Dolphins Opponent Breakdown: Minnesota Vikings
The Miami Dolphins will look to rebound from their back-to-back losses when they face the Minnesota Vikings at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.
The Dolphins will face the first of five NFC opponents on their schedule and enter the game as 3.5-point underdogs with rookie seventh-round pick Skylar Thompson scheduled to make his first NFL start.
The Vikings will go into the game with a 4-1 record following their 29-22 victory against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday.
To get some answers on five major questions related to the Vikings, we turned to Publisher Will Ragatz of SI Fan Nation sister site Inside the Vikings.
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FOR EVEN MORE COVERAGE ON THE MIAMI DOLPHINS, CHECK OUT SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S MIAMI DOLPHINS PAGE ON SI.COM
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1. Are the Vikings a legit 4-1 team or is their record not quite indicative of the kind of team this is?
WR: The bottom line is you are who your record says you are, but the Vikings have definitely out-performed their underlying metrics so far thanks to three consecutive close victories that could have gone the other way. For example, the Vikings rank just 20th in Football Outsiders' DVOA through five games despite winning four of them. Minnesota is learning a lot about itself and what it needs to improve upon while still winning games, and that doesn't happen very often in the NFL. The optimistic outlook is that they'll continue to grow and get better as they get more and more reps in their new schemes on both sides of the ball, which could lead to winning games more comfortably in the future. The pessimistic view is that this Vikings team might be due to lose some close games if it keeps playing like this. After all, the Vikings' last three wins came against teams quarterbacked by Jared Goff, Andy Dalton and Justin Fields.
2. Like the Dolphins, Minnesota has a first-year head coach with Kevin O'Connell; what has stood out about him so far?
WR: O'Connell has been really impressive. He's a very smart offensive-minded coach, having learned under Sean McVay for the past couple seasons. As a former NFL quarterback, O'Connell really understands the position, which has helped him connect with Kirk Cousins. He's great at marrying the run and the pass together so things look similar at first but can go in all kinds of directions after the snap. O'Connell has found lots of ways to get the ball to Justin Jefferson, who leads the NFL in receiving despite having a pair of quiet games mixed in with three huge ones. Beyond his offensive acumen, O'Connell seems to be a great leader who has strong relationships with his players. He built a good coaching staff, changed the Vikings' culture in their facility, and has gotten results on the field. It's still super early, but he's been a home run hire so far.
3. What differences, if any, are there in Kirk Cousins' game compared to previous years?
WR: I don't know that there are any major differences. I think he's playing with a lot of confidence, and a big reason for that is the presence of O'Connell. Cousins and Mike Zimmer never had the strongest relationship, probably because Zimmer was a defensive coach. O'Connell and Cousins had a previous relationship from their time together in Washington and have built on that this year. They talk all the time, with O'Connell saying Cousins is like an extension of him on the field. Cousins also gets a lot of autonomy at the line of scrimmage in this offense, perhaps more than he's had in the past. But as a quarterback, he still is who he is. He's a guy who will take care of the football and can make all of the throws when given time in the pocket, but he can still be a bit conservative at times and isn't someone who's going to create much outside of structure.
4. Where would you rank the Vikings wide receiver tandem of Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen among the elite in the NFL?
WR: I'm biased because I've covered every game in his career, but I think Jefferson is the best receiver in the NFL. He can simply do everything you want from a superstar at that position, and he has the numbers to back it up despite being just 23 years old. Thielen, though, has fallen off quite a bit from his peak years in 2017 and 2018. Now 32 years old, Thielen struggles to generate consistent separation and he has just one 100-yard performance in his past 23 games. He's still a nice veteran player to have, but K.J. Osborn might actually have a case as the Vikings' second-best receiver. I still might put the Jefferson-Thielen duo in the top five league-wide because of how dominant Jefferson is.
5. Why does it always seem that the Vikings play close games no matter what?
WR: I wish I knew the answer to that question. The Vikings played a historic number of close games last year and lost more than they won, which got Zimmer fired. After starting the year with a 23-7 win and a 24-7 loss, they've now played in three straight one-possession games, winning all of them. This Vikings team just hasn't put together four quarters of good football since the Week 1 win over the Packers. Sometimes they start slow and rally. Sometimes they start fast and then fade. Whatever the reason, these games seem to always end up close. Even facing a third-string QB in Skylar Thompson, there's little reason to expect anything different this week.
