaning our Vikings flew home from the sunny climes of Carolina with the first W in the bag to hopefully kick start our season.

From the first drive

Let’s be brutally honest, the first drive of our game had a sense of excitement about it. The first 10-12 plays of a game are drawn up well in advance and “strangely” worked to perfection getting us to the red zone. Actually seeing a TD signalled before then being nullified by Josh Oliver for offensive holding. C’mon man! It still looked promising and this fan was surprised as not often do the Vikings look threatening from the off. Standardly we see the first drive plummet miserably inside 6 plays or go 3 and out from the off. Showing promise was a welcome sight. Vikings fans around the world need no reminder what happened two plays later when Franklin jumped the route intended for Alexander Mattison and returned a short left pass 99 yards for the score.

Queue the Vikings of old, it looked like it was destined to be a long day. However, whilst the Vikings didn’t get off to the best start, the Brian Flores led defense did just enough to disrupt Carolina at key times, holding them to 2 Field goals for the rest of the game. The Vikings put a bit of pressure on a short while through the 2nd quarter with a JJ touchdown which eased the worries of Vikings Fans, globally, I’d say. Taking the game to within 3 points at this point. The touchdown making up for the heart attack inducing play before it where a botched snap resulted in a Cousins fumble. Stick’um guys! It’s still legal right? *Looks shifty*

The Hitman

Harrison Smith, however, has to get a paragraph, an essay, a pedestal all of his own. There have been flashes this season where as much as I love the #22 Hitman, I’ve thought that maybe us keeping him was a bad choice and moving on from the Notre Dame alumni may have been the better option. He’s firmly reassured me he’s far from done with this performance. If Harrison Smith wasn’t already a first ballot HoF to be, off his career thus far. His stat sheet from this game alone with the record he set being THE FIRST EVER! To record such stats, is phenomenal. 14 tackles, 1 forced fumble and 3 sacks is a monstrous game for the Free Safety! The Forced fumble created by him, being scooped and returned for a 6 point turned 7 gain by DJ Wonnum.

Whilst the Vikings are terrible this season as far as turnovers go, this was the first game that whilst being in the negative for turnovers we weren’t brutally punished. The Vikings two interceptions and zero fumbles matching up against Carolina’s zero interceptions and one fumble resulting in seven points for both sides, thus cancelling out something which hasn’t gone our way in the last few weeks.

Are we actually good?

Brian Flores appears to have this defense clicking and coming together. Cousins is firing the offense forward with his fellow captains being a driving force. This Viking team is a few mental or unfortunate errors away from being at point of writing a 4-0 team.

What next?

Onwards to when the Kansas City “Sw-iefts” head to US Bank stadium, and the League Cycle is completed as then all 31 potential visitors across the NFL will have played a regular season game at US Bank Stadium. The purple and gold horde will need to be loud and proud. Making it hell on earth for Patrick Mahomes, Kelce and Co. like we know it can be. KIRKTOBER is here Ladies and Gents, the Vikings are back and we’re taking over the North again!

SKOL!

 

 

 

Written by: Callum “Cee-Jay” Seymour
Edited by: Tommy Beauchene, Richard Dawson, Jacqui Melrose