How do the Vikings' wins and losses look now?
The Benglas are great and the Vikings lost to them close. The Panthers are really bad and the Vikings beat them close. What does it all mean?

By Matthew Coller
COUCH — On Sunday, Minnesota Vikings fans sat down for a stress-free day of football with hopes to see a couple good games and have somebody help them out in the early race for the postseason.
They did not receive the first part but did get a little bit of the second. At the end of the night on Sunday, there was only one game on the entire slate that ended with a one-score differential. That was the Atlanta Falcons’ 30-28 win over the Miami Dolphins.
But Vikings fans would easily trade entertainment for an assist in the standings and they got a few of those.
The New York Giants bludgeoned the Carolina Panthers, dropping them to 3-4. In the process the G-men did much more damage than just a single loss in the standings. The Panthers benched Sam Darnold in the process, which is a major hit to any belief that he would find new life away from the Jets.
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throttled the Chicago Bears 38-3, reducing the Bears’ record to 3-4 as well. Similarly, the loss hit much harder than it would appear in the standings. Chicago quarterback Justin Fields threw three interceptions and looked lost against Tampa Bay’s blitzes. The rookie quarterback is yet to show signs of being a force and the Bucs crushed whatever confidence he might have begun to build. Now talk of Matt Nagy being on the ropes has resurfaced after another quarterback has struggled mightily underneath him.
An old friend helped the Vikings on Sunday Night Football. Xavier Rhodes intercepted a wobbly Jimmy Garoppolo pass to help seal a 30-18 win for the Indianapolis Colts over the San Francisco 49ers. While the 49ers are a ways down on the Vikings’ schedule, they are now in the mix of six teams that are chasing from way behind the pack with just two wins on the year.
Aside from the standings-related developments on Sunday, the lack of a Vikings game made it easier to play a round of: How Does That Win/Loss Look Now?
So let’s take a look at every opponent that the Vikings have played and what the results since then have told us about the Vikings.
Cincinnati loss
Going into Week 1, Mike Zimmer insisted Joe Burrow was going to be special. He wasn’t just being polite. Zimmer couldn’t have been more right. Burrow has exploded into one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks and his most impressive game to date came against the Ravens in a 41-17 blowout win. Burrow put up 416 yards, 201 of which went to superstar receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
Almost as impressive, the Bengals’ defense slowed down Lamar Jackson and Baltimore’s explosive offensive attack.
Of course, the Vikings played Cincinnati tight in Week 1. They very well may have beaten the Bengals if Dalvin Cook didn’t fumble in overtime.
But it’s hard to say that the Vikings’ close contest with Cincy was a ringing endorsement for the way they’ll play over the coming weeks. In that game, Burrow was banged up in the second half and coach Zac Taylor tried multiple ways to give the Vikings the game after his team was up two scores. Burrow and Chase were playing their first game together and they hit on several big plays against the Vikings’ defense.
The Vikings struggled against a superior defensive line and committed the type of errors that they have become accustomed to over the early part of the season.
The loss in Cincinnati in hindsight no longer looks like it was the automatic “W” that we all marked it down to be at the start of the season but playing close in a game where the Vikings were largely the inferior team is a tough sell for the idea that they can beat the league’s best.
Arizona loss
The loss to the Cardinals, however, makes for an easier argument. In that game, the Vikings gave up 400 yards passing to Kyler Murray but still got themselves ahead by two scores in the game and were within a short field goal of winning.
The Cardinals destroyed the woebegone Houston Texans on Sunday, padding their undefeated record. But it isn’t so much Arizona’s blemish-less spot in the standings that puts the Vikings’ close loss to them in the belief bucket for taking on the Cowboys, Ravens, Chargers and Packers in the coming weeks. Instead it’s how the offense largely drove their success in the game.
Even with a dry spell in the second half, the offense still ran up 244 yards and three touchdowns through the air from Kirk Cousins and 177 on the ground between Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison. It was a complete offensive performance against a team whose defense has turned out to be solid.
On the defensive side, miscommunications and special plays from Murray were at the root of the 34 points allowed. At the same time, they were able to pressure the Arizona QB and force two interceptions that changed the shape of the game.
The battle with the Cowboys specifically could end up looking very similar. Dak Prescott is playing at an MVP level and there are enough cracks in Dallas’ defense for the Vikings to put up points, especially with a far more healthy Cook.
Seattle win
The Seahawks lost Russell Wilson to injury, which makes their last two losses harder to judge but their defense is so poor that there isn’t a comparable team on the Vikings’ upcoming schedule at any point. The Lions even have a stronger defense than Seattle.
The dysfunction in Seattle overall does take some of the shine off the Vikings’ home-opening win but there’s still a lesson to be learned: Winning with defense sometimes means dominating offensively.
The Seahawks flew up and down the field against the Vikings in the first half of their Week 3 matchup, yet Wilson hardly saw the ball in the second half. Cousins made big plays on third downs to keep drives going and screen passes and runs routinely bit off chunks of yards to help maintain possession.
Forcing Wilson to play from behind also cut down on Seattle’s ability to run the ball and allowed Zimmer’s defense to rush the passer and drop back into deep coverages.
The offense’s success put the defense in an advantageous spot, which the Vikings will need against the explosive teams in the next quarter of their schedule.
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