{"id":149915,"date":"2023-10-16T15:49:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T19:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=149915"},"modified":"2023-10-16T15:49:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T19:49:48","slug":"vikings-week-6-win-vikings-defense-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/10\/16\/vikings-week-6-win-vikings-defense-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Vikings Week 6 Win Spurred By Surprising Play From Feisty Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vikings Week 6 win in Chicago was one that might feel a little hallow to the NFL world. Minnesota\u2019s offense sputtered without all-world receiver Justin Jefferson. The Bears also played the majority of the second half without starting quarterback Justin Fields<\/a>. The fact that Minnesota only won by yet another one-score margin is rather troubling. With that said, there were still a few promising takeaways for Minnesota, especially on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Vikings Defense Showed Up When Needed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nobody is going to say that the Vikings have anything close to resembling a top-flight defense. However, their performance in Chicago was a step in the right direction for a long-maligned unit. Sure, some were due to playing against backup quarterback Tyson Bagent<\/a> for a solid chunk of time. However, even when Fields was in the game, Minnesota still gave Chicago fits. The Bears aren\u2019t world-beaters on offense, but they were coming off a long week and back-to-back explosive performances. Shutting them down in front of their home crowd still constitutes a win for a defense in need of one.<\/p>\n

Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores and his aggressive blitzing scheme<\/a> stymied Chicago\u2019s passing game all day. Flores isn\u2019t working with the most talented crew, but he\u2019s brought credibility to what was a league-worst unit a season ago. He\u2019s got his group bought in and it\u2019s showing through consistent effort on a week-to-week basis.<\/p>\n

The Vikings pass rush has been getting home frequently the past few weeks, and it\u2019s getting them off the field. Sunday they were credited with five sacks and a plethora of pressures, with lots of defenders contributing to that total. The Vikings defense also scored their second touchdown<\/a> of the season following a strip sack in the third quarter. Minnesota doesn\u2019t have the talent to completely shut teams down, but Flores\u2019 aggression is leading to big plays. Sunday also saw the Vikings win the turnover battle for the first time this season. The defense is going to have to keep up the heat if they want to compete with the 49ers on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Other Vikings Week 6 Performers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Danielle Hunter<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Danielle Hunter<\/a> is making the Vikings regret not signing him to the long-term extension<\/a> his camp was seeking this past off-season. He\u2019s already up to eight sacks on the year after logging another multi-sack game on Sunday. He was a terror in Chicago, consistently forcing Fields to flee the pocket and added a knocked-down pass to his stat totals for good measure. Hunter has also been his consistently solid self against the run this season. Minnesota gave Hunter a one-year deal with assurances that he couldn\u2019t be franchise-tagged. If Hunter keeps this production up, he’s going to end up one of the league\u2019s highest-paid defenders in 2024.<\/p>\n

[metabet_core_side_odds_tile query=”nfl\/danielle_hunter\/player_1706″ size=”350×300″ site_id=”lastwordonsports”]<\/p>\n

Harrison Phillips<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s been a rough start to the season for the veteran big man Harrison Phillips<\/a>. A year after being a stalwart up front, he has had difficulty making his presence felt. Sunday he could finally provide the interior push Minnesota saw from him so consistently a season ago. He was even able to collect his first sack of the year as a result. If Phillips can find a consistent groove, the Vikings interior pass rush and run defense can also hopefully find more consistency as well.<\/p>\n

Vikings Week 6 Disappointments <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kirk Cousins<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Sunday was not Kirk Cousins<\/a>\u2019 finest moment as a member of the Minnesota Vikings. It continues the troubling trend of Kirk playing down to the level of his competition. A week after hanging with Patrick Mahomes for the majority of the game, Cousins didn\u2019t do much to distinguish himself from Tyson Bagent. Without Justin Jefferson on the field, Cousins and the offense had a hard time moving the ball. As a veteran quarterback Cousins has to be expected to overcome the temporary loss of his top target.<\/p>\n

Cousins also has a history of abysmal performances<\/a> on Monday Night Football. Unfortunately for Kirk, that\u2019s what he has coming up with San Francisco coming to town in Week 7. At least fans don\u2019t need to worry about the possibility of Cousins playing down to poor competition. Cousins is going to have to figure out how to develop a connection with his existing cast quickly for Minnesota to have a chance against one of the best teams in the league.<\/p>\n

Jordan Addison<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of those connections that Cousins will have to build rapport with, Jordan Addison<\/a>, didn\u2019t have his best day either. It might not be fair to suddenly heap massive expectations on the rookie first-round wideout. However, Addison was brought in to be the perfect complement to Justin Jefferson in the passing attack. Now with Jefferson out, it\u2019s time for Addison to show that he also has the talent to be a go-to guy in the NFL. Sunday proved that he might not yet be up for the task.<\/p>\n

Addison did score a touchdown, but he had some issues getting open consistently. He also had a crucial drop early in the game on a beautiful downfield throw from Cousins. Addison showed in camp and at times this season that he can win one-on-one matchups. For this offense to flourish without Jefferson, Addison is going to have to prove that he can do so consistently as a focal point for the offense.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vikings Week 6 win likely won’t make many headlines, beating a Justin Fieldless Bears. They do, however, have to like their progress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4671,"featured_media":149951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,54],"tags":[3618,9598,403,7753],"class_list":["post-149915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vikings","category-editorials","tag-harrison-phillips","tag-jordan-addison","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-minnesota-vikings-news"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}