Murphy: What a horror show
The Vikings are running out of room for error after egregious loss to Cowboys
By Brian Murphy
The Vikings warned costumed fans planning to empty their wallets and souls Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium not to wear anything obscene or offensive. And no fake weapons, either.
That would be blatant identify theft from the product on the field. This team may have dressed up as a fraud, but it has been obvious for weeks.
No matter how many deniers masked their real feelings in their Halloween glory. Or how many times players and coach Mike Zimmer rolled their eyes at cold hard facts and insisted their middling record belied how truly talented and dangerous Minnesota could be.
Cheap conversation to distract from the bedrock mistakes and inexcusable conservatism that have plagued the Vikings throughout this season and much of Zimmer’s purple reign.
There is nowhere left to hide after the Dallas Cowboys and some quarterback named Cooper Rush stripped their hubris to the studs. The ghastly 20-16 loss should have been a victory treat after superstar gunslinger Dak Prescott was ruled out before the game because of a nettlesome calf injury.
Instead, an unheralded backup who had not thrown an NFL pass in four years torched the Vikings for 325 yards and a pair of touchdown passes, including the go-ahead score to Amari Cooper with 51 seconds remaining.
An experienced and productive Vikings offense that ranked fifth in total yards per game with 414 through six games managed a paltry 278 against a Dallas team that had allowed the second-most yards per play in the league. Worse, they failed to convert 12 consecutive third downs after a 75-yard touchdown drive to start the game, as their play calling, execution and urgency swirled down the drain of a weak performance at home.
Coming out of the bye, no less. With their playoff aspirations all but hanging in the balance.
That’s not scary.
That’s just sad.
Yet totally becoming of a team with no killer instinct and a haphazard way of competing down to the level of their more opportunistic and clutch opponents.
“Every game we just hang around, hang around, hang around, let the team hang around, instead of just putting our foot on the gas and going,” groused wide receiver Adam Thielen, whose 20-yard touchdown catch early in the first quarter was the only time Minnesota found the end zone.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins once again froze in the headlights of a prime-time matchup. He checked all the way down to 184 yards with just 23 completions in 35 attempts. Coordinator Klint Kubiak’s predictable offense was stuck in the mud as the Vikings only fashioned four drives of five plays or more.
Despite driving 69 yards, almost half of which were gifted by Cowboys defensive penalties, Minnesota had to settle for a third Greg Joseph field goal from 24 yards out to take a 13-10 lead with 2:51 remaining.
However, Rush – a fifth-year afterthought already tarred by two turnovers – spearheaded an eight-play, 75-yard drive that he capped with a beautiful fade pass to Cooper in the corner of the end zone to keep first-place Dallas in the driver’s seat of the NFC East.
Meanwhile, the Vikings stumbled to 3-4, with must-win road games at Baltimore and Los Angeles Chargers looming before they return home Nov. 21 to face the surging Green Bay Packers (7-1).
They are a broken team, with broken-record excuses. Stuck in their unfulfilling ways. Unable or unwilling to adjust and improvise past teams who have been more than grateful to things down to the wire.
The Vikings have scored a second-half offensive touchdown in only two games this season, none at U.S. Bank Stadium. They manage the clock like grandpa swatting flies on the porch.
No sense of time. No sense of urgency. Nonsense.
Cousins wound up wasting precious seconds and swallowing an available timeout in the waning moments of the first half, eventually taking a knee before the team slinked to the locker room under a cascade of boos.
“I just let Zim handle the timeouts because I never know quite what the coaches want to do with that,” Cousins explained.
For an $84 million supposed team leader, Cousins might want to seize the initiative once in a while instead of worrying what his coaches will say in the film review.
Besides, the grown-ups are just as lost in clock management twilight zone.
Zimmer cost his team a critical 5 yards on third down during Dallas’ winning drive when he tried calling a timeout from the sideline – after Minnesota had already spent one without a play being run.
“I screwed up,” Zimmer said.
Surprised he didn’t blame Norv Turner, John DeFilippo, Rick Spielman or whoever asked the question.
Zimmer’s running out of scapegoats. He’s also running out of losses to maintain job security in a season that is rapidly slipping away from him, the locker room and the fan base.
That is the real horror.
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Well said Sir, well said. I've noticed a distinct change in Zimmer's demeaner at press conferences. His subdued. There is very little fire and disdain for the reporters. He reflects his team: Broken.
Well said Brian. This was an embarrassment.