SKOL from the Sofa
2025 Week 5 – Vikings at Browns – London

Another London game, another London win, and a stadium so purple we struggled to find anyone who watched this one from home! This week’s game review from Charles Wheeler is more of a Skol from the Stands. Read on to find out what he made of Sunday’s last-minute win over the Browns and what lies in store after the bye week.

Funny one, that. As I walked back up Fore Street in the evening sun, among the sea of purple that always takes over London games, it felt like the mightiest of victories. When I got back to my car and took a little peek at the online reaction, it suddenly turned into a blowout loss. On reflection, it was… both? Can it be both? It felt like both, man. Let’s talk about it.

The O-line was not the problem

Starting with two second-stringers protecting the QB and a third-stringer snapping him the ball against one of the league’s better D-lines was somehow not an absolute slaughter. Myles Garrett was held mostly in check, with a 41% chip block rate helping Justin Skule keep the Browns’ pass rush ace at bay. They got pressures and a couple of sacks, but none game-endingly devastating. Blake Brandel had an iffy snap but held up astonishingly well for his first NFL start at the position. So what was the issue?

Oh right, yeah, Carson Wentz is still Carson Wentz. Oh my god is he ever Carson Wentz! KOC helped his QB2 out massively this week, with more easy, quick-game throws and a continued maturation of his situational playcalling, and Wentz showed a capability to get rid of the ball quickly – but capability is not inclination, and most of Wentz’s pressures came from holding on waaay too long. In particular, he was infuriating in his tendency to pump-fake wide open receivers, second-guess and end up scrambling his not-particularly-mobile frame, usually finishing short of the sticks. I don’t know how this came across on TV, but in the stadium, the abundance of open receivers Wentz either turned down or just flat out didn’t see was astonishing.

Some will point to the ambiguity of O’Connell’s answer in the press conference as to who starts after the bye, but make no mistake about it: this is J. J. McCarthy’s team and there’s reason to be excited about that. He can make throws Wentz can’t. He’ll put the ball in spots that don’t rely on Justin Jefferson being the absolute best receiver in football to bring them in. When he scrambles, he’ll do it well and for good reason. Wentz is not the guy and never will be, gang. Let’s remember that game-winning drive, and move on together.

No seriously, dude, where’s my run defense?

We got absolutely slashed apart again folks. I haven’t seen the snap counts, but it looked to me like Redmond and LDR were out there an awful lot, and Hargrave and Allen were kept back until the red zone, and what that meant was the Browns pounded their way downfield with Quinshon Judkins. We majorly, desperately need to patch this up, because it’s cost us two games and really should’ve cost us three.

On the flipside, I thought Dallas Turner looked outstanding, with a lot of decisive activity in the Browns backfield. If he keeps playing like this, then the choice between him and Van Ginkel becomes a lot more difficult. What a lovely problem to have!

Please examine your choices, Jordan Addison

Number 3 was stood on the sideline, fully suited up, for the entire first quarter. This was later confirmed to be a disciplinary decision, punishment for a missed walkthrough, with the scuttlebutt being that he stayed out too late and was hung over the following day. Fortunately, once he was in there, he was Paul Flatley reincarnated, snagging the game-winning TD in a fashion that will quiet the talk about his off-field behaviour. But that behaviour already cost him 3¼ games this year. We need Addison to grow up, and fast. Let’s all hope he can.

Despite the win, there is hope

It’s such a weird feeling to be so nitpicky after a win. That won’t stop this fanbase doing it after every single win, of course, and far be it from me to buck the trend. There’s a lot that the 2025 Minnesota Vikings need to fix if we’re gonna come out of this post-bye stretch (Eagles, Chargers, Lions, Ravens, if you weren’t aware) with a respectable record, and not all of it has an obvious solution. But we won, guys. We won that game. We are able to win games we shouldn’t. We have enough of those coming to be a concern, and 3–6 in five weeks’ time is definitely not impossible, but we can snatch ’em if the chances are there. That’s something. Something inscrutable, but definitely something.

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.