Murphy: Nobody said it had to be pretty
Brian Murphy writes about the Vikings escaping London with their season in tact
By Brian Murphy
Your eyes may be bleeding after five weeks, but these spackled-together Vikings are something to see.
Flawed and flailing for an identity, marooned overseas for two weeks and more banged up than Solozzo and McCluskey breaking bread with Michael Corleone, this early season bye suddenly is perfectly timed for Minnesota.
Take a break from sweating through autumn and kicking the dog. You’ll be teeth-gnashing soon enough about this franchise’s biblical quarterback pilgrimage.
The Vikings have lived a thousand lives in the first month of the season and seem to die a little every day, yanking Sunday’s must-have game against the lowly Cleveland Browns from the morgue with a last-minute touchdown drive no one saw coming.
Their 21-17 victory in London says everything and nothing about this vexing 3-2 team, whose five-game sample size is a buffet of affirmation and reinforcement for the lollipop believers and forever fatalists alike.
I don’t have the bandwidth to wring out whether Carson Wentz or J.J. McCarthy will start Oct. 19 against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles when Minnesota returns to U.S. Bank Stadium for the first time in a month.
Doesn’t really matter at this point. Purge whatever preseason day-dreaming you had about complimentary blowouts or another 14-win season.
No matter who is slinging passes or dodging mortars behind the offensive line du jour, the Vikings only go as far as Justin Jefferson, lightning-bolt defensive turnovers and Kevin O’Connell’s street-balling take them.
McWentz merely need to stay healthy and avoid stomping on rakes for the next 12 weeks and the Vikings should still be playing in mid-January.
Wentz shrugged off a shoulder injury that banished him to the locker room just before halftime and rallied Minnesota with a pair of touchdown drives. The veteran was most impressive going 9 for 9 on the 10-play, 80-yard game-winning drive that culminated with a 12-yard strike to Jordan Addison with 25 seconds remaining.
Wentz finished 25 of 34 for 236 yards and no interceptions. Moreover, he improved to 2-1 since taking over for McCarthy, who is recovering from a high ankle sprain he suffered in Week 2.
It’s been nothing but hammer and tonging since the Vikings fell behind 17-6 to Chicago in the third quarter of the season opener.
McCarthy rallied them with a comeback for the ages. But his overall alarming ineffectiveness was put on ice with his wonky ankle while Wentz’s measured success opens a Pandora’s box of politics at the most important position.
Thorny questions remain about whether McCarthy will be the best person to lead the team that drafted him 10th overall 18 months ago whenever he is healthy enough to play. With so much treasure invested in this win-now roster, the stakes are enormous for O’Connell, who continues to pull lever after lever to keep the Vikings from imploding.
O’Connell and Wentz were diplomatic when asked about looming decisions.
“I’m just excited we got the win today, and we’re going to move forward in this bye and get as healthy as we can in all positions,” O’Connell said.
Wentz, who has played for six teams and was unemployed as recently as Aug. 23, had no interest in straying into a quarterback controversy.
“I’m done doing that. I’m very much trying to live in the moment and appreciate the moment right now,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy this one, get healthy and see what happens.”
Wentz took a hard shot to his left shoulder late in the second quarter with Minnesota trailing 10-7. He emerged in the second half wearing a protective sleeve to the collective relief of traumatized Vikings fans.
Their only score to that point was a smoke-and-mirrors beauty O’Connell dialed up. Cam Akers took a direct snap, feigned rushing to the right and lofted a pass to wide-open tight end Josh Oliver for a 32-yard touchdown.
You gotta love Akers. Signed off the scrap heap by Minnesota for the third time in as many years, the former high school quarterback found another way to make a huge play for his perennially desperate suitor and bag his first NFL touchdown pass.
After rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel guided the Browns to a 17-14 lead in the third quarter with an absolute rocket to David Njoku in the end zone, Wentz donned his cape and went to work.
Wentz completed passes to four different receivers during the winning drive, including a vital pair to Addison, who was benched in the first quarter for more inexcusable behavior that has plagued the third-year emerging star.
O’Connell said Addison missed a walk-through during the week, corporately reasoning the screw-up was not “in not alignment with our standards.”
Jefferson, a captain and superstar receiver seemingly without an ounce of diva in him, was having none of it.
“Definitely had my words with J.A,” said Jefferson, who finished with seven catches for 123 yards. “It’s just all about growing up and just being a part of the team, and knowing the stakes and knowing that he’s a valuable part of this team.
“I’ve just got to do better in keeping him under my wing and making sure that he has his head on straight.”
Addison is a grown man with a teenager’s discretion who has already cashed $10 million worth of NFL checks. He should be way beyond figuring it out after his well-chronicled license revocation and booze arrest, the latter of which cost him a three-game suspension and the Vikings access to their second-best pass catcher.
I was just relieved Addison wasn’t found near a set of car keys or the cellphone lane at Heathrow Airport.
So the Vikings return to Minnesota after triaging their spiraling season and improving to 5-0 all time in London. I’d say the franchise has donated plenty of blood to the NFL’s international marketing machine.
Time to bind up their wounds, take stock in all they have endured and figure out just who they really are.