Murphy: Raised expectations bring greater frustrations
The Vikings still have one of the best records in the NFL but that makes the loss to the Rams even more unsettling
By Brian Murphy
So here are the Vikings at the seven-game mark of the season, where nobody on the planet had them, sitting pretty at 5-2 but squirming noticeably on a bed of nails they have dutifully constructed.
Heightened expectations colliding with troubling trends will do that over two wildly entertaining and vexing months. Time for everyone mixing and guzzling purple Kool-Aid to table the pitcher, inhale deeply and project all that anxiety on the rest of the NFL this weekend.
The Vikings are fine. You’re fine. Everybody’s fine. They are positioned nicely for a playoff berth.
But the stakes are much higher, now. Not only for a flush team that shouldn’t settle for a cheap wild card but a third-year head coach who faces his biggest challenge cauterizing the gushing schematic and mental leaks that threaten to sink them.
How Kevin O’Connell responds to a pair of sloppy losses will go a long way in defining the 2024 Vikings not to mention his vested tenure in Minnesota. Outgunned and outfoxed, O’Connell’s merry band of wunderkinds has proven incapable of overcoming scoring droughts and defensive lapses that led to consecutive losses to the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams.
Thursday’s 30-20 stumble at Sofi Stadium further exposed Minnesota’s once-vaunted defense as incapable of getting to, much less shutting down, an elite quarterback.
Four days after Detroit’s Jared Goff carved them up at home, Rams star Matthew Stafford took the knife from his blockbuster trade-mate and plunged it deeper, tossing four touchdown passes among a 386-yard attack that left the Vikings gasping after a short week and grasping for answers entering a pivotal mini-bye.
Paging Brian Flores, white courtesy phone. Your rep as an elite defensive coordinator is calling. It seems the league has caught on to Flores’ sleight-of-hand blitzes and coverage schemes.
For the first time this season, the Vikings failed to record a sack as Stafford had ample time to surgically thread passes into every soft spot in Minnesota’s secondary. Cooper Kupp caught a touchdown pass and Puka Nacua had 106 yards receiving in their returns to the lineup as the Rams served notice that they will not fade quietly into the seller’s mode night.
Five times the Vikings committed third-down penalties to extend Rams drives while pre-snap flags continued to fly on offense.
The “I-just-guzzled-a-gallon-of-expired-milk” look on O’Connell’s face after another penalty-euthanized drive is gonna become a meme if it already hasn’t.
“It’s been a tough four days for us; that will not define us,” he acknowledged postgame. “That will not be the story of this season because we hold the pen. What are we going to do with it? Are we going to work?
“Am I going to be the same consistent guy just pushing this team even more, demanding the discipline to be our difference moving forward? I know I got the right team there. I got the right coaches. I’m incredibly fortunate to have the group that I do.”
Discipline is a great talking point, and O’Connell has offered sufficient lip service about the self-inflicted wounds, but how he implements and accounts for it behind closed doors is an essential characteristic of the job.
Are the Vikings a formidable force or an overachieving fraud? They can’t be both.
However deep Minnesota goes it’ll be carried by the golden hands of Justin Jefferson, the versatility of Aaron Jones, the acumen of Sam Darnold, the leg of Will Reichard and the play-calling menus of O’Connell and Flores.
Jefferson caught eight passes for 115 yards, including another one-handed beauty along the sideline. But he was either ignored or blanketed for much of the second half as the Vikings were held to a pair of field goals in the final three quarters.
Jefferson is this team’s greatest weapon, a generational talent that must remain unleashed no matter how gun-shy Darnold becomes or multi-dimensional O’Connell wants to be.
Jefferson is Edison, Picasso, Carnegie and Astaire in pads. Put the ball in a 5-mile radius and he will find a way to pull it down.
Darnold passed for 240 yards and a pair of scores. He went 8 for 8 on Minnesota’s opening drive as the teams traded haymakers in the first quarter before Stafford jammed the accelerator in one direction while Darnold remained stuck in second gear.
He was sacked three times, including in the end zone for a safety with less than two minutes later, despite having his facemask blatantly yanked without a penalty called. Meantime, red lights are blazing after star left tackle Christian Darrisaw hobbled to the locker room late in the second quarter with a left knee injury – a crucial diagnosis pending.
“As an offense, we’ve got to just be more consistent,” Darnold said. “The facemask, it is what it is. I thought we could have done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation we were in.”
Thursday night games are just another river of revenue into which the NFL has gleefully plunged its snout despite the brutal toll it takes on players. Flying across two time zones did no favors for the Vikings, who also had to travel to London earlier this month for another business junket.
But they won’t have the schedule makers to kick around anymore. After a weekend of healing and reflection the rest of the slate offers smooth sailing if the ship is repaired.
Ten games remain against some very mediocre teams starting Nov. 3 at home against the Indianapolis Colts. Three straight road games next month include the lowly Jaguars and Titans.
They have yet to face Chicago, with four games against NFC North opponents with a combined record of 14-6. However, their remaining opponents are 18-27 (.400 percentage).
If the Vikings can’t manufacture five or six wins with the tools they’ve been handed, that bed of nails will be their coffin.
Brian Murphy is a former Pioneer Press columnist and long-time contributor to Purple Insider. Follow him on Twitter/X at @Murphymedia_