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The Vikings defeated the Titans 23-13 on Sunday to improve to 8-2 on the season and finish off a 5-0 sweep of AFC teams (Texans, Jets, Colts, Jaguars and Titans) on this year's schedule

This is the second time in three seasons under Head Coach Kevin O'Connell that Minnesota has swept AFC foes (matching the 2022 squad that finished 13-4 on the season).

And although the game was played in the home state of Harrison Smith, Ty Chandler and Theo Jackson (and yours truly), there was a sea of purple in every level of seats at Nissan Stadium — a scene not lost on O'Connell.

"I do want to say I thought the turnout of our fans was unbelievable," O'Connell said. "One of the best parts about this job is seeing all the purple when we're on the road like that. It's an awesome feeling knowing we've got the best fan base in the National Football League."

The SKOL Chant that broke out in the fourth quarter was impressive.

Now, there are seven huge conference games remaining in the regular season, beginning with a trip to Chicago in Week 12 to close out this three-game road swing.

Let's get to some questions.

Hey guys, I wonder why the wheels came off the defense in the third quarter? Questionable offensive play calling in the fourth quarter — long incomplete passes rather than milking the clock? We had to work way too hard beat the Titans. Leave it to the Vikings to motivate [Will] Levis and make him think he could win the game? Below are my 3 Ups and 3 Downs for the game:

UPS:

1. The first quarter TD pass to [Jordan] Addison and the third-down completion to [Trent Sherfield, Sr.] on the scramble for a first down to end the first quarter; both were exceptional plays.

2. Very nice defensive series at the end of the half. Forced a punt and the punt receiver was obviously told not to field the ball — nicely done based on Packers lesson learned.

3. Two very nice defensive stands mid and end of fourth quarter. Plus, the game-sealing interception!

DOWNS:

1. First possession fumble. Not the way to start off.

2. Two more wasted timeouts on offense in the first half. First, a wasted timeout after a first down early in the second quarter. Followed by yet another wasted timeout after a first down at the 4-minute mark heading toward halftime? Par for the course.

3. Entire third quarter defense, especially the complete defensive breakdown on third-and-10 from the 2 for a 98-yard TD pass? Isn't Jefferson the only one allowed 97-plus-yard TD passes? Unforgivable.

Yet another ugly win. But I'll take it.

Looking forward to Da Bears.

— Respectfully, Jeff Ludwig

I'm not an expert QB evaluator, but I thought Darnold played one of his best games of the season, from the decisions to the escape acts to making plays on the move and placing most of the footballs in ideal locations.

He finished 20-of-32 passing for 246 yards with two touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 107.0. His day included a touchdown of 47 yards to Addison, hitting the receiver in stride and allowing him to zip through the secondary. After Addison left with cramps, Jalen Nailor replaced him and had a great opportunity for Darnold to add a 46-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that would have put the game away (or at least built on the 23-13 lead), but Nailor didn't bring it in.

The scramble and connection to Sherfield was great to see. Props to Sherfield and Ryan Wright working together to pin the Titans at their 2, even if Tennessee did follow with the 98-yard score that topped Jefferson's 97-yarder in Week 2.

It was cool to see Harrison Smith get another shot at an interception late in the game. The 35-year-old Tennessee native has 36 in his career. He walked out of the locker room with that football, as well as a game ball doled out from O'Connell.

I thought Levis made some nice throws and played tough, building on a good showing last week against the Chargers.

The Vikings defense, especially the front seven, really made a mark on the game, pressuring the Titans QB and getting the Titans off schedule with repeated tackles for loss.

O'Connell knows the value of timeouts, and there can be reasons he might have that may not be traditional.

When the Vikings moved back into the first round and drafted Dallas Turner, I was expecting a Will Anderson type of rookie season and to see his name on every single stat sheet and almost jumping off the sheet at me. Is there a reason that it seems like Dallas Turner is almost invisible? Or does he just seem to be invisible because the defense as a whole has been playing pretty consistent and borderline dominant as a whole? SKOL VIKES!

— Rob from Bears country Illinois

The Vikings became the first team in the NFL in 2024 to have three players with at least 7.0 sacks.

Andrew Van Ginkel (8.0) and Pat Jones II (7.0) already have set career highs for a single season, and Jonathan Greenard also has 7.0 (and continues to leave his fingerprints all over successful defensive plays.

I asked O'Connell directly about Jones' production (five tackles, 2.0 sacks, 3 tackles for loss and 5 QB hits) Sunday that matched or exceeded his impact earlier this season. In responding to my question, O'Connell answered your question and even brought up Turner before finishing his thoughts.

"Pat Jones? Yeah, he's so consistent. Rightly so. Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel get a ton of credit, as they should. They're playing outstanding football," O'Connell said. "J.G. (Greenard) is playing as well as anybody in the league, in my opinion. Gink' showing up again, now he's got a career high. Pat Jones has got a career high in sacks.

