For the second week in a row, the Minnesota Vikings’ offense struggled, but the defense and the special teams managed to find a way to bring home a victory on the road anyway.
Sparked by the team’s first punt return for a touchdown in a decade and three more field goals from Will Reichard, the Vikings overcame another lackluster offensive performance and the loss of wide receiver Justin Jefferson after their first possession to get a 23-16 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium
in Week 3 NFL action.
The Vikings got the football first, as for the second straight week, they won the opening coin toss and elected to receive. Kyler Murray found Justin Jefferson on the very first snap for a 22-yard gain, and a run by Aaron Jones put the Vikings into Tampa Bay territory in just two plays. After that, a hold on Donovan Jackson pushed the Vikings into a third-and-long, and though they recovered some of the yardage, they wound up settling for a 54-yard field goal from Will Reichard to take a 3-0 lead just under five minutes into the game.
On that drive, Jefferson suffered an ankle injury that saw him go into the blue medical tent and later into the locker room. He was first declared questionable to return, and later ruled out for the remainder of the game. This is, obviously, a situation that we will be monitoring for the upcoming week.
Tampa started their first drive at their own 40-yard line after a nice return from Kenny Gainwell on the ensuing kickoff. But Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers’ offense couldn’t move the football and went three-and-out, and they punted the ball away. Myles Price took the punt at his own 14-yard line and, after a couple of moves, found himself in the open field and sprinting into the end zone for an 86-yard punt return touchdown to make it 10-0 in favor of the purple.
That punt return touchdown was the first one for the Vikings in almost a full decade. The last one came courtesy of Marcus Sherels against the Houston Texans at U.S. Bank Stadium on 9 October 2016.
Tampa’s offense responded loudly on their next possession, as Mayfield found Cade Otton for a quick completion to pick up the Bucs’ initial first down of the afternoon and, after a couple of runs from Bucky Irving and a personal foul on Dallas Turner, Mayfield found rookie Ted Hurst for a 40-yard catch-and-run to get the Buccaneers into the end zone and cut the Minnesota lead to 10-7. It was the first touchdown catch of Hurst’s career. He was Tampa’s third-round pick in this April’s NFL Draft out of Georgia State.
The Vikings got the ball back and got out to near midfield, but the drive stalled out, and they were forced to punt it away. Johnny Hekker, in this week for the injured Brett Thorson, kicked it away, and the Bucs got the ball to their own 25-yard line to start their next possession. They went three-and-out again, thanks to a nice tackle by Isaiah Rodgers to stop Emeka Egbuka short of the sticks on a third-down completion.
Unfortunately, with Justin Jefferson on the sideline with some sort of ankle issue, the Vikings’ offense continued to struggle, and they answered with a three-and-out of their own that spanned the gap between the first and second quarters. Tampa Bay took over at their own 39 after the punt, and their drive started with Kyle Van Noy picking up his first sack as a Viking as he dropped Mayfield for a seven-yard loss. That was enough to stop the Bucs’ offense, and they punted it away again.
Minnesota’s offense continued to struggle without Jefferson on the field, as Murray was sacked by David Walker to force yet another three-and-out, with Hekker’s punt just barely reaching midfield to set the Buccaneers up with great field position again. On the next third down, Mayfield found Cade Otton for a big 37-yard catch-and-run that gave the Bucs a goal-to-go situation. Fortunately for the Vikings, a couple of holding penalties pushed the Buccaneers back, and they couldn’t overcome them enough to get into the end zone and had to settle for a 28-yard field goal from Chase McLaughlin to tie things at 10-10 with five and a half minutes left in the first half.
The Vikings’ offense came back to life on the next drive behind the previously hibernating Jordan Addison. On the first play of the drive, Murray found him for a 30-yard completion that was challenged by the Buccaneers and upheld on review as a catch, and three plays later Murray launched a deep ball for him that he hauled in just in front of the end zone and tumbled into the end zone for a 41-yard touchdown, his first score of the year, to give the Vikings the lead back at 17-10 with four minutes left before halftime.
The two teams then exchanged punts, following Murray and Addison nearly connecting on another deep ball that could have been another long touchdown but was underthrown by Murray. They went into the locker rooms at Raymond James Stadium with the Vikings up by a touchdown at 17-10.
Tampa Bay got the ball to start the second half, and after picking up one first down, the Vikings forced them to punt it away and got the ball back at their own 20-yard line. The Vikings also managed one first down on their initial possession of the second half but couldn’t get much more than that, responding with a punt of their own and putting the Buccaneers inside their own 20.
The Bucs then very quickly went three-and-out again, with Mayfield missing a pair of attempts to Egbuka. The Bucs punted again, but on the ensuing Vikings possession, Murray had a pass deflected by Vita Vea into the hands of A’Shawn Robinson for an interception, setting the Buccaneers’ offense up at the Minnesota 22-yard line. Fortunately, the Vikings’ defense stood strong once again, and the Buccaneers had to settle for a 38-yard field goal from McLaughlin to make it a four-point game at 17-13 with just over seven minutes left in the third quarter.
The Vikings again, thanks in part to a delay of game penalty, went three-and-out on their next possession and gave the ball back to the Buccaneers in rapid fashion. The Bucs found themselves in a 3rd-and-30 and looked to have an 85-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to Chris Godwin, but the Buccaneers were called for holding to negate the big play and instead had to punt it away.
Tampa then got another field goal, this one a 54-yarder from McLaughlin, after a penalty on Josh Metellus wiped out what would have been a stop on a 3rd-and-29 play. That kick made it 17-16 with nine minutes left in regulation. A personal foul on the ensuing kickoff return gave the Vikings the ball at the 45-yard line to start their next possession, and once again the offense managed to struggle its way into range for another long Will Reichard field goal attempt. This one was a 56-yarder, and he once again put it through the uprights to make it 20-16 with just over three minutes remaining in regulation.
The Buccaneers got the ball back and, once again, the Minnesota defense kept them from moving the football. They faced a 4th-and-13, and after Mayfield scrambled for a significant length of time, he threw one up for grabs, and it was intercepted by Andrew Van Ginkel.
After the turnover, the Vikings ran the ball and made the Buccaneers burn their timeouts, setting up another Reichard field goal, this one a 43-yarder that Reichard connected on to make it 23-16 with just 33 seconds left on the clock.
With Mayfield injured, the Buccaneers had to turn to rookie Jalon Daniels for their final possession, and though he did fire the ball deep a couple of times, he could not get the Buccaneers the touchdown that they needed, and the clock ran out on Tampa’s comeback hopes with Daniels’ final desperation heave being intercepted by Isaiah Rodgers.
Murray’s first full game as the Vikings’ starting quarterback was not a work of art by any means. He completed just 15-of-29 passes for 168 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. For much of the afternoon, his completion percentage was below 50%, and he looked unsure of himself for much of the game. Hopefully he can make some progress in the coming weeks, and hopefully Jefferson’s injury will be a short-term concern rather than a long-term one.
The Vikings offense also failed to run a single play in the red zone all game long, which is almost certainly not a sustainable recipe for success and, again, hopefully something that they can fix going forward.
The Vikings will return to U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 4 when they host the Miami Dolphins in the hopes of running their season-opening win streak to four in a row.
Once again, it wasn’t necessarily pretty, but the Minnesota Vikings got the job done against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hanging on for a 23-16 victory in central Florida in Week 3 action. Thank you to everyone who got their coverage of this week’s game right here at The Daily Norseman!
