Lopsided Vikings Effort Gives Way to 3 Alarming Issues
The Vikings effort on Sunday Night Football wasn’t anywhere close to good enough.
The magic from J.J. McCarthy? Nowhere to be found in Week 2. The game was — putting it kindly — lopsided. A reasonably humdrum Falcons team was dominant for the duration of the night, leading to a pile of issues for Minnesota to confront as Week 2 quickly moves into Week 3.
The Brutal Vikings Effort in 3 Issues
Issue #1 — Roster Health Gets Worse
Over on PurplePTSD, Janik Eckardt offers a summary of where things stand.
Both of Ryan Kelly and Justin Skule needed to step away from the game due to concussions, further depleting the offensive line. Backup edge rusher Gabriel Murphy was taken out of the game. Starting running back Aaron Jones has a hamstring problem.
Partner these new injuries with the ongoing recoveries for Harrison Smith, Christian Darrisaw, Blake Cashman, Jeff Okudah, and Andrew Van Ginkel (among others). The roster is in a difficult spot.
Kevin O’Connell needs to summon all of his coaching might to put depth players aplenty in a position to succeed. The Week 6 bye is looking ultra important.
Issue #2 — Numerous Numbers are Ugly
Want to see something scary before Halloween? Just pull up the details from the Vikings and Falcons from Week 2. Consider a small smattering:
- The Vikings Possessed the Football for 23:28
- The Falcons Thus Sat at 36:32
- The Vikings Were 36.4% on 3rd Downs
- MIN Allowed 6 Sacks
- MIN Had 218 Rushing Yards Against
- MIN Generated 78 Rushing Yards
- Scoring 6 Points
Surely, there are plenty more details from the Vikings effort that could get tossed into the list above, but safe to say that things were ugly.
Truth be told, Kevin O’Connell’s offense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain. The defense does need to be stingier defending the run, but Brian Flores’ crew did a really nice job overall. The same cannot be said for an offense that’s littered with talent.
Issue #3 — J.J. McCarthy Looks Overwhelmed by the NFL
The greatest issue of all: J.J. McCarthy doesn’t look like an NFL quarterback.
Nobody would have requested the outcome from last season, but McCarthy’s season-ending knee injury was supposed to come with a hidden benefit. The kid who got chosen at No. 10 didn’t face any pressure to start because his body wouldn’t allow for it. Instead, spend the year soaking in the mental side of the NFL. Come back better as a result.
Mr. McCarthy, now healthy, is playing very poor football overall. He’s sitting on a 1-1 record. He has completed 58.5% of his passes for 301 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions. Getting sacked 9 times — and hit plenty more — is partially his fault, as well.
So much of the plan for the offseason was to lift the burden off of McCarthy’s 22-year-old shoulders. Kevin O’Connell has firsthand experience playing quarterback in the NFL, so he wisely opted to surround his young QB1 with support aplenty. And while some of that support has been eroded by injury, the point remains: McCarthy should be better.
The issue, of course, is that we don’t live in the world of should. Great plans fall apart routinely, as the Vikings are understanding due to firsthand experience.
The Vikings’ 2025, for better or worse, is largely going to be defined be whether the sophomore passer can offer average (or better) football rather than horrible play.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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