This could all be forgotten in a week because that's just how the NFL works.
Sunday felt like the beginning of the end for the Vikings
There are still 10 games left and a lot could change. But Sunday's 20-16 loss to the Cowboys felt like one of those games.
November 1, 2021 at 4:38PM
The Vikings could go to Baltimore, rediscover some semblance of continuity and urgency, and beat the good but flawed Ravens to even their record at 4-4 and take the heat off for another week.
But that's not how this Vikings season, team or regime feel on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after a regrettable loss to Dallas and backup QB Cooper Rush.
Right now it doesn't feel like the end. But it feels like the beginning of the end — which Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.
All of the things that were concerns coming into the season, plus all of the things that became problems during the season, plus the existential dread that marks Vikings fans with decades of scars ... they were all on display Sunday night.
An offense that tends to lack creativity and craters whenever there is pressure up the middle? Oh, and that has looked wildly different on opening drives vs. the rest of the game? Yep, we saw that.
A top-heavy roster that makes it hard to sustain strong play whenever there are injuries? We saw it in the secondary with Patrick Peterson's absence. We saw it in the second half with Danielle Hunter out — possibly for a very long time, as our Ben Goessling first reported — and the Vikings unable to generate much of a pass rush.
A coaching philosophy that seems to come from a place of extreme conservatism and/or fear, which leads to games that are both closer than they need to be and decided at the very end? Oh yes, that was Sunday as well.
A defense that head coach Mike Zimmer seems to trust far more than the offense, even if clutch play this season tends to show it should be the other way around? For sure.
And now here we are. Adam Thielen was frustrated and speaking for everyone when he said this after Sunday's game: "Every game we just hang around, hang around, hang around, let a team hang around, instead of just putting our foot on the gas and going. We went down and scored on the first drive; we have to put our foot on the gas. I don't know what we need to do that, but we've been saying that since Week 1."
When you've been saying something for that long and nothing is changing, the next thing to wonder is when a bigger change might be.
No, this wasn't the end for the Vikings, for Zimmer, for Cousins. But it felt like you could see the end from U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday night.
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