Vikings Continue to Tumble in NFC North
The NFL remains an utter mess. Sure, it’s not absolutely awful, but this year’s version of NFL football seems to miss anything really fun. Teams are experiencing up and down wins, with the most exciting moment being the Broncos’ comeback in the 4th quarter on Sunday against the Giants.
Minnesota Vikings’ slide in NFC North continues as injuries, inconsistency, and rising division rivals expose flaws amid a brutally competitive race.
Last week, the Giants were on top of the world after beating the Eagles with Jaxon Dart and Cam Skattebo talking smack and removing shirts in the postgame interview. Now it feels like they’re back to not being a good team again. While the NFC North had some interesting games, they were mostly ugly on Sunday.
The NFC North Remains Brutally Competitive
The NFC North is starting to take shape, and it’s not looking good for the Vikings. Even though the team has battled injuries, the Eagles were looking ripe for another loss after losing to the Giants the week before. The Vikings were getting several players back in the mix on offense and defense.
Vikings vs Eagles
The Vikings have been limping through their wins and losses the last few weeks, almost literally. Kevin O’Connell had his 15th offensive line rotation this weekend in only week 7. The one positive aspect of that is that it is closer to the starting lineup we expected at the beginning of the season.
Christian Darrisaw, Donovan Jackson, Will Fries, and Brian O’Neill all started and played the entire game, and played pretty well. Blake Brandel was in at center for his second game of his career after playing very well against the Browns two weeks ago.
However, he struggled this weekend against Jalen Carter and others, and a bad call from the referees wiped out a touchdown. It was nice to not only have CJ Ham back the last few weeks, but also to see him get one of his signature catches out of the backfield.
The Eagles started on offense and drained the first quarter clock on the opening drive with Hurts throwing to AJ Brown for a touchdown after the pass rush didn’t get to him. It felt like the Vikings took the Eagles’ best shots, though, and could regain momentum quickly.
The Vikings moved down the field quickly with a big pass by Carson Wentz to Jordan Addison and Jordan Mason, making some of his signature strong runs. The Vikings reached the 19-yard line before Wentz had a series of terrible throws. Then, Brandel hiked the ball too high, and Wentz had to chase it down to at least secure a Will Reichard 59-yard field goal.
And that seems to be the theme of the team this year. Any little hiccup of a bad play, penalty, or loss of yards, and not only do drives seem to collapse, but the entire game. The rest of the game was marked by miscues on offense that compounded the struggle, accentuating any small mistake on defense. The defense was fairly solid for the most part against a team with an offense that has been difficult for anyone to fully contain over the last few years.
In the Vikings’ second drive, Brandel got brushed aside by Jalen Carter, and Wentz rifled a ball right to the other team for a pick 6.
The next drive started poorly and just got worse. After a holding call on Josh Oliver backed them up ten yards, Wentz hesitated on a pass and then threw to the running back backwards and out of bounds to lose more yardage.
Wentz followed that up by rolling out to his right and throwing another interception on an ill-advised pass. Luckily, the defense toughed it out and made them punt on a three-and-out.
The next drive, Wentz seemed to settle down, drove the field, and threw a nice high one-on-one pass that Justin Jefferson should have pulled in, but had it poked out by Cooper Dejean. Wentz then proceeded to overthrow Jalen Nailor significantly and then hit him on the next play for the touchdown, which the officials unfortunately and wrongly took away, calling Brandel for the hold.
The defense continued to hold, with a telling stat that on the first drive, the Eagles went 75 yards on 12 plays for a touchdown, but since then, they had only gone 8 yards on 9 plays, with their last three series all being 3-and-outs.
The beginning of the second half was the epitome of Wentz’s performance, as the team wasted no time, with Myles Price returning the kick to the 48-yard line and some great runs by Jordan Mason to get the ball to the 9-yard line.
For some odd reason, on 2nd down, Wentz decided not to throw the ball to a wide-open CJ Ham and instead dumped the ball forward, resulting in an intentional grounding penalty that backed up the team again and forced Will Reichard to kick yet another field goal.
That was Wentz all day, throwing the ball short of open receivers, throwing balls that were difficult for receivers to catch, or making terrible decisions and causing penalties or turnovers. After the intentional grounding, the TV camera caught O’Connell and Wentz interacting, and the coach’s face reflected what fans felt and how he looked at former defensive coordinator Ed Donatell back in 2022, which harkened back to his eventual firing.
I could go on to discuss how the Vikings valiantly fought back and kept themselves in the game after they finally got Mason into the end zone, and then the Eagles missed a field goal that propelled the Vikings to a win, but it didn’t. The Vikings beat themselves more than the Eagles beat them.
