This could all be forgotten in a week because that's just how the NFL works.
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.
