GONE JUST LIKE THAT

RAMS 27

VIKINGS 9

Every Vikings playoff season has eventually ended badly. No franchise has so many playoff trips without a title. And they have ended in all sorts of ways. Some in heartbreaking fashion, some in blowouts, a few even in mundane ways. 

But never has a Vikings season gone from so full of promise to dead so quickly.

On January 5th, the Vikings were playing for the NFC North title and the #1 seed. On January 13th, their season ended. Just like that, in an abrupt collapse so antithetical to what this team and season looked to be.

Losing to Detroit made the road to the Super Bowl a lot tougher for sure, but it didn't seem impossible. This team had played great, clutch football for weeks before that. Sam Darnold had a major clunker, but you could chalk it up to just a bad day. And the Rams, on a neutral site since the game was moved cause of the California fires, did not seem to pose some unbeatable challenge. 

And this Vikings team was 14-3 in a season where nearly everyone had them at best a fringe wild card team. Never before had a Vikings team so outperformed expectations. That had to mean something.

Nope. The Vikings pulled a fast one on us. They truly were frauds, and proved it in an ugly loss to an ordinary team. I have never felt like such a fool for believing in this franchise.

It was clear very early that the Vikings, for whatever reason, were not in the fight. The Rams first offensive play was a 27-yard Stafford to Nacua pass, and shortly after, they were in the endzone.

The Vikings offense quickly went 3 and out, due largely to the first of many sacks of Darnold. 

The Rams only were stopped from getting another touchdown on their next possession by a personal foul. The defense that got lit up by the Rams back in October was doing it again. But they would settle down from this point on, and the true villain of the game emerged.

The Vikings reached the edge of the redzone on their next drive, but then Darnold got sacked again, and we ended up just getting a field goal. 

The Vikings looked to have made a massive play once the Rams got the ball back. Jonathan Greenard got to Stafford and stripped the ball loose. It bounced right to Blake Cashman, who sprinted into the endzone for what should have been a game tying touchdown. But no, because in easily one of the worst calls I have ever seen, the TD was overturned, and the ruling was that Stafford threw an incomplete pass. Which apparently you can do now when facing straight down and dropping the ball straight down. There was also no grounding despite no nearby receiver. So that's great. We had a TD stolen from us. That this play was not the story of the game is a testament to how bad things would get.

The Vikings defense still forced a 3 and out on that drive and the next. Didn't matter. 

Darnold took yet another terrible sack, and we had to punt. Ryan Wright got roughed, so we had a second chance. But then Darnold threw a terrible sideline pick. 

The next series basically ended the game. The Vikings were at least nearing field goal range, but then Darnold...you guessed it...was sacked, this time losing the ball. Jared Verse picked it up and went 57 yards for the touchdown.

Two MORE sacks came on the next drive, including on a 4th down play, and the Rams cashed in on their short field with an easy touchdown for a 24-3 halftime lead.

It was clearly over. The game, the season. But we still had another half to play. I guess the sucker in me still held out some hope that this surprising season still had one left.

It didn't. We did finally get our 1st touchdown in 2 weeks, TJ Hockenson's 1st of the season, late in the 3rd quarter. Missed the 2 (where Darnold threw well short of the endzone), but down 18 with roughly 20 minutes to the idea of a concept was at least still something to try for.

But then came the final insult of this season-ruining debacle. The Vikings quit.

Not the defense. They only have up 3 points in the 2nd half. But once the Vikings offense returned to the field late in the 3rd, down 18, there was zero urgency whatsoever. They even stood around and let the last 30 some seconds of the quarter burn off. And then, after another horrible sack accepted by Darnold (the final tally was 9), we punted. Yeah, it's 4th and long, but you're around midfield, and you need 3 scores. 

KOC has spent all year weirdly abandoning the run game, but THIS game he picked to keep running, deep into the 4th quarter. And every run burned clock and lessened any tiny chance to come back. Okay, Darnold was so awful that this wasn't going to happen, but giving up on your season like this was a disgraceful decision by our head coach and will not be forgotten. 

Darnold's failure gets the headlines, and it's astonishing how much money he lost for himself these last 2 games. I'm embarrassed that I banged the drum so hard to keep him for weeks. I don't think I will ever understand how this guy went from being so good to so bad so quickly. He made the Vikings decision easy, that's for sure. I'm not even sure he gets signed as a guaranteed starter by another team.

The other big loser here is KOC. He should still win coach of the year (Darnold's implosion actually makes him look better tbh), but he is also now a two time loser as a postseason favorite. And he made no adjustments from week to week, also allowing Darnold to take every snap. Yeah, your super bowl aspirations were the dead the moment it was clear that your QB had imploded for good, but for god's sake stick Nick Mullens out there and at least try to salvage this game. The way he just stood there and did nothing was an insult. No, it certainly doesn't mean you fire him. But the honeymoon is officially over, just as it was for Dennis Green once he had a couple of inept playoff losses. And if this happens again, well, no NFL head coach gets infinite leeway.

I guess it's my own fault for buying into this team. It wasn't until December that I even looked at them as more than just a fun surprise, and began seeing them as a true super bowl contender. I mean, again, they were 1 win away from home field advantage. There was cause to daydream about things that, sadly, I was reminded again of what will never be. 

I hate that again we sit with a great regular season and no playoff win. That's 27 wins in 2 playoff seasons without a playoff win. I'm sure that's a record, and of course, the Vikings became the 1st team to ever win 14 games and not even play in the divisional round. It's always some new record this team sets, and never in a good way. 

I do truly feel conned by this team in a way I never have before. 

So now we head into another busy offseason. 

Obviously, JJ McCarthy will be the presumptive starting QB. Darnold goes away. QB2? Could be Daniel Jones, could stick with Mullens, or could bring in a different cagey veteran to tutor the kid. 

Many free agents on the roster, particularly in the secondary. Murphy, Gilmore, Griffin, Bynum, and Harrison Smith, who will again likely either just retire or return on a 1 year deal. There is going to be a lot of roster turnover on defense, and then you also have the possibility of Brian Flores getting a head coaching job somewhere. 

Much of the offense is still set, but questions are there, too. Will Darrisaw be ready by week 1? By the time I got around to finishing this post, KOC has already said a major focus will be upgrading the interior OL. So, do all 3 spots get changed? I personally would focus on both lines. I'm tired of this team getting bowled over every time they face a physical team. 

We have all the ballyhooed cap space. We still have our 1st-round pick. Kwesi has to work some real magic again, and if he does and McCarthy is ready to go, the Vikings should have every expectation to be in the running for the playoffs again.

But winning 14 games is rare. Finishing a season this healthy is rare. Best case scenario is this season was the precursor to an extended run of success. Worst case is that we just choked away the best chance at something special that we will see for the rest of the decade.