DROPPING OUT

RAMS 30

VIKINGS 23

On the day after Christmas, the 2021 Vikings gave us all a big lump of coal, reducing their playoff odds into the realm of needing a miracle, and likely signaling the end of this era of Vikings football. Jobs are most definitely going to be lost in a couple weeks.

Like all of the 8 losses this year, this was winnable. No, we never had it in our grasp. We never even led. But all throughout the game there were plays to be made....and we didn't make them. Coaching, players just not getting it done, officiating, luck, cruel fate. Mix it all up and you end up with just a dispiriting day.

Maybe I'm the idiot. I saw the very bad offensive gameplan that Klint Kubiak rolled out there in Chicago. But even with Dalvin Cook on the COVID list I figured he couldn't possibly mail it in like that again this week with the season on the line. With his own career on the line. But he did.

The offense was mostly terrible in the first half, but the story to that point was missed opportunities for big plays. The Rams very first drive should have ended near midfield with a Cameron Dantzler pick...but Dantzler dropped the ball. Gifted a reprieve, the Rams went and scored a touchdown to take a lead they would never give back.

The Vikings 1 good drive of the half should have tied the game. But on 3rd and goal, Kirk zipped a pass to KJ Osborn at the goal line. The ball was right on KJ's hands, but not only did he not make the catch, the ball went up in the air and was intercepted. Any points here would have been crucial later on.

The Rams pushed the lead to 10-0, while the Vikings offense remained dormant. Our OL was getting schooled by Aaron Donald, who spent more time in our backfield than Kirk. 

Matthew Stafford kept throwing ducks (we dropped 2 more picks in the half, including one in the endzone), and we did finally get one when Anthony Barr picked him off deep in Rams territory. But the offense immediately went backwards and only got a field goal.

A 13-3 halftime deficit felt like more, especially with the Rams getting the ball in the 3rd and figuring to clean it up on offense. But Stafford kept throwing ducks. On the 2nd play of the 2nd half Stafford launched a deep shot that wound up being easily intercepted by Xavier Woods. 

Still, our offense went nowhere. We punt, then a tipped pass resulted in Barr's 2nd pick of the day. This one set us up at the Rams 2. Even we couldn't screw this one up, and Mattison grinded it in to make it 13-10.

Stafford's ineptitude continued on the next series, when he badly missed a wide open receiver on 3rd down and the Rams punted.

The Vikings finally had the ball with a chance to go take the lead. And if we did, Stafford would be forced into throwing it more. But in moments that momentum was gone. We go 3 and out, including a most ill-timed false start, and have to punt...which gets returned 61 yards for a backbreaking touchdown.

We drove 83 yards right after this, but stalled inside the 10 and only got 3. By now, Sean McVay had figured out that since we couldn't stop the run that he could just do that, and the Rams drove right down the field, then let O'Dell Beckham get so wide open in the endzone that even Stafford couldn't miss him. 27-13. Hope dwindling.

We also got royally screwed around midfield on the drive, when the refs decided forward progress.was stopped on a play where Cooper Kupp clearly fumbled, a play that would have been a fumble return touchdown and maybe the biggest play of the season. Cause God forbid a single Vikings defeat goes by without a huge game changing blown call going against us. 

But the 2021 Vikings can't not torture us by giving us hope, so after another day of ultra conservative playcalling, for once Kubiak opened it up. We only needed 7 plays to zip down the field for a Kirk to KJ TD and it was again a 1 score game. Imagine that. Having a mid-range passing game when your OL is not playing well can be super useful! Shit like this proves these coaches know what to do and even how to do it, yet literally choose not to for reasons that will never make sense to me. 

Still, it proved to be too late. By the time the Vikings offense touched the ball again, the game was basically over. The Rams took over 6 minutes off the clock, converted 3 3rd downs, including a 37 yard Kupp dagger on 3rd and 6. By the time we stopped them it didn't matter. They kicked a chip shot field goal and it was a 2 score game again, and we didn't have time to come back.

We moved into field goal range, and Joseph hit, but the onside kick didn't go our way, because why would it? And the Vikings 8th loss of the year was official.

The demise of this season has come in stages. You think they're in trouble at 1-3, then they get back to .500. You think they're screwed after dropping back to 3-5 then put together big wins in LA and over Green Bay. Then they lose to the fucking Lions, but bounce back with 2 wins and find themselves in a playoff spot heading into today.

But just like they got too far behind too often today, they are flat out out of time. Only 2 games remain. One is in Green Bay, against a Packers team still trying to clinch home field. And you need help, and the amount of help needed is the amount of help that teams just never get. Certainly not a Vikings team nearing the end of one of the most snakebit seasons in the history of the franchise. We might not even be mathematically alive by kickoff next week.

Does it even matter anymore who is to blame for a specific play or a specific loss? I think the coaching staff has completely let the team down this year over and over. The same issues almost every week, issues that Zimmer himself often either doesn't see or doesn't see as issues. But I also think this team has been repeatedly screwed by the refs and just by luck too, not to mention selfish stupidity, as covidiocy robs us of Dalvin Cook for a must win game.

It's just been a doomed season. And now we still get to more than likely get eliminated on national TV by our most hated rival.

Bah fucking humbug.