By Matthew Coller
Just get rid of the utter nonsense and that’s exactly what it’s supposed to look like.
The Minnesota Vikings completely outplayed the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at the Superdome to the point where the score easily could have been 35-7. But they bungled a bunch of drives away with huge mistakes and only escaped with a ____ win.
This one might be an ink-blot test type game. If you have been waiting for Kyler Murray to look like a quarterback who was once considered a franchise guy, you saw plenty of that. He was on target with a very high percentage of his throws. He was smart with the football. He made plays with his legs and outside the pocket. And most importantly: He found Justin Jefferson, including on the play of the year so far for the Vikings offense on a back-of-the-end zone touchdown where Murray feathered it over three defenders.
If you are a believer that once Jordan Mason comes back, the run game is going to work, then you also saw plenty of that as well. Aaron Jones, despite being banged up and questionable to return early in the game, pounded his way through the Saints’ defense, including a 19-yard run and 10-yard touchdown to put the Vikings ahead late in the fourth quarter.
If you are thinking that the defense is so good that they can overcome any types of stumbles from the offense, well, you got that too. Outside of one drive, the defense completely mauled inexperienced quarterback Tyler Shough, pressuring him into huge mistakes, including an interception where he threw the ball directly to Byron Murphy Jr.
If you buy that Will Reichard is the best kicker in the league (he is) and Myles Price has become a serious weapon (he has), then you also enjoyed the game as Reichard banged home multiple 50-plus field goals and Price had a 43-yard punt return.
If you are putting it all together and saying that this 5-0 football team can get much better, then you’re going to have a lot to work with at the water cooler on Monday.
But if you still have concerns about the overall sloppiness of the squad, then you’re not lost on Sunday either. The Vikings had two drives in the red zone end with fumbles, one of which was turned into a New Orleans touchdown. They had a penalty for illegal formation negate a first down in the red zone, forcing a field goal.
Kevin O’Connell was in the midst of calling a very good overall game with a MASH unit of players in the mix, including Gavin Bartholomew with TJ Hockenson sidelined… and then he called for the worst trick play imaginable to put them out of field-goal position.
If you want to settle somewhere in the middle, you could say this: The Vikings’ offense for the last six quarters has looked like it belongs in the National Football League and Murray has been legitimately excellent since the start of the second half against the Dolphins. He’s been what we expected him to look like when he was signed way back in March. It makes the Tampa Bay game look like a fluke. And the defense is just mind blowing. We don’t see NFL defenses that look untouchable very often. These are the types of defenses that go deep in the playoffs.
Buuuuut….If they don’t clean up some of the massive errors, eventually it’s going to cost them against better teams like Detroit and Buffalo.
The bottom line from Sunday is that the Minnesota Vikings are 5-0 and it feels like we’ve seen nothing that resembles the actual roster on offense due to injuries. There will be debates about how “real” they are as a contender but you only get into those debates by actually being 5-0.
Also, nothing in Vikings land can ever happen normally, so it would have to be a 5-0 that included every backup they have on offense playing and the defense destroying everything that’s been put in front of them.
Considering how hard it is to win every week in the NFL, Vikings fans, take the two weeks to enjoy it. The bar has now been raised to set serious expectations for this team and that’s a good thing.
Here’s how it went down…