SKOL from the Sofa
2025 Week 15 – Vikings at Cowboys

A victory in primetime isn’t exactly what Vikings fans are used to so far this season, let alone recording back-to-back victories in 2025. But that’s what they did against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Breaking down the highs and lows of this week’s performance, content writer Jonathan Pye is back with this week’s SKOL from the Sofa.

Sunday night’s display at Jerry World was a defiant and resolute performance. The Vikings appear to be playing down the home stretch of the season with the mantra that we may have been eliminated early, but you will be joining us in Cancun in early January too! Will the Thrill outkicked Brandon Aubrey – statistically one of the best kickers of all time – while McCarthy and the offense outscored the number one offense in the league among many metrics and winning a shootout on prime time Sunday football. The defense never broke even though the soft zone gave up many an explosive play to CeeDee and co. Sunday night was a reminder that there is still talent on this team and all we needed this season was statistically average quarterback play to make a run at it.

Kevin O’Connell, where was this scheme in week one?

The offense the last two games has been humming to a tune we hadn’t seen all season. Why has it taken 13 weeks and approaching elimination from the playoffs to change the offensive playcalling? We know Kevin O’Connell prefers an intermediate passing game over the middle and running for running’s sake, but the team wasn’t built for that style this year. It was great to see coach simplify things.

The bootleg on the fourth down that resulted in a touchdown was the play design of the night. The design was so good it even fooled the All-22 camera operator behind the goal, who thought Mason had carried the ball into the pile. I have to say it fooled me too! The rushing touchdown C. J. Ham had in the second half was also superbly design. It has been so good seeing Ryan Kelly back; he’s a man mountain in short yardage situations and created a huge hole for Ham to exploit.

On a more general note, it’s been good to see McCarthy being more accurate and at times applying more touch to the ball. PFF credited McCarthy with four big-time throws and no turnover-worthy plays with a grade of 91.9. Additionally McCarthy leads the league in big-time throw rate this season at 7.7%. This is intrinsically linked to the playcalling. As the game went on, O’Connell grew in confidence in McCarthy’s play and opened the playbook up more, throwing more on first down and running the ball less.

McCarthy had another superb throw to Jalen Nailor on the exact same route that killed off Detroit on 4th-and-3 deep into the second half on Sunday. Another exceptional play was the first touchdown to Nailor, who was entirely covered. McCarthy had to throw the ball 40 yards in the air down the field, he did so to perfection and Nailor did the rest, the catch of the game from him. The tight ends continued to have increased production and the throw up the seam to T. J. Hockenson was an absolute missile. It was precise into a small window the type of throw we haven’t seen from McCarthy this season. You could see Justin Jefferson was impressed, breaking out into a round of applause.

A word of caution

It’s been great to see McCarthy’s production improve, but it’s important to remember that the increased production has come against the 32nd and 31st passing defenses in the league. That being said, the Cowboys defense has been far better since the trade deadline, and it’s fair to say beating a Cowboys team who are still in playoff contention in a primetime game is far more impressive than beating up on the Commanders.

The Giants and Lions defenses are a marked improvement on the past two defenses McCarthy has played but still bottom third of the league, and even without Micah Parsons, the Packers still defense is still a threat when you consider that they were a top five unit without him last year and still have much of the same personnel playing at a high level. Cris Carter’s criticisms were also valid that expectations have dropped so low that beating up on two bad defenses made the fanbase excited and that standards had dropped.

It’s a huge disappointment that McCarthy and Jefferson don’t have a connection on the field. It seems that McCarthy tries too hard when he’s targeting Jefferson, with ball placement and touch usually an issue, although Jefferson did drop a touchdown pass in the end zone which is unlike him. Let’s hope we can get Jefferson up to 1,000 yards for the season to keep his shot at beating Mike Evans’ record further down the line alive.

Red zone defense covers overall deficiencies

There is a lack of speed on the defense and it really shows against a team like the Cowboys with two elite wideouts like Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. There was so many weak spots in our zones that were exploited at times. It appears that Harrison Smith is avoiding contact now and without wanting to retire a future Hall of Fame calibre player he is no longer up to the standard that he was even five years ago. Father Time is inevitable and hits everyone eventually.

Tackling as usual was very poor at times and it felt like every time we didn’t blitz, we would give up an explosive play. However, the “bend, don’t break” defense hasn’t given up a passing touchdown in five games and on fourth down in the fourth quarter – on the play where Greenard got his season ending injury Eric Wilson – did a superb job of keeping the receiver behind the line to gain. Eric Wilson has been the MVP of the defense this season, a coming-out party at the age of 31, and will get paid handsomely in the offseason by someone.

A mixed bag on special teams

Will the Thrill was as reliable as ever, converting all his extra points and his 53-yarder iced the game in the fourth quarter. He outkicked Brandon Aubrey, who missed as many kicks in this game as he had done the whole rest of the season, missing from 51 and 59 yards. Ryan Wright only won the punting competition this season due to his field goal holding, and with all the three and outs on offense, he’s had lots of punting practice. This season, he’s only had one touchback and has been back to his rookie season levels. The special teams coverage has been very poor all season. Turpin looked like he’d break a return to the house off every kickoff, and of course Ivan Pace was sleeping on the Brandon Aubrey fake field goal in the first quarter. If Aubrey had thrown the ball to the uncovered receiver, it would have been a touchdown.

A look ahead to the last three games

For this team, it’s not beneficial to tank out. We need to know what we have at quarterback and what we have to bring in next season at the position. Is it just a veteran presence who is a capable spot starter? Is it someone who can compete with McCarthy? Does McCarthy end the season so poorly we draft someone else? Of course, there is the scenario where some would argue that all becomes irrelevant if a player like Joe Burrow is available on the trade market, but I think it’s highly unlikely that he leaves Cincinnati.

We need to see more young players get game time. We should shut down Darrisaw for the remainder of the season and see what we have in Walter Rouse. Equally it is a huge opportunity for Dallas Turner who has been improving as of late to take the role of Greenard. Guys like Tai Felton, Xavier Scott and Jay Ward need more exposure too as they offer something we are lacking in areas which is speed. Overall, there is a great opportunity to end the season with a 9–8 record and try to wreak havoc in the NFC playoff race.

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