SKOL from the Sofa

2024 Week 8 – Vikings at Rams

The Vikings – when we’re good, we’re good; when we’re bad, we’re horrible!

Where to start? No pressure from the defense, terrible coverage on the back end, the consistently inconsistent punting performance from Ryan Wright, the potentially long-term injury to Darrisaw on the last play of the half, the lack of any offense outside Jefferson and Jones…

One thing that is for sure is Sam Darnold is not the reason we lost the game. He had a good game (18–24, 240 yards, 128.8 passer rating, two touchdowns), but context matters. It was clear to see which quarterback had a ring and which was on his fourth team before the age of 28. That said, Sam Darnold’s cap is $10 million and when you compare to the performances of Kirk Cousins in prime time in the past six years, was there really much difference in their performances? When his cap so relatively low, it’s not unrealistic to expect more from the other elements of the team and call out those that weren’t good enough.

 

Not so Super Sammy Darnold?

From a cheap quarterback, his performance was acceptable; he’s fine, he makes some solid throws and will have a couple bad moments each game, but he’s too reliant on simply listening to everything KOC says. For example, his biggest mistake today was missing the open touchdown to Jordan Addison and a poor decision to throw the ball to Nailor on 3rd-and-4 in the 4th quarter instead of taking what the defence gives and running it and getting the first down or close to it.

Maybe the most worrying issue is the fact that our offensive play calling tonight was atrocious. After the first 15 scripted plays, which are always amazing and gave us 14 points on our first two drives, we were ineffective and only scored six points the rest of the game. At times, it just feels like we play not to lose rather than playing to win. It should be obvious to the coach in the game that our defense was struggling terribly. He should have been aggressive. Fundamentally, he should have gone for it on 4th-and-3 in the fourth quarter before the Rams went down to add the winning score; instead we settled for a field goal.

Additionally, on our third drive in the first half where we had 3rd-and-25, that would have been the perfect opportunity to throw a deep ball to Jefferson. If you’re going to punt it away anyway, you may as well take a shot down the field rather than check it down for 9 yards like they did. There was no danger of needing any more room to punt we were on our own 40 yard line. After all, sometimes they seem to forget Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the game. He is always open, especially if the miracle one-handed catch is anything to go by, which was simply superb.

 

Come back Hock

Without doubt, this team is in desperate need of T.J. Hockenson to make a comeback. He opens up the middle of the field and the intermediate throws. Fundamentally, he is the quarterback’s best friend. We need to have a conversation about Jordan Addison, what does he offer? He can’t separate at this point with his off the field malarkey; we would be better off trading him. However, Addison is not the reason we lost today…

The defence was atrocious. We couldn’t sack the quarterback; with too much man-for-man coverage for our old corners and not enough safety help, we were so ineffective we may as well have only rushed three and the extra help in pass coverage would have been more effective. I thought we had seen the end of Ed Donatell – feels like he’s made an unwanted reappearance. Fundamentally, we have no talent on the interior of the defensive line. With where we are in our team building, it wouldn’t make sense to trade for a Dexter Lawrence, but a late-round pick swap for someone like DeForest Buckner may be a better move. We need another body who can stop the run and equally rush the passer a little better.

Moving forward, even though he has five sacks this season, Pat Jones should not be seeing the field over Dallas Turner. All you have to do is compare him to Jared Verse and the effect he is having for the Rams and the way that he played tonight. We should all be rooting for Richardson to have a good game on Sunday because it seems to be a theme that older veteran quarterbacks are picking our defense apart for the last 10 quarters in a row; first there was Rodgers’ second half in London, then Goff and the Lions, and tonight Stafford was superb with the short and screen game, which for the first time made our corners look like they were in their mid-30s.

 

It might be Halloween, but you cant take another guys mask!

Let’s not forget the role of the refs tonight. At the bare minimum there were two dubious flags that kept touchdown drives alive. I was surprised when they didn’t throw a flag when Byron Murphy intercepted the overthrown Stafford ball. While it didn’t actually cost us the game, it is simply inexplicable how they missed the facemask on Sam Darnold, it was the worst decision I’ve ever seen.

Going forward, it’s important to remember that before the season, we would have been shocked and would most certainly settle for a 5–2 record. However, it’s becoming more and more apparent just how damaging the previous two draft classes were to this year. Our depth is questionable at best and a result of this is that we are really suffering at positions like cornerback and defensive tackle. Let’s hope Cashman is back next week – he is the key to the defense and without him, Ivan Pace looked distinctly average and had another poor game. Christian Darrisaw is going to be a major miss; it is clear to see when he was out of the game just how effective he is at keeping the pocket clean for Darnold. Onwards and hopefully upwards.

By Jonathan Pye