PART 1: The Vikings are THE BEST 0-2 Team in the NFL…Come At Me!
AJ Mansour
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So the Minnesota Vikings are 0-2 on the season, bummer. That’s bottom of the division, bottom of the league, bottom of the barrel around the board. But if you follow this team as closely as I do, you’re probably hearing a few different narratives being tossed about. It might be as simple as identifying the optimists from the pessimists and calling it a day. Or it might be a little deeper than that.
So in the first part of this (at least) two part “Come At Me” series, today we’ll take the high road and discuss why the Minnesota Vikings are the most exciting 0-2 football team in all of the NFL.
*Not feeling the optimism this early in the morning? Then PART 2 is definitely for you! It represents the other side of the coin and why the Vikings are THE WORST 0-2 team in the league!
So here we go.
The Minnesota Vikings have lost each of their first two games of the 2021 season, but all hope is not lost for this team.
When you look across the league and see the other 0-2 teams you’ll see many perennial bottom feeders like the Jaguars, Lions, Giants and the Jets. Mix in the Colts and Falcons in there as well and the Vikings just don’t feel like they belong. And they probably don’t.
Coming out of the gates uber slow against the Cincinnati Bengals was really disappointing. I know that was a game that almost everybody had chalked up as a win for this team. But despite the way the game ended, they were a questionable fumble call away from coming back to win that game in overtime.
Then this last week against a much better Arizona Cardinals team and the Vikings went shot for shot with them, ultimately coming within a 37-yard field goal from landing the knockout blow against a team that many think can compete for a super bowl.
Mind you, both of these games were on the road where it’s never easy to win. In fact, many teams realistically strive to go .500 on the road, win a majority of their home games and cruise into the playoffs under that plan. Starting the season with back-to-back road games is never ideal anyway, but coming within one play of winning in each of them should give this team some hope.
Additionally, no team in the NFL is above stumbling out of the gates a little bit so while it was disappointing that the Vikings lost to the Bengals, it’s not entirely surprising. Due to injuries and an abundance of caution, important pieces on both sides of the football didn’t play this preseason, so week one was really the first real action some of these players had seen and the first snaps they had played with some of their new teammates. There’s a ramp up, an acclimation period that all players go through each season. The Vikings just were a bit slower to go than the Bengals in this manner.
Week-to-week then, the Vikings looked like a completely different team against the Arizona Cardinals. The mental mistakes and penalties were gone, not tallying an infraction until the third quarter. The offense was clicking on all cylinders moving the ball both through the air and on the ground. The offensive line was giving Kirk time to throw, not allowing a sack until the second half and only one on the day. They were also busting open holes for Dalvin Cook to hit running full speed out of the backfield. Defensively, they yielded a lot of yards and points to a good offense, sure. But they were able to get a lot of pressure on Murray as well notching three sacks and a bunch of QB hurries throughout the game. Had they not been playing a freak athlete in Kyler Murray with weapons all over the field, the Vikings would have won this game easy.
Kirk Cousins is playing good football too. This week was certainly one of his more impressive performances as the Vikings quarterback. He looked like he was in full control of the team’s offense on Sunday. He was hitting tough throws, coming up in big spots and his statistics showed that. He’s fourth in the league for TDs on the season and it’s tough to blame him for either of the teams losses.
To the contrary, you could even go as far as to say that Kirk Cousins put the Vikings in positions two win each of the last two weeks despite mistakes made in other areas that led them to tough spots. Two weeks in a row now Kirk has led the Vikings on two-minute drives offering them opportunities to win games that they had no business winning. Last week the two-minute drive led to a made field goal and overtime. Then in overtime he was leading the team down the field again into field goal position when the unbelievable fumble call popped up. And this week, he led them down the field and put them in an amazing position for a chance to win on a chip shot field goal. Both scenarios could have, even should have led the Vikings to a win and we’d feel a whole lot different about this team being 2-0 rather than 0-2.
And finally, there are no other 0-2 teams in the league right now when looking at their roster you would have confidence about flipping the season around more than the Vikings. They have dynamic players in Dalvin Cook, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen and Kirk Cousins on offense. They have the same on defense when you look at Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks, Danielle Hunter et all. It’s not as if they are devoid of talent, it just hasn’t worked out so far and due to mistakes they’ve shot themselves in the foot. If they played their game, this very Vikings team that sits at 0-2 on the year could go out there and beat any team in the NFL. You simply cannot say that about the other winless teams.
Get Barr healthy, get Darrisaw in the game, sprinkle in some Wyatt Davis and stop making such costly mistakes and there’s a lot to be excited about surrounding this team.
Remember, there are 17 games this season and an extra team makes the playoffs as well. All of these super negative facts and percentages that you’re seeing shared around on social media do not account for either of those scenarios, it’s a whole new league compared to the one they are referencing and the Vikings are the most likely to flip that script and prove all of those haters wrong.
To be frank, they are THE MOST EXCITING and THE BEST 0-2 team in all of the National Football League this season!
And for all of you who disagree with this stance…COME AT ME!
*Not feeling the optimism this early in the morning? Then PART 2 is definitely for you! It represents the other side of the coin and why the Vikings are THE WORST 0-2 team in the league!