PURE SURVIVAL

VIKINGS 21

BROWNS 17

Entering the season, it seemed pretty clear that the pre-bye portion of the Vikings schedule was where they were going to need to pile up some wins, before the schedule gets a lot harder.

So imagine the despair I felt throughout much of Sunday's game, watching the Vikings again play mistake-filled football against a very beatable team, which looked to be sending them to a 2nd straight loss in Europe, and a 2-3 record into the bye that would make any hopes for a meaningful season slim at best.

Fortunately, as had happened so often during the KOC era, the Vikings managed to escape with a late touchdown to get the hell out of there with the win.

Coming off last week's loss in Dublin, it was off to London (where the Vikings are undefeated) to face a bad Browns team starting rookie QB Dillon Gabriel. The Browns defense is pretty good though, and once again the Vikings were starting an offensive line that couldn't be less ideal (Blake Brandel at center, Joe Huber at guard, Justin Skule at tackle). Would KOC make the same blunders as last week, and call plays to make the situation worse?

Turns out, no, the game plan this week was much smarter, and it was apparent immediately. On the Vikings 1st drive, the ball was getting out quick. The runs were quick. No time for Myles Garrett and company to tear apart the line. But then, Jordan Mason fumbled for the 2nd week in a row. Cleveland took the ball on the short field and rolled to a touchdown, mostly on the ground with their rookie Quinshon Judkins.

The Vikings offense responded well, with a long TD drive that culminated in a nifty halfback TD pass from Cam Akers to Josh Oliver. Creativity on offense. Good. 

But the offense got nothing going in the 2nd quarter, which was a punt-off, until the Browns got it together and drove for a field goal and a halftime lead.

Carson Wentz also appeared to be hurt late in the half, so it appeared that we were not only losing again, but would need Max Brosmer to come in and play.

Whatever they did with Wentz during the break, though, got him ready to go. And out of the break, he led a terrific drive to get the Vikings their 1st lead, on a Mason TD run. 

But that lead didn't last, cause the Browns attacked the soft, poor tackling Vikings run defense and soon retook the lead on Gabriel's 2nd TD toss of the game.

The Vikings offense could not answer. Their next 4 drives were punt (after a sack), Zavier Scott fumble, Will Reichard missed field goal (which, it turns out, hit a camera wire and should have been a re-do), and finally another punt (after a brutal holding penalty). 

After that last punt, there were only a few minutes left, and things looked pretty bleak. The Vikings' defense had again held in there alright, but given the state of their run defense, it didn't seem likely they could get the ball back. But the Browns are the Browns, and they didn't pound the run in the 4th quarter that much, so the Vikings were given another chance to save the game.

Credit to Carson Wentz. He again played just an okay game, but came up his biggest on the biggest drive of the season. After one Mason run, Wentz handled the rest of the 80 yard drive, hitting 9 of 9, including a dandy back shoulder throw to Justin Jefferson and the game winner to Jordan Addison on a twisty catch. This drive was as clutch as any of the great Kirk drives from 2022.

Naturally, the Vikings had to sweat out a couple of late throws from Cleveland, but they got the win.

The overall level of play from this team is not good. They make a lot of repeat mistakes. They have a lot of free agent money they are not getting a return on. They are injured to a degree I have never seen so early in a season.

But they're alive. Hell, they hit the bye just a game out of the NFC's top seed. They certainly don't look like a team that can challenge for the NFC North title or a top seed or anything, but they have time to maybe start to get healthy, and get a more complete roster out on the field. If you want hope, the odds are the best version of the 2025 Vikings remain in the future.