This should be a great football game with two teams that play exactly the same way.  Both teams are great defensive teams that are going with veteran backup QBs with great running games.  Gus Frerotte was efficient in his first start last week and he will have to throw the ball a lot on first and second down to open up some running lanes for Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor against the Titans’ defense which is allowing only 89.0 yards rushing per game and 3.7 yards per carry.  Frerotte will have to be careful when throwing the ball as the Titans already have 11 sacks and 7 interceptions this season.

The Titans will also have to throw the ball to open up holes for the running game as the Vikings only allow 70.3 yards rushing per game and 3.2 yards per carry.  Still, the Titans will want to run the ball with rookie RB Chris Johnson and LenDale White but they will have to fight for every single yard.  The Titans’ offensive line has played great this season as the Titans are averaging 156.0 yards rushing per game this season and Titans’ QBs have only been sacked 2 times this year.  With that in mind look for Collins to attack the safeties of the Vikings with TE Bo Scaife and the corners with WRs Justin Gage and Justin McCareins.

PREDICTION:  TENNESSEE TITANS 17, MINNESOTA VIKINGS 14

The switch to Gus Frerotte at QB worked out well last Sunday.  He completed 16 of 28 passes for 204 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 interception.  Adrian Peterson carried the ball 17 times for 77 yards (4.5 ypc) against the Panthers as the Vikings tried to watch his workload due to injury.  Chester Taylor pitched in with 11 carries for 44 yards (4.0 ypc) and he also caught 3 passes for 22 yards (7.3 avg).  Bernard Berrian finally has a QB that can get him the football as he caught 3 passes for 79 yards (26.3 avg).  The Vikings finished up with 119 yards on 32 carries (3.7 ypc) and they also completed 16 of 28 passes for 186 yards.

The defense was outstanding for the Vikings last Sunday.  Linebacker E.J. Henderson led the way for the Vikings with 12 tackles.  Fellow linebacker Chad Greenway also had a solid game finishing with 9 tackles and a sack.  CB Antoine Winfield had 2 tackles and a sack that caused a fumble that he returned 19 yards for a TD.  The Panthers finished up with only 47 yards rushing on 20 carries (2.4 ypc) and they also completed 17 of 29 passes for 157 yards.  The Vikings improved to 1-2 on the season with this win.

These are two football teams going in opposite directions right now as the Panthers are 2-0 while the Vikings are 0-2.  This will be interesting to watch as the Panthers’ running game is working well (128.0 yards rushing per game, 4.3 ypc) but the Vikings have a great run defense (82.0 yards per game, 3.6 ypc).  With that in mind look for the Panthers to throw a lot on first down.  That could be a problem for the Vikings who are allowing 244.5 yards passing per game.  If Jake Delhomme has time to throw the Vikings will be in trouble because Steve Smith is officially back.  Mushin Muhammad, D.J. Hackett and TE Dante Rosario are all other decent weapons in the passing game for the Panthers.  Still, don’t expect an all-out passing attack out of the Panthers as they really like what RBs Jonathan Stewart (130 yards) and DeAngelo Williams (117 yards) are doing on the ground for them this season.

The Vikings finally woke up and benched Tarvaris Jackson who is an awful QB.  Even with an outstanding running game he still couldn’t throw the football.  With Adrian Peterson a little iffy for this game the Vikings might have to lean on Chester Taylor at RB.  He’s more than capable of having a big game if Peterson can’t go.  No matter which RB gets the football the Vikings should have some success on the ground as they are averaging 183.5 yards rushing per game and 5.4 ypc and that was with no threat of a passing game.  As soon as the Vikings establish the running game look for Gus Frerotte to run some play action passes and attempt to get the ball deep to speedster Bernard Berrian.

PREDICTION:  CAROLINA PANTHERS 20, MINNESOTA VIKINGS 17

The Vikings have benched QB Tarvaris Jackson and they have replaced him with veteran Gus Frerotte.  This was the right move for the Vikings to make as they couldn’t keep waiting around for Jackson to do something.  Jackson started both games this season for the Vikings and he completed 30 of 59 passes (50.8%) for 308 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 interception (64.8 QB Rating).  He also carried the football 10 times for 66 yards (6.6 ypc) and lost a fumble.  The Vikings only averaged 154.0 yards passing per game and 17 points per game in the first two games of the season and that just isn’t good enough.  Frerotte should be able to get the ball to the WRs as most teams cheat against the Vikings with 8 or 9 men in the box.

Hopefully the Vikings learned a tough lesson yesterday…….that you can’t sit on a lead in the NFL, especially when you’re playing against a Hall of Fame QB.  The Vikings were leading this game 15-0 in the third quarter as they kept trying to run the clock out instead of trying to score more points and that strategy was fatal in the end.  Tarvaris Jackson had another bad game completing 14 of 24 passes for 130 yards and he lost a fumble.  Adrian Peterson was awesome as usual as he rushed for 160 yards on 29 carries (5.5 ypc) and he also caught 4 passes for 20 yards (5.0 avg).  Chester Taylor pitched in with 4 carries for 18 yards (4.5 ypc) yesterday.  The Vikings finished up with 180 yards rushing on 35 carries (5.1 ypc) and they also completed 14 of 24 passes for 119 yards.

The Vikings’ Defense was awesome against the run yesterday and they were good against the pass until the 4th quarter and it helped cost them this game.  Linebackers Chad Greenway (6 tackles) and E.J. Henderson (6 tackles, sack) led the way for the Vikings’ D yesterday.  CB Cedric Griffin also pitched in with 6 tackles against the Colts.  The Colts finished up with only 25 yards rushing on 19 carries (1.3 ypc) but they completed 26 of 42 passes for 296 yards.  The Vikings are now 0-2 despite the fact that they probably have played well enough to be 2-0.