Murphy: The Vikings' identity crisis strikes vs. Eagles
Brian Murphy breaks down the Vikings' troubling inconsistency and what could be looming
By Brian Murphy
Empathy can be a disease in the shark tank that is the National Football League, but if you can snuff the justifiable rage and holster your weapons for a moment, it may be good for the soul to pour one out for the Vikings.
The team with Super Bowl aspirations and franchise quarterback dreams stumbled into a giant spiderweb at Soldier Field and have been clawing through a nightmarish start to this already exhausting season, occasionally popping up for air but more tangled than ever.
They’re stuck in the cement shoes of Carson Wentz and the erratic gunslinging of a scrap heap refugee. Caught in the turnstiles of a battered offensive line that can’t snap the ball let alone stay upright. Chained to relentless uncertainty and a quarterback narrative that keeps the injury report boldface, the content churning and the tension mounting.
Lest anyone forget, Wentz was unemployed as of Aug. 23, bypassed by 31 other teams whose Sam Howell experiment didn’t fizzle in Eagan. He was just supposed to triage the room and dispense wisdom to J.J. McCarthy, not keep the Vikings out of the abyss.
What you get is Wentz’s scattered performance in Minnesota’s costly 28-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. And whiplash from watching his ghastly interceptions and maddeningly entertaining way of pulling you right back in with fearless playmaking and fourth-quarter intrigue.
You get Wentz’s devastating pick-six and balloon-ball turnover within a span of one commercial break in the first half. Not to mention the rake-stomping sacks and car-crash scrambles with a banged-up and braced left shoulder that keep Max Brosmer in everybody’s parlay.
After a disastrous start, Wentz slowly built momentum and confidence to chisel a 21-9 deficit into a two-point game with timely connections to playmakers Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson (there you were!).
But he couldn’t defend Jalen Hurts. Neither could anyone else in purple.
What you got was a reigning Super Bowl MVP leaning on the overmatched Vikings and playing chess to their checkers for 60 minutes. His three touchdowns were big-boy throws and lightning-bolt reminders of all that Minnesota craves from its unfulfilled quest for a franchise quarterback. Hurts earned a near-perfect quarterback rating and the perfect rejoinder to those self-loathing Philadelphians who can’t appreciate what they have.
There is simply no margin for error with these error-prone and uncomplimentary Vikings, whose 3-3 record is not fatal. It only feels that way.
Aside from dismantling Jake Browning and the hapless Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3, Minnesota has looked completely lost on both sides of the ball for alarming stretches of games.
Neither unit has done the other any favors. Ineptitude rears its head at the worst possible times for either the defense or the offense, who seem paralyzed when the other guys can’t get the job done.
Unrelenting turnovers, penalties, third-down failures and red-zone implosions, which were contagious Sunday against the Eagles, have taxed an ailing defense that is a shadow of its former splash-play self.
Injuries have cut bone-deep on both sides of the ball. Continuity is merely a concept. And we still have no idea if McCarthy can actually play in this grown-up league let alone sherpa the offense to the postseason.
Losing McCarthy to an ankle injury after just two starts dealt Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell a Dead Man’s Hand. No one said they had to play it so shabbily.
Minnesota chugged up and down the field whenever Wentz wasn’t chucking it right at defenders. Six times they marched inside Philadelphia’s 20-yard line, poised to drop the hammer on the defending champs, only to come away with five field goals.
Right on cue came untimely flags, errant passes and Blake Brandel’s shot-gunned snap into the North Loop.
“Had no issues moving the football, it was just points,” bemoaned O’Connell. “Lot of self-inflicted (wounds) did show up in that red zone that make it hard to put the ball in the end zone. We’ve got to clean up.”
Yeah, any time now.
Especially with Thursday night’s long haul to L.A. looming against a disarrayed Chargers team also in injury hell.
We have no idea if Wentz’s left shoulder will fall to the floor at any moment, but the abuse he’s taking in and out of the pocket does not bode well with only one practice and a West Coast flight on the horizon.
“Your mind immediately goes, ‘I’ve got four days to turn this over,’ which is as tough as it gets in the National Football League,” Wentz sighed. “We’ll be all right, though.”
As exhausting seasons go 2025 has demanded so much already, and it’s not even time to rake the leaves. If the next two months are a possession-by-possession grind, with flashes of greatness thwarted by gong shows, it won’t take long for the existential dread to take hold.
The kind that dooms teams who think they have an identity but really have no idea who they are.
Murph’s turns of phrase are second to none. I don’t know how he does it so often in one column. Terrific.
Great article Brian 👏 On Thursday it has to be JJ or Max Brosmer. At the end of yesterday's 4th quarter has to be the end of the line for one Mr. Wentz.