It’s time to focus on the hated Minnesota Vikings. It looks like it will be the Case Keenum show when the Green Bay Packers travel to Minnesota on Sunday. No one is saying this for certain, but mercurial coach Mike Zimmer seems to be predisposed this way. “Mercurial” is a nice way of saying “unstable.”
The Vikings staked their future last season on quarterback Sam Bradford, after their previous future hope, QB Teddy Bridgewater, suffered a terrible injury just prior to the start of the 2016 season.
Bradford’s attempted return to the lineup against the Bears on Monday night didn’t go well. After missing three games due to an injured left knee, Bradford was pulled by Zimmer just before the half ended. He had five completions on 11 throws, for 36 yards, four sacks, and a safety. Bradford’s mobility was very limited. Zimmer messed up by sending him out there before he had healed.
Zimmer said that Bradford hurt his knee again when he was tackled in the first half. I’ve criticized this coach before for his refusal to be upfront about the injury status of his players. Zimmer is again saying he doesn’t know how long Bradford will be out.
Case Keenum had been considered strictly a fill-in, but the fifth-year pro without any prolonged record of success suddenly had the game of his life in the Vikings’ week 3 defeat of the Buccaneers: 25-of-33 for 369 yards, three touchdowns, and a 142.1 passer rating.
He returned to form, however, in week 4, with a 76.9 rating in a 14-7 loss to the Lions.
Keenum is now being credited with salvaging the win against the Bears – who played their hope for the future, rookie QB Mitchell Trubisky. Trubisky was mostly unimpressive, and then handed the game over to the Vikings by throwing an interception with just over two minutes left in the game.
Keenum’s numbers in his half-game: 17-of-21 for 140 yards, one touchdown, and a 110.3 passer rating. The Vikings rushed for almost as many yards as they got through the air, as Jerick McKinnon carried 16 times for 95 yards. He also was Minnesota’s leading receiver, with six catches for 51 yards. McKinnon has stepped in for Dalvin Cook, the Vikings’ hope-for-the-future running back, who tore his ACL and is out for the rest of the season.
Will the Packers face a suddenly respectable, or even dangerous, Keenum, or will he be the guy with a passer rating of 80.3 over his four-plus years in the league?
Keenum, or Bradford, have a capable, but not explosive, set of receivers – though fans of Stefon Diggs might not agree. On the year, Diggs has the league’s fifth most receiving yards, is averaging 17.2 yards per catch, and has averaged almost 80 yards per game. With 17 first down catches, he’s their leader in that category, and he’s caught four passes for touchdowns.
Right on Diggs’ heels, with the NFL’s sixth most receiving yards, is Adam Thielen. He has 16 first down catches, but no TD catches.
The Packers’ big three, Adams, Nelson, and Cobb, rank 19, 48, and 54 in receiving yardage. This game should tell us whether Minnesota’s receiving corps is for real.
After these two, the productivity drops off. Tight end Kyle Rudolph is averaging 31 yards per game, while Laquon Treadwell, Minnesota’s first round pick last year, just can’t get his pro career in gear. Could be that his 4.63 40-yard dash time has something to do with it.
The Vikings game plan is simple: score enough points, around 20, and rely on its defense to hold its opponent to fewer points. On the year, the Vikings have held opponents to an average of 18.6 points, eighth best in the league. The Packers rank twentieth, at 22.4.
This will be the Vikings’ fourth home game in their new, but still ugly stadium on the young season.
For once, the Packers face a team with more injury woes than themselves. A season-ending injury to their star running back, and a prolonged injury to the starting QB – that’s a deluge of bad karma.
The Packers, meanwhile, head into this game with considerable momentum and with their injury situation improving rapidly. If Kevin King returns from concussion protocol, and If David Bakhtiari finally gets to play in his second game of the year, the Packers appear to have everything in their favor against their rivals to the west.
Rob Born—you are mama hoohoo (look it up) regarding your depth of judgement of Case Keenum.
Rob, this article was so poorly written I thought it was Mordecai/Monty and was shocked to see your picture at the bottom!
So, let us correct some of your transgressions of logic and fairness:
1. Zimmer is not mercurial or unstable. Saying he is, is, as you would put it, one way of lying. He is beloved and respected by his players and fellow coaches AND opposing coaches. Who all know him about a million times better than do you. Unstable people are not beloved and respected.
2. I don’t think Zimmer messed up sending Bradford out there. Bradford practiced, felt better, there was no actual damage to the knee, it was a pain management issue and he wanted to play. He then got hurt very early. A new hurt to the same area. Zimmer is not a psychic and could not know that would happen. I do think he should have pulled him maybe one or two drives before he actually did.
3. No one is sure when Bradford will be back. Which is what Zimmer said. Sooooo… Zimmer told the truth. Not evasive, at least this time. You want to talk about an injury-evasive coach… please step to the podium MM.
4. Keenum does not have a prolonged record of success but he played for the Jeff Fisher Rams for God’s sake! I’m not saying he is Joe Montana but he is one of the best back up QBs in the NFL.
5. Keenum did very well in the Bears win. Came off the bench so he did not have the first team reps. 17 of 21? I’ll take it any day of the week! Sure, 140 yards but it was pretty much just a half, maybe 21 yards in the first half. OK, subtract 21 from 140 which equals 119 and then multiply by two halves which equals 238 yards, not too shabby for a full game stat line. You know, he really did salvage the win, he was not just “being credited with”. If Bradford had stayed in or Keenum had not played as well we would have lost a very close game.
6. Trubisky didn’t “hand over the game”, the Vikings took it. It was not a lucky interception. It was a wizard-like performance of calculation, strategy, timing, focus, and athleticism in which Harrison Smith MADE that interception happen. Even if it had not happened the Vikings would have gotten the ball back by punt with more than two minutes and, even if that drive did not lead to a FG, there always would have been OT. You place the words in such a way that you seek to rob the Vikings of credit. They did not win it, it was given to them, blah blah. That is called bad sportsmanship, Rob.
7. Thielen and Diggs are not explosive? WhatWhat?? Both fans AND statistics disagree with you there. Fact vs. Rob. Fact wins, Rob loses. Just in the games this year Thielen and Diggs have receptions for 34, 44, 18TD, 19, 30, 24, 27, 24, 21, 45, 19, 17, 17, 47, 17TD, 59TD, 25, 21, 33, and 32! Just THIS YEAR! And Diggs mostly missed last weeks game. In 9 games worth of play (5 games for Thielen, 4 games for Diggs) they have 20 plays of 17 or more yards and 4 TDs!
8. One game does not tell us what is or is not for real. These two are already for real. Thielen had nearly a thousand yards last year in 11 games starting. Diggs only played 13 games last year and also nearly had a thousand yards. They are already for real and, no, it is not dependent on this one game.
9. Yeeeeeah, the Vikings game plan is simple. Score more points than the other guys. Same game plan Green Bay uses! Same one every team uses!
10. The new stadium is a beautiful work of practical art. Your sour grapes are showing. Stuck on the cold hard benches in Green Bay. Horrible antiquated high school-esque stadium. You are practicing a form of stadium masochism, pretending bad is good and great is “ugly”.
Rob, pull out of your nosedive! You are writing down to the general quality of much of the readership of this site (Ferris, Iceballs, people like that, or that pretender PF4L). Don’t plunge to their level!