Keenum makes case for staying in lineup
MINNEAPOLIS — Case Keenum sure took it to his old team.
He gave the Vikings another reminder of his ability for good measure, with his status as the starting quarterback still not secure.
Latavius Murray rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns, Adam Thielen turned a short catch into a 65- yard score and Minnesota smothered the NFL’s highest- scoring offense in a 24- 7 win over the Rams on Sunday.
Keenum completed 27 of 38 passes for 280 yards and no turnovers against the team that benched him last season for No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff. Keenum guided the Vikings ( 8- 2) to their sixth straight victory in a matchup of division leaders.
“I’m not at my best if I’m using a percentage of my mind in worry about other things,” he said, “so I shut that out and I come out to play.”
For another week, Keenum kept the Teddy Bridgewater talk on the back burner.
“It’s going to be hard to yank him out of there right now,” Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer said. “I still have really high hopes for Teddy, and a lot of things happen throughout the course of the season, so we’ll just see how it goes.”
Minnesota’s defense started the second half by forcing four punts in a row by the Rams ( 7- 3), who managed just two first downs on those possessions. Los Angeles, which entered the week with a league- best third- down conversion rate of 46.7 percent, was 3- for- 11 against the Vikings.
“Football is really simple: You line up the man in front of you. You beat him,” said Minnesota defensive end Everson Griffen, who returned from a foot injury.
The Los Angeles defense was trampled in the second half for 288 yards, and Keenum went without a sack for the sixth game this season. Thielen handed him the longest touchdown pass of his career by turning a curl route early in the fourth quarter into a game- breaking score after spinning past cornerback Dominique Hatfield. Injuries took two of Los Angeles’ top three cornerbacks out of the game for the second half.
“We talk about it every single week that you’ve got to be ready to go, because it is a very humbling league,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said, “and I felt we got humbled today by a very good team.”
Thielen finished with 123 yards on six receptions, giving him 916 yards this season. The only player in Minnesota history to reach 900 yards receiving by the 10- game mark was Randy Moss, who did it in 2000 and 2003.
Thielen’s connection with Keenum has been especially strong, with Keenum continually finding Thielen open even with the pressure on.
“We get the same Case every week: a guy who just prepares and busts his tail and is in there in the quarterback room before everybody else is probably waking up,” Thielen said. “Just the way he prepares, it’s pretty inspiring.”