Murphy: Crashing out
Brian Murphy writes about what to make of the Vikings' collapse in Seattle
By Brian Murphy
There are blowouts, and then there is the unholy mess the Vikings produced Sunday in Seattle, a performance so comprehensively awful it made Sam Darnold irrelevant, which didn’t seem possible.
This wasn’t a 26-0 loss. It was a thesis statement.
It wasn’t a quarterback issue. It wasn’t missed opportunities or bad breaks. It was the culmination of Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah convincing the NFL Media Industrial Complex and us lemmings that their master plan made sense.
Minnesota’s head coach and general manager set up J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer to fail. All three quarterbacks have failed O’Connell. Their collective failures have been gas lighted as some kind of process we should trust.
What, exactly, should we trust?
This regime has an aging and expensive roster, no viable quarterback plan and zero direction 12 games into a season that started with playoff aspirations and belief that McCarthy was the solution to a position that has vexed this franchise for decades.
The talent gap is widening by the week between the 4-8 Vikings and their NFC North rivals, who are a combined 24-11-1. A gulf that has exposed Adofo-Mensah as a flawed talent evaluator and dealer who spent $300 million on free agents last offseason trying to buy his way out of draft class whiffs.
If only Jordan Addison could drop his car keys after midnight like he drops crucial passes. But at least Addison is contributing.
Four years into this administration the Vikings have no playoff wins, no quarterback certainty, no defensive starters who have been drafted and a competitive window that has been nailed shut less than a year after winning 14 games.
But Sunday wasn’t simply a talent revelation. It was a coaching exposé.
Seattle coach Mike Macdonald pitied the Vikings so much that he managed a 10-0 lead as if he was up 40. The Seahawks didn’t bother to call timeouts before halftime, didn’t push for touchdowns, and kicked a 54-yard field goal on fourth-and-1 as if going for it was beneath the effort required.
That’s because Minnesota’s offense was criminally negligent. Again.
Dropped passes. Awful play calling. Suspect blocking. Undisciplined all around. Accountability ain’t just a T-shirt slogan.
Gophers truthers spent the summer and all last week selling Brosmer as NFL-ready. He came of age all right.
He started 6-for-9 with two first downs. Nice. Would’ve been nicer if Addison and Justin Jefferson hauled in catchable passes and Brosmer could have stockpiled more confidence.
Instead, he spiraled. Fast. O’Connell made sure of it.
Trailing 3-0 after a strip sack set Minnesota up at the Seattle 13, O’Connell dialed up a fourth-and-1, play-action bootleg that called for the undrafted rookie to roll right into a pass rusher on the short side of the field.
Rather than absorb the sack and let his surging defense do its job, Brosmer did what undrafted rookies are wont to do. He panicked and tried to make something happen, which resulted in a sidearm, playground toss into the hands of Ernest Jones for an 84-yard pick 6.
It was won of four interceptions by Brosmer, who played and looked as overwhelmed as McCarthy, the 10th overall pick of 2024.
“Fourth down, he’s trying to make a play, and it ends up being obviously catastrophically bad,” O’Connell said. “I’ve got to call a better play there. Got to decide the best option for us to try to limit that ever being the outcome in that scenario, but also give us a chance to score.”
The only thing consistent this season for the Vikings has been debatable play calling and incompetent quarterback play.
Wentz is the only one to throw for 300 yards this season. It’s been a month since Minnesota had 200 yards passing in a game. Thirteen turnovers in four consecutive losses have put the defense in impossible situations, which happened again Sunday.
The Vikings pressured, sacked and thwarted Darnold and the Seahawks’ high-octane offense, but none of it matters if you can’t score a point.
Meanwhile, Jefferson spent most of the second half masking his emotions under a towel and declined postgame interview requests. What’s he going to say at this point?
The NFL Media Industrial Complex is foaming at the mouth for the superstar to feed them the diva-receiver-goes-off storyline that would be more cliché than revelatory.
The big picture is the bigger story and the future could not look bleaker.
The Vikings are collapsing under the weight of failed draft picks and short-sighted decisions that have left them with bulging salary cap issues, a dearth of young talent and a quarterback dilemma that has only deepened.
Bottoming out in Seattle did not reveal anything new. It simply removed the deniability that has kept the 2025 Vikings treading water.
Adofo-Mensah cannot build a roster. O’Connell cannot adapt to one that is underproducing.
Their quarterbacks are regressing. Their stars are only going to become more frustrated.
Their season is cooked. Their future is financially suffocating.
The plan is a myth.
Hard to hit the “Like” button on this. I’ve been in denial on all these issues for a while. The truth hurts, a cliche which doesn’t do the truth justice. I’m just too old for all this. AARGH!!!
Maybe the title could've been "Wilfs Whiff With Woeful Wishes."