The Vikings are 3–0, but they’ve got there in perhaps the weirdest way possible, with the defense doing just enough to bail out an impotent offense. Charles Wheeler takes you through the latest mind-freak of a victory in an all-new SKOL from the Sofa.
Okay, before we get started…
It absolutely rocks to procrastinate writing a piece about something that happened on a Sunday, only for Monday to drop a bombshell on you. So let’s get that out of the way before we go back to look at the game – yep, JJ McCarthy has been traded to the Giants, for a 2027 fifth-round draft pick.
The story that we all hoped would define our franchise for a decade is over, and we’re back in the quarterback wilderness for the foreseeable. Fortunately, that provides me an excellent segue back to talking about Sunday’s 23–16 victory over the Buccaneers, because…
…man, the vibes are weird around here
Have you ever seen a whole-touchdown road win to take a team to 3–0 that conjured such a negative reaction? In your life? The discrepancy between on-field result and online mood has become something of a theme for my Skol from the Sofa pieces, but once again, there’s truth to be found in both takes.
The Vikings and their one-time NFC Central rivals combined for one of the statistically-worst offensive games in NFL history, conjuring all-time terrible success rates. The worst comment sections you know are full of “should’ve started Wentz”, which I’m sure is no reflection on how some people will be endlessly more forgiving of a terribly-quarterbacked win by a white guy.
But the finer details show me a problem that doesn’t fall on who’s throwing the ball, and I’ve landed on a position not dissimilar to Jonathan Pye’s preseason take, which seems less Skol-ding hot with every passing snap – Kevin O’Connell is on the hot seat, and he’s not coping well.
Déjà vu
Let me explain. Conjure in your mind a Vikings offensive drive going badly. The huddle’s taking way too long. When the ball is snapped, you’re about 40% confident it’s gonna reach the quarterback cleanly. The blocking’s decent, but our guy under centre is holding the ball for waaaaay too long. When did this happen? Last week? Preseason? All of last season?
Well then! Perhaps that stat about us being the first team ever to win four in a row with four different starting quarterbacks is hinting at something else! Perhaps our ridiculous, unjustifiable, beautiful defense is bailing us out of something quite serious!
Because this is all the stuff folks were trashing Nine for last year. Even I was making the case that Wentz was suffering the same problems because he was just as bad. But now 10-year veteran Kyler Murray is taking a quarter of the play clock to rattle off the call, canning out of half the plays, and holding the ball for an absolute age.
So what’s the same on all those plays? The guy calling them. I’m not calling for O’Connell’s head here, but it feels like we have a different guy at the helm than the one that revitalised Sam Darnold’s career, or that got genuine MVP-level play out of Kirk Cousins. Whatever the grand design is right now, it is not working. It’s making Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz and JJ McCarthy into functionally the same quarterback, which they are not and should not be.
Brian Flores can only save us in so many ways
Aah, the defense. A relief that it’s so reliable, a joy that it’s so fun to watch. But nothing is certain, and we know full well that Flores schemes can have killswitches built into them. There’s every chance that key moments this season will pivot around someone finding that dagger-over-the-middle equivalent when they have the ball, on the same day that our offense doesn’t do just enough to get by this time. You can see it, can’t you? Week 18? Wildcard round, if we make it?
I’m getting a little too into just-our-luck stuff here, but the point stands – we can’t lean too much on one phase. Defense won’t save us every week. Myles Price won’t scorch 80 yards for our first punt return TD in 10 years every week. Will Reichard can’t kick all our points. We need the offense to do something.
I think this is a pertinent attitude to apply to our head coach spot, too. “Can’t we just go to the other guy” is an impulse expressed about our coach as often as our QB at the moment, but for me, there’s nowhere near enough evidence that Flores taking over would right any of our wrongs.
He already has full rein over his scheme. He already has tremendous influence on draft picks. I do buy that he’s lived and learned from his well-documented issues with Tua Tagovailoa, and the willingness to be open about things like that is a huge positive in my book.
But just taking the guy on the successful side of the ball and putting him in charge still leaves us needing a schematic overhaul on offense. Look, I’m not opposed entirely to the idea of head coach Flores, but what about our current maladies does it fix?
We’re 3-0, though… like, we very much are still 3-0!
This was the weirdest very normal football game for a billion reasons, not all of which were about the game. But gang… we won it. We won it despite no Justin Jefferson for more than half of it. We won it despite Murray seemingly having to rewrite the playbook as he went.
Nasty, strange games will happen, and winning them is better than the alternative. And sure, this has an undeniable echo of the 2016 5–0 to 8–8 trajectory about it, but man, who’s to say? The offensive impotence is incredibly frustrating, but if even a couple of wee bits get tweaked, things suddenly look a lot better and the positives start to pay off more!
Maybe next time someone calls a good defensive game against us, everything Kyler canned into becomes plan A rather than plan B! Maybe Will Reichard actually DOES kick all of our points actually that’s not sustainable never mind I just love him.
So wait, what are you telling me, Charles? Should I feel good or bad?
You should feel like you picked the wrong team if you need to know that. Vikings football is unknowable. See you next week!
Do you want to have your say about an upcoming Vikings game? Is something really grinding your gears? You can have your say right here in Skol from the Sofa. Just drop us an email at UKVikingsFanClub@gmail.com or send us a DM on any of our social media channels.