They now have a short week to face the Chargers on Thursday night, with questions surrounding who the starting quarterback should be, though Wentz was tabbed to start Tuesday by O’Connell.
Bears vs Saints
I want to say that this was a “trap game” that the Bears stumbled over, and the Saints surprised everyone. I had hoped that would happen, but I didn’t actually feel that it would be the case. While the Bears didn’t exactly dominate New Orleans, they never really lost control of the game.
Caleb Williams had poor stats with no touchdowns and an interception, but that didn’t matter much. The Bears should have dominated more than they did on their home field, and the Saints did keep it interesting. It was inevitable that they would eventually fail and the Bears would get a win.
Williams had a terrible game, but then he didn’t need to be great with D’Andre Swift and rookie running back Kyle Monangai running all over the field, with Swift getting 124 yards and Monangai getting 81. When you rush for 205 yards and your defense nets 4 turnovers, throwing the ball isn’t going to be very necessary.
Packers at Cardinals
While the game wasn’t delayed, the Packers’ flight the day before was due to mechanical issues with their plane. Since the Cardinals are one of those teams that can jump up and bite you, as they’ve only lost their game by a total of 13 points, their wins were over the Saints and the Panthers, which isn’t saying much.
The mediocre play of the NFL as a whole sets up almost every game as a potential loss. The Packers haven’t played much better than anyone else in the league, and Arizona started Jacoby Brissett, who took the Cardinals into the locker room at halftime with the lead.
Arizona held the lead into the 4th quarter, and it looked like they had a chance to have a quality win over the Packers. Jordan Love heated up as the game went on and took advantage of the Cardinals’ missteps.
On their own 49-yard line, Arizona tried to sneak on a 4th and long one, and the Packers got the stop. The Packers then had a 4th and 1 and converted on a pass to Tucker Kraft with 2:26 left in the game. This led to Josh Jacobs running in his second touchdown of the day, giving the Raiders the lead.
Impressively, the Cardinals marched down the field and were threatening to score a touchdown and take the lead, but a bad pass by Brissett that fell incomplete near the end zone allowed the Packers to go home with the win.
Lions vs Buccaneers
A Monday night matchup of two good teams was likely to swing the Bucs’ way, with the Lions once again facing injury issues on defense. Defensive backs Terrion Arnold, Avonte Maddox, and Kerby Joseph were all out for this game.
This should have been great news for Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans, as they would be able to pass around the field while playing in the comfortable confines of Ford Field. By the 2nd quarter, that all fell apart, with Evans being lost not only for the game but possibly for the entire season due to a concussion and a broken collarbone.
Even with the patchwork defensive backfield of the Lions, the Buccaneers struggled to get anything going consistently. They had to play with a backup right tackle, Charlie Heck, who faced Aiden Hutchinson for most of the game, and that’s a recipe for disaster: Hutchinson and the defensive line covered up for the losses in the backfield by constantly pressuring Mayfield.
The Bucs made it interesting by scoring a touchdown, but didn’t make the 2-point conversion.
Like the Bears game, Jared Goff didn’t have to put the entire game on himself because Jamyr Gibbs was lighting it up with 136 yards on the ground and another 82 through the air. Mayfield never could get into a rhythm and was sailing throws high to his receivers all game. Needless to say, the Lions faced a bit of adversity with grace and got a decisive win at home.
Division Standings
Just as a reminder, these are how I see the teams, and they don’t necessarily reflect the records. Not much has changed, as neither have the wins and losses, nor who the teams played.
- Lions
- Packers
- Bears
- Vikings
The Lions beat another quality team, the Buccaneers, despite having their defensive backfield banged up. The Packers barely beat an Arizona team that has respectfully kept games close but struggles to finish with a win. The Bears’ victory over the Saints isn’t much to brag about either, as New Orleans is just a mess all over.
The Vikings could have made a move this weekend if they had beaten the Eagles like they should have. While the Eagles are good, they are currently in a blame spiral, pointing fingers at each other.
The Vikings won’t win games unless they resolve their quarterback situation, and whoever plays does so at a high enough level. Wentz may be a bit banged up, but his decisions and bad throws were more on him. If his injured shoulder is the issue, he should be more honest about it so that the coaching staff can make an informed decision about adjusting things.
I don’t think that’s his issue. He’s just not good enough with the talent around him that should be able to rescue him from time to time. McCarthy might not fair better, but the Vikings are at the full tipping point of putting him out there to see what they have and to get him reps.
No matter what, the Vikings need to get back on the winning track and stay there if they want this season to be resurrected and have any chance of even sniffing the playoffs.
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