The Sports Xchange

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – It appears that the table is set nicely for the 2-2 Minnesota Vikings as they return to action at home after a week off and take on the Kansas City Chiefs, who are still reeling from the effects of losing to the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

Not only did that loss leave the Chiefs at 1-4, it left them without their best offensive weapon, prolific running back Jamaal Charles, who is out for the season with a torn ACL in his right knee.

Sounds like a good situation for the Vikings, who are 7-3 at home under coach Mike Zimmer. But Zimmer himself refuses take the bait.

“We’re not good enough to overlook the Chiefs,” Zimmer said Monday as the Vikings reconvened at Winter Park for a short practice. “We’ve only won two games so no, not at all. Our focus is on us and what we do and how we need to win and how we need to play and how we need to get better.”

The Vikings are relatively healthy, although they are still down two starters on the offensive line and practiced Monday without their top two receivers. Charles Johnson, who missed the Broncos game last week because of a rib injury, spent Monday jogging and working with athletic trainers off to the side.

Meanwhile, the team’s top receiver, Mike Wallace, was not at the portion of practice open to the media. He also missed last week’s lone bye week practice because of an injury Zimmer won’t disclose.

Overall, Zimmer was pleased with how the team practiced on Monday. That’s noteworthy because last year’s team always was sluggish and unfocused after long breaks. Last year, the team came out of its bye and lost to the Bears 21-13 in Chicago.

“We got off to a slow start [Monday], but we picked it up pretty good, I thought,” Zimmer said.

The Vikings are 2-0 at home and 0-2 on the road this season. They are coming off a 23-20 loss at Denver that was encouraging for how competitive it was despite Denver’s seven sacks. The offense scored 10 points off two Peyton Manning interceptions, but there were too many mistakes to overcome, such as the sacks, a 38-yard missed field goal and a 72-yard touchdown run allowed.

After a narrow loss at Denver, it’s only natural to look at the schedule and notice that the next five games are against teams with losing records (Chiefs, at Lions, at Bears, Rams, at Raiders).

But Zimmer is right. The Vikings haven’t reached the point where they can assume victory over anybody anywhere.

REPORT CARD AFTER FOUR GAMES

–PASSING OFFENSE: D plus. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had his worst game as a professional in the 20-3 season-opening loss at San Francisco and one of his more encouraging second halves under extreme duress in the 23-20 Week 4 loss at Denver. In between, the passing game was mostly along for the ride in consecutive home wins over the Lions and Chargers. The pass protection was weak in the two losses, particularly at Denver, where Bridgewater was sacked seven times. Mike Wallace is emerging as a go-to receiver with a team-high 20 catches. Charles Johnson, last year’s No. 1 receiver by default, has been quiet with six catches and has missed the past seven quarters because of a rib injury. Cordarrelle Patterson, the former first-round draft pick, is still lost. He has been targeted twice and has two catches for 10 yards. He’s easily the sixth receiver now that even rookie fourth-round draft pick Stefon Diggs has moved ahead of him with a head-turning performance in his NFL debut at Denver.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: B-minus. Adrian Peterson is back. Whether the offensive line and the coaching staff’s commitment to the run will be there to consistently support him remains to be seen. Through four games, Peterson led the NFL with 372 yards while averaging 5.0 yards per carry with three touchdowns. In the home wins over Detroit (26-16) and San Diego (31-14), Peterson carried the offense with 260 yards and two touchdowns on 49 carries (5.3). But in the opener, he had only 10 carries. And at Denver, he had 16 carries while the Vikings threw the ball 20 more times than they ran it. Peterson’s touchdown burst of 48 yards on fourth-and-inches was vintage Peterson. But Denver held him to 33 yards on his other 15 carries.

–PASS DEFENSE: B. The Vikings have four interceptions, including a 91-yard touchdown return by linebacker Chad Greenway. Linebacker Anthony Barr and safety Harrison Smith kept the Denver game close by intercepting Peyton Manning and helping the offense post 10 points. Barr’s pick came in the closing seconds of the first half, turning what could have been a 20-3 deficit into a 13-10 deficit. Smith’s pick came late in the game and led to a game-tying field goal. Right end Everson Griffen is leading a disruptive pass rush once again with three sacks. The Vikings were particularly aggressive and rough with Detroit’s Matthew Stafford and San Diego’s Philip Rivers in Weeks 2-3.

–RUSH DEFENSE: D plus. The Vikings lost the opener because their defensive front got manhandled by a 49ers team that’s 0-4 since. San Francisco ran for 230 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries (5.9). In the Week 4 loss to Denver, the Vikings gave up a 72-yard touchdown run to Ronnie Hillman on a simple power toss sweep. The Broncos went into the game as the only 3-0 team in NFL history without yielding at least 70 yards rushing in an entire game. In between, the run defense was stellar. But the Lions had 38 yards on 16 carries primarily because they show no interest in running the ball. The Chargers had 90 yards, but needed to throw more as the game slipped away from them.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C. The confidence in kicker Blair Walsh is at its lowest point since 2012 when he earned All-Pro honors as a rookie. He has missed a makeable kick in three of the team’s four games. He pushed a 44-yard attempt in the opener and a point-after in Week 2. In Week 4, he hooked a 38-yarder. Those are his only misses, but they’re enough to be considered a slump. Punter Jeff Locke is off to a good start with a few hiccups and played his best game in Week 4. His 41.4 net includes nine punts downed inside the 20. Punt returner Marcus Sherels is quietly steady as always with a 10.3 average. Meanwhile, opponents have returned only five punts for four yards (0.8). Kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson is averaging 24.3 yards, but he’s too daring and sloppy when it comes to taking every kick he gets his hands on out of the end zone. Sometimes, he just needs to take a knee.

–COACHING: C-plus. A large chunk of the debacle in San Francisco can be laid at the feet of the coaching staff. Yes, it was a terrible twist of scheduling having to play a 49ers team in a late Monday night start in the season opener. But the Vikings were so flat, they were unrecognizable. On the flip side, in the week four loss at Denver, perhaps not Vikings team in memory fought harder than this one did for coach Mike Zimmer. The Broncos had a far superior roster in terms of talent and they were at home — where they enjoy a 24-2 record with quarterback Peyton Manning. In between those games, give the coaching staff credit for knowing what it took to overwhelm the Lions and Chargers at TCF Bank Stadium, where Zimmer is 7-3. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner leaned on Peterson and the running game while Zimmer and defensive coordinator George Edwards dialed up extra pressure on the quarterbacks.