Vikings are Out of the Fire and Into the Lions’ Den
Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast
The Los Angeles Chargers, who came into last Thursday’s game with the wattage of a single AAA battery (losing three of their previous four games), demolished the Minnesota Vikings 37-10 and cast them to the basement of the NCF North Division. And the Vikings’ reward? A meeting in Detroit with the rested defending division champ Lions (coming off a bye) with the Vikings’ unproven first-year starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy returning behind center. What could go wrong? The overwhelming prospects are for a worse beatdown than the Chargers delivered and another nail in the coffin of the 2025 season.
McCarthy returns to the helm in the wake of a valiant but fruitless effort by Carson Wentz, who, in obvious pain, stayed in the game (and the constantly crumbling pocket) and suffered a beating like we haven’t seen since Archie Manning was sacked 11 times by the Chicago Bears on Oct. 28, 1984. (Wentz was placed on season-ending IR on Monday.) The offensive line was a shell of its former self, the running game non-existent, and the run defense showed less than that. Be very afraid, young J.J. Be very afraid. You will be running like mad to stay off the injury list from which you just returned.
This change of quarterbacks (which, as of this writing, features a second-year man with two professional games under his belt, backed up by a rookie with even less experience) will be the main subject of the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast, featuring Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com and Mark Craig, NFL and Vikings writer for the Star Tribune and startribune.com). The duo is sure to have some strong opinions the Vikings season and the current (and ongoing) quarterback situation—in which the latter has greatly affected the former and brought us to where we are. Tune in and check it out. Skol!
