Wherefore art thou defense?

Rams 38
Vikings 31

Shades of 2015. The Vikings suffer a blowout at home(then Seattle, last week Buffalo), then go on the road for a Thursday night game at one of the league's best(then Arizona, tonight LA). Then they give that team a hell of a fight, only to lose on a game ending strip sack.

The season is not lost. Far from it. Even if they lose at Philly, a 1-3-1 record will.not doom them in this division. BUT.....the Super Bowl dreams can not possibly live on if we continue to see what we are seeing from this once proud defense.

They were solid against the 49ers, then just ok against Green Bay but made big stops to keep hopes alive. But this unit has now cratered 2 weeks in a row. Now, the whole damn team imploded against Buffalo, but tonight the offense was back on track.

And the defense got worse.

Now yes, we must acknowledge that the Rams are a budding juggernaut, a team loaded with weapons, who already lit up 3 other teams before tonight and likely will light up a bunch of other teams this year. But this defensive performance tonight was grotesque. I saw some hideous defenses in 2011 and 2013. Zimmer came in here and fixed this up. And now this unit loaded with PROVEN talent seems utterly incompetent.

They at least made a couple stops in the 2nd half, but forget all that. Mike Zimmer was schooled by Sean McVay in that 1st half. It was the NFC title game all over again. Everybody was open all over the field. Gurley got chunks on every run. The Rams needed barely 9 minutes of possession to score 28 points. Jared Goff had a perfect passer rating.

What the hell has happened here? Sure some regression by the defense was inevitable this year, but the last 2 weeks they are just not credible. I'm not sure if there is any historical precedent for a great defense going bad this abruptly. It makes no sense. Zimmer came in here in 2014 and INSTANTLY turned the worst Vikings defense I've ever seen into a credible unit. Then in 2015 that unit got us to the playoffs, in 2016 kept the team at least competitive amidst the injury disaster, and in 2017 blossomed into the kind of group that could get Case Keenum deep in the playoffs.

Shit went sideways in Philadelphia, and it's never gone back. Xavier Rhodes has gone from an elite corner to a mess, who gets rattled and kicks penalty flags. Trae Waynes has gone backwards. Anthony Barr...good God. Thank the lord Spielman never gave him an extension. Now, he shouldn't be covering speedy wide receivers to begin with. That's on Zimmer. But when did he become so god damn slow? Is he not trying? It's not unthinkable. Nobody seems to have any awareness of what they are doing anymore. We had 3 easy picks tonight if guys simply are aware of what's happening. I cannot explain how a defensive unit filled mostly with proven great players can go this south this completely this fast.

It's bizarro world. Now we have an offense that can go toe to toe with the best on the road, but we can't stop anybody. Kirk Cousins balled the fuck out tonight. His offensive line failed him in the 2nd half(Rieff was embarrassing on the strip sack), but Kirk was even better than he was at Lambeau. It is so much fun to watch Kirk and Thielen and Diggs and Rudy and even Quon and now Robinson air it out. The run game is still an issue, but at least they stuck with it a little. But when you get stuck in a track meet you have to match score for score, and quickly.

This club can go to 1-3-1 and still have a playoff season. This offense is good enough, and the schedule manageable enough, and this division soft enough to still make a run. I completely reject the notion that this is 2010 or 2016 all over again. But I went ahead and picked this team to finally win it all cause we had a really good defense, and we no longer have that. I don't understand why. I don't completely dismiss the idea that Zimmer is capable of figuring this thing out. I'm sure at some point when he ran the Bengals D they hit a bad stretch.

I hate that they came as close as they did tonight to a major win and couldn't come through. I think it's clear the Griffen situation had a lot to do with the total team no show last week. Tonight was a much closer representation of what this team is, but that includes the defense and that's the problem.

I guess it's time to get used to shootouts.