Top 5 Passing Matchups
Minnesota at Detroit
The Vikings are 6-0, and they've gotten there with very little from the passing game. Kyler Murray threw for just 150 yards in Sunday's 16-10 win over Indianapolis, and his biggest play of the day was a 35-yard run that set up his lone touchdown pass which was a short throw to T.J. Hockenson in his first game back from a concussion. Murray's best game came before the bye, when he completed 24 of 30 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown against New Orleans, but this has been a short, conservative passing attack all season. The troubling part about this offense going forward is that they have a lot of weapons for a relatively low volume and efficiency as Murray is averaging just 6.1 yards per attempt. This has been a big reason Justin Jefferson is struggling, is that his 13.1 yards per catch average is 1.5 yards below his career average, and he’s averaging just 6.2 targets per game which is far off from his career average of 9.9. As long as the Vikings keep winning, they likely will continue to grind out these close games relying heavily on their defense especially with Jordan Mason back. Keep an eye on Aaron Jones Sr. this week as he’s day-to-day with a knee injury.
Detroit entered Week 7 allowing the most passing yards per game in the league at 297, along with the most passing touchdowns per game (14 in five games), and Sunday showed that not much has changed. Jordan Love threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns on 45 attempts in the Lions' 20-17 win over Green Bay. While the Lions remain without safety Kerby Joseph, the good news is that Brian Branch made his season debut last week and intercepted Love on a deep ball, which is a real boost for a secondary that has been short on talent all season, but one player can only do so much. The bigger issue has been underneath, where Detroit's linebackers have struggled in coverage and opponents have been able to work the middle of the field consistently. This has led to Detroit being an automatic play for opposing tight ends, as Detroit is allowing 29.4 PPR points to the tight end, which is 7.9 points more than the second-worst team, and 8.4 points more than the worst defense in NFL history. They’re allowing 100 yards and an astonishing 1.7 touchdowns per game to the tight end position. While the schedule is partially to blame, every tight end they’ve faced has had success (Juwan Johnson, Dalton Kincaid, Kenyon Sadiq, Teagan Quitoriano, Trey McBride, Tucker Kraft). Brian Branch will help, but this is a disastrous defense that could shape up well for T.J. Hockenson this week.
Baltimore at Buffalo