FLAT OUT UGLY

BROWNS 14

VIKINGS 7

Week 4 was like having an ice cold bucket of water dumped on your head as a Vikings fan.

Even at 1-2, two things really had me and a lot of other fans excited about this team. One was the big improvement of the offensive line. The other was the much improved playcalling of rookie OC Klint Kubiak.

Those two things completely fell apart in a deeply ugly football game on Sunday afternoon. Kirktober turned spooky.

The first drive looked to be more of the same from last week. Against Seattle we controlled the football for long drives. First drive here it happened again. Another long drive that featured a good play mix, and ended with a Kirk to JJ dart.

The Browns had their own long opening drive, which ended inside our 10. Kevin Stefanski opted to go for the 4th down, and Sack Daddy got a big sack on Baker Mayfield.

The whole game turned very defense minded. A couple three and outs happened. Zimmer opted to pass on a long field goal for his own 4th down gamble in Browns territory, but a pass for Thielen fell incomplete.

The Browns again drove down inside our 10 and set up maybe the key sequence.of the game. 1st and goal at the 5 became 4th and goal at the 2. We flushed Mayfield out and forced an incompletion and a turnover on dow...what? A flag?

Yes, a defensive holding flag on Kendricks. An absolute HORSESHIT call. And it gave Cleveland a fresh set of downs at the 1. Even then it took til 3rd down to score. Then the refs called a delay of game penalty on us, claiming a Viking called a timeout we didn't have. I guess we will take their word on that (🙄). But it gave Cleveland a chance to take the ball at the 1 and go for the 2 point conversion. Which they did, and which they got. So the phantom flag on Kendricks cost us 8 points.

A more self-damaging mistake came right before the half. We go 3 and out, our offense having fully sputtered. Cleveland gets the ball but after a grounding call so obvious the refs couldn't not call it, and another incompletion it was 3rd and 20 at their own 26 and with no timeouts you figured Cleveland would just run out the clock. Which they appeared to do by handing the ball to Kareem Hunt...who then ran for 33 yards. AND got out of bounds.. Just an unacceptable mistake by a defense that otherwise had a good day. It led to a field goal and an 11-7 lead.

It wasn't THAT discouraging yet. The Vikings had been better in the 2nd halves of all 3 games this year. Just do it again and get the win. Except being better in the 2nd half means you make adjustments. That never occurred on Sunday, at least on one side of the ball. 

Zimmer's defense got after it in the 2nd half. The Browns first 4 drives of the half never got further than just inside the 50. The run was contained. Mayfield was pressured. Secondary was strong. They kept giving the offense chances. 

And the offense kept squandering them.

It felt so helpless. A 4 point game came to feel like a lost cause. At no point did the offensive line start blocking, for either the pass or run. At no point did Klint Kubiak appear to make any changes to either try to minimize the blocking problem or to work around it. It's a sad story that spans years and coordinators. And even quarterbacks. Norv Turner screwed over Sam Bradford this same way. Is it stubbornness or stupidity? 

Occasionally Kirk would make a throw, but it was usually just him chucking a ball up somewhere. His no interception streak ended late in the 4th when he went for broke, bombing one deep to Thielen that got picked.

Along the way Cleveland did tack on a field goal, but 4 or 7 it didn't seem to matter what the deficit was. And when on 4th and 3 with a couple minutes left the line yet again got Kirk swarmed immediately and forced a desperation toss that fell incomplete I gave up and left.

I ended up watching on a concourse TV as the Vikings somehow got one last chance. Kirk got them within striking distance, but his final endzone toss fell incomplete. It did so largely because Thielen was getting mugged in the endzone, but whatever. The refs couldn't not stick it to us one more time. Especially when a Vikings TD would cover the spread.

So an endlessly frustrating afternoon ended with the Vikings sitting at 1-3 when they are better than that. They are easily the best 1-3 team in the league, but that's hollow consolation when you are also now 2 games back of the Packers. The season is far from over, despite what the Fire Zimmers, the Kirk Haters, and the Tank Nazis all insist. It's especially nauseating to have this loss energize all the worst people in this fanbase and media. 

But I agree with Zimmer. This is a good team. I am still open minded on Kubiak (this was still just his 4th game ever calling plays) but he simply has to do better at giving his QB a chance when the OL is not at the level it was the last couple weeks. Other dangerous pass rushes will be faced. Leaving Kirk to die in an ever collapsing pocket then won't do anyone any good. Zimmer is already getting this defense into a more than competitive state (41 points the last 10 quarters against these offenses is excellent). That should only improve if Anthony Barr ever gets back.

I still think this team wins their next 2 games and heads into the bye at .500. The vultures will just have to wait.