The Minnesota Vikings traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to do battle against the reigning NFC champions. The Panthers are led by Cam Newton, the 2015 NFL MVP and averaged 34.4 points per game at home in 2015 (including the playoffs). On this day, however, it was the Vikings that stepped up to the challenge, winning by a final score of 22-10.
Playing without their starting quarterback, running back and left tackle, nearly every “expert” picked the Vikings to lose this week. Every analyst wanted to talk about how many key pieces the Vikings had lost to injury, yet nobody was talking about this defense, which was great last year and seems to have only improved this offseason.