Minnesota Vikings: 5 Keys to beating Seahawks on Monday Night Football

1. Keep Wilson under control

Imagine if I told you Brandon Allen, a backup quarterback for the Broncos, was able to pick apart a secondary that was considered to be one of the best in the league coming into the season. Now imagine that I told you that same secondary has to go against MVP candidate Russell Wilson on Monday. Not sounding good so far is it?

The thing is, Minnesota’s front seven looks just as good as it has for years. The secondary, however, has looked quite terrible at times this season.

Xavier Rhodes has been getting beat by anyone that’s lined up against him, while Trae Waynes hasn’t been much better and, honestly, it doesn’t seem like there’s been any improvement at all. Mike Hughes has been a bright spot at times but there were a couple of plays against the Broncos that exploited his lack of size.

If Minnesota wants to have any chance of winning this game, they need to play lights-out on defense. Those aforementioned Vikings defensive backs are going to have to lineup opposite of Josh Gordon, D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. And again, they have one of the NFL’s best in Wilson throwing to them.

One way to slow down Wilson is to bring in different blitz packages to limit his time in the pocket, but doing so carefully as his rushing ability can be pretty dangerous. Collapsing the pocket in on him is a much better plan of action, so don’t be surprised to see Zimmer rush four and keep the linebackers in coverage with the occasional Double A-Gap Blitz we all know and love.

Minnesota has a lot riding on this game. To win, they can’t afford to give up big plays on defense. If Zimmer wants this one, he’s going to have to earn it.