The Minnesota Vikings will be facing Jalen Hurts, who is coming off a decent performance in the Philadelphia Eagles‘ loss to the New York Giants in Week 6.
Hurts recorded 283 passing yards while completing 72.7 percent of his passes for one touchdown and one interception. Nonetheless, the Eagles fell and will look for a bounce-back win against the Vikings.
Javon Hargrave is a player on the Minnesota squad who is familiar with Hurts. He recently spoke with Vikings Entertainment Network’s Tatum Everett about ensuring his former teammate has a quiet game.
“We just all got to be one with great communication,” Hargrave said about containing Hurts. “We know if he get out that pocket, he’s Superman out there. So, we kind of got to work as a unit to try to keep him in that pocket and don’t let him be able to make a lot of plays.”
Vikings Will Need to Account for Tush Push
When playing against the Eagles, every defense needs to account for the tush push play. Hargrave has experienced both sides of the coin—he’s benefited from the tush push play and now faces the challenge of defending against it.
“It’s just funny because when I was on that side playing with them I love to play,” Hargrave added. “But of course I’m with everybody else. I kind of hate the play. I think the only way you really can stop it is just don’t let them get down there. So we just trying to talk about those things.”
Carson Wentz to Start for Vikings
While the Vikings defense are preparing for Hurts, the question heading into this matchup was who would Minnesota pick to start this game against Philadelphia under center. Despite J.J. McCarthy returning to practice in a limited role, head coach Kevin O’Connell named Carson Wentz the starting quarterback for Week 7.
“I think as opposed to maybe having to designate and list a running back or a receiver, if we get into that situation, I feel comfortable enough in what would be considered that kind of emergency capacity to be able to call some [plays],” said O’Connell (h/t A to Z Sports).
“I feel good after watching him practice about some of the things that give him some problems at this point but at the same time, some of the things he feels really good about from a movement standpoint, whether it’s in the run game or the pass game, some of the things he feels good about, and him and I will go through a lot of those things.
“And he got a ton of reps this week, both with the first group, and also with getting some real good reps with that look team of feeling the rush of [Jonathan] Greenard and [Dallas] Turner and [Javon] Hargrave and [Jonathan] Allen and really working on some things that are really starting to come to fruition. So, I was proud of the way he attacked the week, and I know, although he knows he’s not quite all the way there yet, he’s progressing in a really good way.”
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