"I think it just shows the versatility of that group. Dallas Turner had some really nice rushes, as well, and just kind of athletic plays out there. That group as a whole is really a strength. Pair that with our safeties and our inside backers and we're really rolling our veteran corner play and we're getting a lot of good impactful snaps out of our interior D-line. [Tennessee is] a team that wants to run the ball. You got to get them into those, weightier third downs, longer distances and then try to get some pressure and get off the field or force a turnover."

Minnesota limited Tennessee to 1.7 yards per carry, the lowest average by the Vikings defense in a game since Week 3 of the 2011 season (according to NFL Media Research).

Turner didn't crack the stat sheet on Sunday, but he continues to develop with some great teammates and a scheme that has allowed 11 points per game in its past three contests.

Any "road win" is a good win! Respect & love to Kevin O'Connell, but someone has to tell him to cover his mouth when he's communicating to Darnold, and/or any communication to anyone on the sideline!!! I can read his lips, and I'm not even trained to do so! And, what I see on TV is only a very small portion of the overall communication he has between players & coaches! Teams have trained people to take advantage of this! This is so lackadaisical, as was the last play of the game! Why choose to hand the ball off to Aaron Jones, Sr., (inviting a potential injury) when every Vikings fan would have called for Sam to take a knee!!!??? Always room for improvement — BEAT THE BEARS! Skol!

— Randy Gronert

And …

We have not played our BEST yet. Turnovers have hurt us. When has Sam Darnold played on a team this good with this much at stake? I believe his best and our team's BEST is yet to come. Progress is more like a sundial than a light switch. I would like to limit turnovers and get more production out of our running game. Your thoughts.

— Gerald Goblirsch

I traveled separately from the team again this week to get to spend more time with family and friends in my home state, so I was working from the press box after the game and saw a shot of Chiefs Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo covering his mouth, but the camera angle was a profile view, so all the lip readers in the world could hone their craft.

As for the final run play, it was a third-and-3 snapped with 20 seconds remaining, and it lost a yard and added a tackle on Jones, who had been smushed by T'Vondre Sweat (listed at 366 pounds) early in the second half. Sweat pushed himself off the running back, which probably felt tremendous — not!

Tennessee still had one timeout at that time, so they could have forced the punt, but Tennessee just instead allowed the clock to run out. I guess O'Connell didn't know if the Titans would force the punt or not.

O'Connell and players talked about continuing to improve and believing that the team can continue ascending.

All know how important the final seven weeks of NFC games are to staying in the running (with a little help from someone against Detroit), and that starts next week in Chicago. O'Connell mentioned next week's game against the Bears (4-6), who had a 46-yard field goal blocked as time expired against the Packers (7-3), and Brian O'Neill also mentioned it when breaking the team down in the locker room.

"Got a divisional test on the road next week against a really tough Chicago team that we better put together really good week of prep, and that's what the NFC North is," O'Connell said. "That's what it is, and that's what we know is out in front of us. And honestly, Kevin, I do think it's just about not really looking too far ahead, but just we're a team that needs to improve and know that we're a good team. We have confidence in that. But that's been the name of the game all season long.

"It's just chasing constant improvement, understanding where we can improve based upon performances like today, where we do get the win," O'Connell added. "And keep stacking chances to win football games and then finding ways to do it."

The Titans entered the game ranked second in the NFL in yards allowed but 13^th in rushing yards allowed, so it would have been better to get more out of the run game, but that is a really stout group along the defensive line.

As O'Connell joked after the game, the AFC South is not lacking in its interior defensive line.

I like the sundial reference for progress.

The Detroit Lions beat the Jaguars 52 to 6. Vikings only by 13-7.

Detroit beat Titans 52-14, Vikings only 23-13.

Vikings offense needs to be much better, more of the time, like they were in the first five games, to get very far in postseason.

Can it be fixed?

SKOL and thanks,

— Gill Sorg in New Mexico

P.S.: my family and I had an awesome time in U.S. Bank against the Colts.

Although the Vikings wins over the Jaguars and Titans don't get as many style points as Detroit's, each game in the NFL is its own entity.

Tennessee gave Detroit the football five times at or inside its own 30-yard line. That's a bad combo. I obviously didn't watch the Lions-Jaguars game Sunday, but I expected that Jacksonville's defense would not be very fresh after spending more than 42 minutes on the field last week against the Vikings.

That's not to take anything away from the way the Lions have been winning their games, but Detroit and Minnesota have the same number of wins out of those games.

"It would probably be really fun for us to just steamroll the NFL every single week," O'Connell said. "That's just not the way it's going to go, which also, in my opinion, provides a lot of opportunity to grow and get better and understand exactly what happened on some of the plays that they made, either offense, defense or special teams, and coach and improve and just constantly chase that progression, knowing that we're a good football team through 10 games, we've won eight of them. We've got the right mindset, but I do believe our you know, hopefully our best football is ahead of us, because we're working toward that while also winning games."

Is it me or did the last two weeks look and sound like home games?

Skol from Albert Lea, Minnesota

— Dan J.

We noted it earlier, but I just wanted to reiterate that I continue to be amazed at the way the Vikings fans travel, and I've seen it for years. It was really cool to be able to have family members and friends at Sunday's game.