On a critical third-down play in the third quarter Sunday, Carolina quarterback Cam Newton again locked onto his standout rookie wide receiver, Kelvin Benjamin.

He knew Benjamin would be lined up against cornerback Xavier Rhodes. And despite having no success attacking Rhodes to that point, Newton decided to try his luck another time.

At 6-5 and 240 pounds, Benjamin has the sheer size and wingspan to moonlight as an NBA forward. But Benjamin could not box out Rhodes, who darted in front of the rookie to get both hands on the ball, only to have it pop out of his grasp as the two wrestled for it.

A day later, Rhodes would lament simply knocking the pass down, saying that an interception there could have been a "game-changer" in a 31-13 victory for the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium.

But while he might not yet have the interceptions he needs for personal validation, Rhodes already has become a game-changer for the Vikings by blanketing some of the NFL's most productive pass-catchers, from Benjamin to Brandon Marshall to Jordy Nelson. And if Rhodes can start hanging onto a few interceptions like the one that had him slapping the artificial surface in frustration Sunday, quarterbacks such as Newton might start avoiding him all together.

"I don't know if he's the most improved player that we have, but he's improved an awful lot throughout the course of this season," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. "I think his confidence level, his technique, the way he competes [have improved]."

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Stats back him up

On Sunday, Newton threw to a receiver defended by Rhodes seven times. Rhodes got his hands on three of those passes and didn't allow a single completion. A pair of pass breakups in the third quarter might not have changed a game that the Vikings had under wraps, but they prevented the Panthers from making things interesting.

That shutout performance came a week after Rhodes allowed only two catches for 18 yards against the Green Bay Packers and their talented trio of wide receivers, led by Nelson. And two weeks after the Chicago Bears wisely chose to try to exploit other matchups.

In fact, in this second half of the season, Rhodes has been one of the NFL's stingiest corners.

Since Week 9, he has allowed only seven catches for 98 yards with one interception, according to Pro Football Focus. Opposing quarterbacks have a 29.5 passer rating when targeting him in coverage. And his rate of one reception allowed for every 21.3 snaps that he is in coverage is best in the league over that span, ahead of even established shutdown corners such as Richard Sherman and Darrelle Revis, who also rank in the top five in that category.

Second-year star

Rhodes flashed glimpses of this kind of performance during his rookie season, but he has shown it more consistently this season.

"My rookie year I was just overthinking things, getting the gist of the game and the speed of the game," said Rhodes, who was a first-round pick in 2013. "Now that I did a year, I'm comfortable. I can just go out and have fun and get to play and do what I do best."

It also helped that he has been a pet project of Zimmer, whose expertise is the secondary.

Way back at the start of organized team activities in the spring, when the new coach and his players were getting acquainted, Zimmer often kept an eye on Rhodes and didn't hesitate to bark at the youngster when he didn't like what he was seeing. While Rhodes is a quiet, reserved player, he doesn't mind having Zimmer and secondary coach Jerry Gray always in his earhole.

"I love that," Rhodes said. "That lets me know that they care, and they want me to be better."

Balancing point

Tentative at times a season ago, Rhodes is playing more instinctively and often with more aggression, though he is learning to dial that back a little bit to avoid taking costly penalties.

"I found a happy medium," Rhodes said. "Now I'm learning. I know how and when to let go and not be so aggressive at a certain point in the game and I'm learning the rules."

Rhodes needs to continue to elevate his play and then perform at that level consistently to be viewed in the same light as a Sherman or Revis, and picking off more than one pass in a season would help. But he has brought reliability to the right cornerback spot, which is quite welcome given the team's struggles defending the pass the previous couple of seasons. He has played 93 percent of the defensive snaps in 2014 and is tied for third in the NFL with 14 passes defended.

"Not only his technique [has improved], but also his confidence in understanding, really, what we're trying to get done," Zimmer said. "I try to preach to these guys every day in practice, don't let your guy catch the ball. I think that mentality is starting to show up a little bit with him."