The Arizona Cardinals face a Minnesota Vikings team in Week 2 that parallels the Tennessee Titans, whom they faced and beat in Week 1.
Minnesota has a running back in Dalvin Cook who is as talented as Tennessee’s Derrick Henry. Cook was No. 2 in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns to Henry last year.
The Titans have A.J. Brown and Julio Jones.
The Vikings have Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen.
At quarterback, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousin should be considered at least as good as Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill.
Tennessee had a shake defense in 2020 and struggled out the gate against the Cardinals. Minnesota’s issues last year were on defense and they struggled in Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
However, the Vikings offer a different challenge. They have a stronger pass rush than the Titans. The Titans had the third-fewest sacks in the league last season. The addition of Bud Dupree and the health of Harold Landry were supposed to help that. They had two sacks against the Cardinals, although one was when Kyler Murray ran out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage.
The Vikings have Danielle Hunter, who had 14.5 each of the last two seasons. As a team, they sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow five times.
Obviously, if the Cardinals do defensively what they did in Tennessee, they will be well on their way to a victory, but on offense, they will need to make sure they don’t let the Vikings get to Murray and disrupt the passing game.
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