SKOL from the Sofa
2025 Week 13 – Vikings at Seahawks

A fourth straight defeat for the Vikings, a third different starter under center, and the season looks like it might be beyond saving. Breaking down what went wrong against the Seahawks and what the organisation might have to do to fix things, join Conor Tait for another SKOL from the Sofa.

A quick numbers check

Entering Week 13 with a record of 4–7, the Vikings could mathematically still finish on 10 wins. This, however, would require winning every remaining game. Ironically, this was the win total that their opponents on Sunday, Seattle, amassed last season, only to agonisingly miss out on a playoff spot. Normally 10 wins allows you to squeak in, but anything less is really pushing it. This year, it honestly may even be 11 wins to make the wild card cut, that’s how topheavy the NFC is. Long story short, Max: Sunday = must win.

Looking from the Seattle perspective, Sunday was also a “gotta have it” kind of day. Sitting at 8–3, the Seahawks are in a prime position to make a push for the NFC’s #1 seed. In addition, moments before kickoff on Sunday, the ‘Hawks received some added incentive in the form of the Rams’ surprising loss in Carolina.

The ex-girlfriend catch-up

There will be plenty of dedicated articles to the Minnesota quarterback situation – Sam this, Daniel that. Look, the Vikings made their choice. As ever with break-ups, there’s often a winner and a loser. The Vikings parted ways with Sam Darnold in the hopes of finding The One in the form of J. J. McCarthy. Sam on the other hand, feeling underappreciated after all he’d done, left for a fresh start with somebody who valued him appropriately.

The McCarthy situation feels a little more like an arranged marriage than love at first sight at the moment. Make no mistake, however, this was a very conscious decision and the direction chosen by the organisation. As things stand, Minnesota is certainly losing this break-up and their wandering eye, which has already seen them experiment with Carson Wentz, is now fixed firmly on Max Brosmer.

Supporting cast

Statistically speaking, there was absolutely no way Brosmer should have been starting an NFL regular season game. He went undrafted and was signed as a UDFA by the Vikings to compete for a back-up role. Despite the long odds, Brosmer was starting the game on Sunday against one of the league’s best defenses in one of the league’s most hostile environments. He would almost certainly need some help from his teammates and coaching staff. He didn’t get much…

Let me start on a positive note, however: the Vikings defense came to play at Lumen Field. Dallas Turner looked elite for the first time since being selected along with McCarthy in the first round of last year’s draft. Coach Flo was dialling up the blitzes, and in all honesty, Seattle didn’t have an answer. Darnold was under serious duress for most of the first half and saw a number of protections break down right in front of him. Minnesota forced two fumbles of the ‘Hawks offense, the latter of which they recovered to set Brosmer and company up immediately in the red zone just a few minutes before the end of the first half. Paired with the fact that the defense had held Seattle to just three points, Minnesota had the opportunity to take the lead.

Un-supporting cast

Brosmer had everything stacked against him on Sunday. So when the game finally got under way and he stepped up early to rip a perfect in-cut to Addison, it felt like this was the moment the tension would be lifted. This was the big boy throw to settle the nerves, to show he belonged on this stage, to get the offense moving in the right direction, to make the Seahawks wary of his presence.

All Addison had to do was catch the ball. As a quarterback, however, you can’t control everything. You can’t catch the ball for your receivers, you can’t block for your linemen and you can’t make decisive cuts for your running back. Jordan Addison dropped the ball. Will Fries gave up a huge sack, and Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason couldn’t gain a yard in the run game.

All the protagonists had a day off it seems. The main protagonist didn’t even have any lines on Sunday. Justin Jefferson finished with four yards on two catches. This is when fingers begin to point in the direction of the guy who writes the script each week.

Fourth & worst possible outcome

As I prefaced earlier, the Vikings defense had done an outstanding job of keeping Seattle at bay. Minnesota found themselves – by virtue of their defense – set up in the redzone with an opportunity to either take the lead before half, or at very worst, tie the game at 3–3 with a field goal.

Personally, I would have been content sending Reichard on to tie the game up when faced with the fourth-and-short. Head coach Kevin O’Connell showed no doubt when faced with it, however, and continued with his aggressive style to try and convert the fourth down inside the 5-yard line. I understand the argument for this decision: you hope to convert, and if you don’t, Seattle are still pinned deep in their own territory, I do get it.

I’m sure the thought of a pick-six never even crossed KOC’s or Brosmer’s mind. What unfolded was literally the very worst case scenario. Look, it’s on Brosmer, you can’t throw it away like that, but, my goodness, the playcall didn’t help him. Brosmer was doomed from the get go, at best this was a massive 15-yard sack.

I am obviously not privy to the offensive verbiage Minnesota uses, but to make the point, we’ll call this play “PA HB Sprint Out”. This is normally an excellent play because it keeps the option there for the quarterback to either throw to the flat, throw above it if the corner plays flat or simply take off himself for the short yardage. However, it relies on the unblocked end to bite in some way on the play fake, which he most certainly didn’t. And why would he? This Vikings team can’t run the ball and KOC rarely, if ever, runs on key, short-yardage downs. The answer here, in my opinion, was to kick the field goal and tie the game up. Albeit sloppy, you’re level with an excellent opponent. The outcome was an insurmountable deficit and the game thrown away in one misguided flick of Brosmer’s wrist.

Half bad, half worse

The second half was arguably worse than the first. Sunday’s game saw the Vikings get shut out for the first time in 18 years. The Seahawks essentially had a padded practice as Jason Myers chipped away at the scoreboard to put Seattle further out of reach. Sam Darnold didn’t light it up, but he didn’t have to. He’s found himself in command of an excellent team and although he’s approaching the critical part of the season where he faltered last year, it’s so far so good for Sam and the Seahawks.

Brosmer and the Minnesota offense provided no spark, no beacon of light, no inspiration. Dropped balls, missed assignments, inaccurate incompletions and four painful interceptions. Sunday was a very difficult day to be associated in any way with the Minnesota Vikings. You do have to wonder how much longer guys like Justin Jefferson want to wear purple…

Pressure is looming

The NFL is a results-driven business. The results this year have not been good. In addition, the product on the field cannot be deemed merely as unfortunate, it’s rather been abysmal. This product has come about by way of a chain reaction of decisive decisions, made by the people who are paid a lot of money to steer the organisation in the right direction.

The Thursday night disaster in LA, the lifeless Lambeau showing and now Sunday’s Seattle shut-out. There will be fingers pointed back at TCO and blame will be brandished.

Next week, it’s Washington at home: two teams with basically no hope of reaching the playoffs. It is really hard to be in any way excited about this one. Make no mistake though, there are jobs on the line over these coming weeks.

Do you want to have your say about an upcoming Vikings game? Is something really grinding your gears? You can have your say right here in Skol from the Sofa. Just drop us an email at UKVikingsFanClub@gmail.com or send us a DM on any of our social media channels.