It's Happening Again

RAMS 30

VIKINGS 20

No. This can't be. It can't be happening again...can it?

Is it 2016 all over again, when the Vikings surprisingly started 5-0, with a couple impressive wins over good teams, only to then have their bye and come out of said bye as a terrible team that plummeted to a 3-8 finish? 

Well, these Vikings are following those steps. They started 5-0, and with some of those wins really good ones. Then they had the bye...and have exited the bye not looking at all like the team they were. 

What a horrible week. 

The Sunday loss to the Lions was more annoying and unfortunate than worrisome.

But what happened Thursday night was something much more alarming. And yeah, it's looking like we may really be in for another collapse.

The Vikings loss to the Rams was the kind of loss that forever alters seasons, in more ways than one.

Following their usual pattern, the Vikings offense did start fast. Darnold fed JJ, Jones ran well, and the OL was a wall. The first two drives both ended in TD throws (to the unusual pair of Josh Oliver and Trent Sherfield). 

But the defense, unfortunately, picked up where they left off against the Lions. Matthew Stafford, conveniently with both of his top WRs healthy, had no trouble at all matching TD for TD. Most grotesque was the 2nd one, where Stafford managed to pull a Houdini act and elude sacks from both Grennard and Phillips, and fire a pass to a wide open receiver for the score.

The majority of the 2nd quarter was a mess of flags and punts. The Vikings offense followed their hot start by again disappearing, plagued by penalties.

The most damaging moment of the entire half came right at the end, during a seemingly innocuous play. Pinned deep and needing to just kill the clock, Jones had a short run. But during that play, Christian Darrisaw got his leg rolled up on in ugly fashion. He had to be helped off the field and was done for the game, and given the apparent severity of the injury, perhaps the whole season. It was a devastating blow for a team that had been avoiding the big injury so far.

After halftime, not much changed. The defense remained a siv, generating zero pressure on Stafford despite facing an OL full of backups. Puka Nacua was consistently left wide open all over the field. Whoever held the ball for the Rams routinely gained yards after contact, of we even bothered to tackle at all.

Byron Murphy did pick off a Stafford overthrow, and the Darrisaw-less offense did drive to a field goal. The drive was highlighted by a dazzling juggling catch by Jefferson that ranks among his best.

But Shaq Griffin got torched for a touchdown on the next drive and the Vikings never led again.

They got close on the next drive, but with a wide open lane to convert a 3rd down on the ground, Darnold instead threw to Jalen Nailor, who dropped the ball, and likely touchdown. Anaother field goal cut it to 21-20, but with a defense simply not functioning, you needed 7, not 3. 

And the Rams again went right down the field for a touchdown and an 8 point lead. 

The next drive began promisingly, with a long catch and run by Oliver, but then Darnold scrambled into a sack, and the drive was dead. 

No reason to even think they would ever get the ball back, but they did...albeit pinned at their own 5.

Whatever slim hopes remained were destroyed when Darnold stood there in the endzone and allowed himself to be sacked for a safety. Yes, there was an appalling missed facemask penalty on the play, but Darnold was already being taken down.

The officials were quite bad, calling a ton of 3rd down penalties on the Vikings' defense that sustained drives. Some of these were justifiable, some not. The flags don't excuse the clear lack of effort, the total lack of pass rush, or guys in the secondary being slow and out of place (Stephon Gilmore had a brutal game).

It's frightening how quick this defense has collapsed. A month ago, they were demolishing the Texans. Even this month, they took it to Aaron Rodgers. What the hell happened? It can't just be missing Blake Cashman. They look like they have no clue what they are doing. Brian Flores had more talent on this defense than he had last year, yet this is looking like the end of 2023 again.

The bloom is off the Darnold rose for sure. He's still performing capably, and at least avoided any turnovers in this game, but he keeps holding the ball too long, running into sacks, and misfiring in the redzone. And if this is going to be our defense now, we are done for, because Darnold is not going to be able to get this team into the 30s week after week. Even once Hockenson is back. 

Speaking of. The Vikings again held out Hockenson, and also Risner. Both are healthy. Both can play. Risner is better than Ingram (although with the Darrisaw injury, more OL shuffling will be needed). Hockenson is a much better weapon than or other TEs. Yet this team has now chosen in 2 straight games to willingly go in shorthanded. It's pure arrogance, and it's costing them greatly.

The north is gone. You will now be effectively 2 games behind the Lions, and also will be behind Green Bay after they win easily this week. Plus, the Bears likely get a Jayden Daniels-free Washington, so you'll probably be tied with them. 

Only the Vikings could go from being tied for the best record in the NFL to being tied for last place in a week. And if this is truly 2016 redux, the worst is yet to come.