The Carolina Panthers are taking a physical beaten this season with their banged up offensive line and it had cost them the game with the Minn Vikings. The Vikings, who came in the game with 2-0 record outplayed the Panthers and stole a 22-10 victory. The story within this game was the Viking’s defense that pressured Panthers’ QB Cam Newton. In the first quarter, it looked like the Panthers knew what they wanted to do with the Vikings. They ran a lot of smash mouth runs down the heart of the Vikings, threw short out routes to their wide receivers, and tried to get the Vikings to bite on different types of screens. It worked for about four possessions. Cam Newton came out blazing, connecting on his first 9 attempts and put his team up 10-0. Late in the first quarter, the Vikings blitz Newton deep in his own territory and ended up getting a safety to get their first points in the game. After the Vikings had gotten the safety, they tested the Panther’s defense. Vikings QB Sam Bradford started off slow, but towards the end of the half , he was eyeing one on one match-ups and taking advantage of the Panthers. Before the half, the Vikings ended up getting a safety and punt return, but missed a field goal to make it 8-10.
After the half, the Vikings slaughtered the Panther’s offense line. They made Cam very uncomfortable. He could not step up in the pocket, nor could he run to the outside to buy himself and his receivers time. The Vikings dialed up so many different looks that at time Newton looked very confused and the Panthers’ offensive had no answer at all during the game. Newton was picked off twice and sacked 8 times. Bradford controlled the game, even though the running game had suffered, the Vikings found a way to win. The defense locked on Keven Benjamin and the other wide receivers had a hard time with breaking away from the defenders and even catching the ball.
Cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said the Vikings were focus was on shutting down Benjamin.”We just knew where Benjamin was the whole time,” Munnerlyn said. ”Funchess, we weren’t worried about him. It was Kelvin Benjamin. Me personally, I think No. 17 (Funchess) is not that good, so we weren’t really worried about him.”
For the rest of the 2nd half, the Vikings ate up the clock with slowing down the speed of the game and making the Panthers tired. they could not get the Vikings of the field. The Vikings ended the Panthers home streak at 14.
Cam Newton finished the game with 21 of 35 for 262 yards 3 turnovers and no touchdowns
Sam Bradford finished the game with 18 of 28 for 171 yards and 1 td
Carolina is now 1-2, while the Vikings are 3-0.
