For the Vikings, The Sky Is(n't) Falling
What to make of the drop down to 5-2?
Thankfully, the schedule is looking a little easier.
Up next are the Indianapolis Colts and a QB who sometimes gets too tired to play. No one can question Anthony Richardson’s talent. What can be questioned, however, is his accuracy. The QB is sitting on a 44.4% completion rate, a hard-to-believe-it’s-possible number for the modern NFL.
Maybe unsurprisingly, the Colts have decided to roll with Joe Flacco on SNF.
On the other end of things is Minnesota’s defense, a team that has recently struggled to stop the pass. Matthew Stafford walked into Thursday Night Football with a measly 3 touchdown passes for the season and walked away with 7 for the year, more than doubling his number by tossing 4 onto his total.
The week prior, Jared Goff looked unflappable. He finished his day having gone 22/25 (88%) for 280 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and a sparkling 140.0 passer rating.
What happens when a stoppable force meets a movable object? The Sunday Night Football tilt may give us an answer.
The Road Ahead for the Vikings
Win against the Colts and the Vikings will be feeling good.
At 6-2, Minnesota would be firmly within the playoff chase in the NFC. Yes, the division is going to be difficult to snag given that Detroit is operating at such an elite level — Ben Johnson is a brilliant coach & Dan Campbell deserves so much credit (which is to say nothing of the work from GM Brad Holmes, who has had some elite draft picks) — but a Wild Card spot is eminently plausible.
A loss, in contrast, is going to set off the all-too-common doom-and-gloom thinking that sometimes oppresses Vikings fandom.
The common comparison, of course, is to the 2016 Vikings team that began 5-0 before a Week 6 bye. Rather than rise to contention, those Vikings stumbled into mediocrity. Mike Zimmer’s crew lost four-straight games coming out of the bye before temporarily stopping the bleeding with a Week 11 win over Arizona. The season’s final six games, though, finished with Minnesota going 2-4.
Add it all together and 2016 finished off as an 8-8 season, well short of the lofty expectations that were being established in the opening five weeks.
Is history repeating itself?
The NFL’s schedule makers are doing their utmost to ensure it doesn’t. Not only do the Colts look like a game that should be won but so, too, do several of the games that immediately follow.
Check it out:
Week 9: Colts, 7:20 p.m. (SNF)
Week 10: at Jaguars, 12:00 p.m.
Week 11: at Titans, 12:00 p.m.
Week 12: at Bears, 12:00 p.m.
Week 13: Cardinals, 12:00 p.m.
What do you notice about the above list?
For starters, there’s a lot of mediocrity coming up (with the Jags and Titans closer to outright futility). Put simply, Minnesota has no business continuing with their losing ways in the coming weeks. Yes, going on the road for three-straight weeks is a tough ask, but if it needs to happen then the opponents might as well be the Jaguars, Titans, and Bears.
So, Should Vikings Fans Panic?
No, not really. Have some concern? Sure. We’re talking about the Minnesota Vikings, folks. Has this team ever let its fans down before?
The good news is simply that many of the numbers are still looking favorable. The offense is averaging 26.9 points per game, 7th in the NFL; the defense is allowing an average of 19.6 points against per game, 9th in the NFL.
Will Reichard has yet to miss a kick and Ryan Wright is bouncing back.
Justin Jefferson is sitting on 41 catches, 646 yards, and 5 touchdowns (somehow, those excellent numbers feel a bit light). Aaron Jones has 104 carries for 501 yards and 2 touchdowns; his receiving yards stand at 227 and he has tossed on a receiving touchdown.
Even better, T.J. Hockenson is coming back.
Now, losing Christian Darrisaw is a major loss. Put simply, Darrisaw is irreplaceable. No one on Minnesota’s roster can come close to offering the kind of excellence he offered. Understandably, the solution was to look outside of Eagan for an answer, leading to the swap for LT Cam Robinson.
The onus now falls on the team in its entirety to make up for that loss as Kevin O’Connell & Wes Phillips design plays that help to mitigate the issues that arise from needing to replace the stud at LT.
Darrisaw concerns aside, Minnesota still has a lot to be hopeful about. Very few could have foreseen a 5-2 start to the year. The first loss came by a measly two points and the second loss involved Sam Darnold nearly getting his head ripped off with a facemask penalty so obvious that it remains befuddling that it wasn’t called.
The sky isn’t falling. Or, at least, it isn’t yet. Stay tuned for the SNF game; losing three in a row will be like throwing gasoline onto the doom-and-gloom fire. Hopefully, the sky will stay put up there.
Odds & Ends
Colts at Vikings Prediction
The prediction streak has come to an end. Tragic. Week 9 offers a chance to get back on track.
Indianapolis is coming to town and everything I’ve already written provides the hint for which way I’m leaning. The Vikings are the superior team and they’re playing in their home stadium. Give me the purple team.
Final Score: Vikings 27 — Colts 20
Season Prediction Record: 5-2
Dad Joke of the Week
Rolling with just a single joke this week. Check it out:
“My wife is really mad at the fact that I have no sense of direction. So I packed up my stuff and right.” — tomkrueger2
Vikings Tidbits and Thoughts
Following the Thursday Night Football game, Kevin O’Connell expressed concern about Minnesota’s offense not running enough plays. Keep an eye on this one. The issue is about winning the time of possession battle while also about getting more plays off of the call sheet.
Right now, Justin Jefferson is sitting on 60 targets. Next up for Minnesota’s pass catchers are Aaron Jones (25), Jordan Addison (23), Johnny Mundt (20), and Jalen Nailor (20).
The pass rush needs to be reignited. Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel have been mostly excellent and they’ll need to be excellent in the upcoming game.
Brian Flores remains a brilliant defensive strategist. Yes, these past couple weeks have been rough, but he knows how to coach a defense. Part of the issue is that his DTs are below average and his CBs are average. He has been able to mask some of the issues with help from the edge rushers, linebackers, and safeties. Teams are starting to get a bit of an advantage, though, so some adjustments need to be made.
Links for the Dinks:
How the Vikings Could Actually Trade Away their 1st-Round Selection: Start off with an elite player. That’s Step 1. But then toss in some lesser draft capital — a 2nd and/or a 3rd — and maybe Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will feel comfortable moving on from the pick.
All of the Sudden, A Vikings Trade Theory Gets a Fresh Gust of Wind: The PurplePTSD piece builds off of last week’s TVG piece on D.J. Reed. Therein, the theory was that losing to the Patriots in Week 8 could lead to the Jets being willing to move out players since they’d be sitting at 2-6. Well, they lost and they’re now 2-6. Time to sell?
Veteran Vikings Defender with Oodles of Talent Takes a Step Back in Playing Time: Two observations. First, the word “oodles” isn’t used enough in football analysis. Second, Jerry Tillery played a season low in snaps last week, so keep an eye on how he gets deployed in Week 9.
Thanks for reading and take care of yourself.