Everyone has their favorite Christmas carol, but for me, it has to be the 12 Days of Christmas. No, this isn’t because Rowdy Roddy Piper had one of the best renditions known to man, but it’s a decent way to tell a story about an underachieving sports team during the holiday season.
This year, that means a Minnesota Vikings team that has fallen short of expectations. What started with hopes of an NFC North title have crumbled into an extremely slim chance of making the playoffs heading into Friday’s game with the New Orleans Saints.
To get into the Christmas spirit, we took a look at what the Vikings have given us this year and how it has led to where they are this season.
12 Yards Per Catch for Thielen
Hey, it’s not all that bad! Adam Thielen came into the season over age 30 and having been injured much of 2019, so there were whispers that the star receiver could be succumbing to Father Time. Even after losing his receiving battery mate in Stefon Diggs, Thielen has turned in a fine 2020 season, averaging 12.1 yards per catch and tying for third with 13 receiving touchdowns.
While it’s a little disappointing he scored on Sunday to alter the lyric, the Vikings don’t need to worry about Thielen heading into next offseason.
11 (Hundred) Yards for Jefferson
The departure of Diggs was the other worry at receiver. He’s become a focal point of the Buffalo Bills offense, but his replacement, Justin Jefferson, has quickly catapulted to superstar status, collecting 1,182 yards and seven touchdowns in his rookie season. With Jefferson also becoming the first Vikings rookie to make the Pro Bowl as a receiver since Randy Moss in 1998, general manager Rick Spielman will have to get the Philadelphia Eagles something real nice for opting to take Jalen Reagor instead.
10 Offensive Linemen
Minnesota’s offensive line continues to be an issue, as has been the case for the past decade. While Riley Reiff, Garrett Bradbury and Brian O’Neill have held down their spots, the Vikings have had a rotating cast at right guard.
Pat Elflein began the season but was eventually waived after a thumb injury. 2019 fourth-round pick Dru Samia graded 129th out of 131 guards this season per PFF. Ezra Cleveland stepped in out of necessity and showed flashes, and Brett Jones was solid while Cleveland missed two games due to injury.
With Dakota Dozier ranking 83rd out of 91 qualifiers, it’s a safe bet that all Kirk Cousins wants for Christmas is a new left guard. (Rashod Hill also made a cameo, but somehow stayed behind the scenes.)
9th ranked quarterback play
Speaking of Cousins, he’s had a polarizing year during his third season in Minnesota. On the positive side, Cousins ranks ninth among quarterbacks in terms of PFF’s overall grades and his 102.4 quarterback ranking is eighth among qualifying quarterbacks. On the other hand, Cousins’ performance had a lot of the things Vikings fans have become familiar with, such as pocket presence and a reluctance to push the ball downfield.
With 10 interceptions in the first six games, he was a key reason for the Vikings’ 1-5 start. With an over-reliance on the running game, it’s fair to ask what Cousins could do with a more offensive-minded head coach.
8 100-yard games for Dalvin Cook
The Vikings rolled the dice on Cook by handing him a five-year contract extension on the eve of the regular season. With a checkered injury history and the shelf life of running backs, there was a reason for concern, but Cook shelved those issues — at least for this season.
He has been dominant in the backfield, putting up eight games with over 100 yards rushing. With an overall total of 1,484 yards and a league-leading 15 rushing touchdowns, Cook made his second straight Pro Bowl and nearly willed the Vikings into the playoffs after a dismal start. The long-term effects of his usage remain to be seen, but for now, Cook has become one of the best running backs in the NFL.
7 Second-and-short runs
In Sunday’s loss against the Chicago Bears, the Vikings ran the ball seven times on second-and-short per Zone Coverage’s Sam Ekstrom. While Minnesota converted five of those opportunities, they left chances for bigger plays on the field. This has been an issue throughout the season and perhaps prevented Thielen, Jefferson and the rest of the Vikings’ passing attack from having an even bigger season.
This creates a bigger issue moving forward. With two top-tier receivers on the outside, the Vikings have to find a way to get the ball in their hands. Sure, their stats suggest that’s been the case, but a more aggressive approach could lead to a better season for Gary Kubiak‘s offense.
6 Missed Field Goals
Just as the Vikings appeared to make a charge for a playoff push, their dreams came to a crashing finish thanks to the right leg of Dan Bailey. As one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history, Bailey had been solid for the Vikings since his arrival in 2018. It was his late-season meltdown, however, that sealed Minnesota’s fate.
In two games against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bailey went 1-of-8 on his kicks. That total included four of his six missed field goals on the season and was a microcosm of a special teams unit that suffered from bad snaps, worse punt returns and poor coaching throughout the season.
5 Ngakoue Sacks
When the Vikings made the trade for Yannick Ngakoue, there was the expectation he’d be a key piece of the Vikings’ defense for years to come. Instead, he lasted just six games despite collecting five sacks. They Yankee Swapped him to the Baltimore Ravens, citing that Ngakoue wasn’t a fit for their defense. Perhaps now they wish they had kept the gift receipt.
What’s worse about this deal is that Ngakoue is still the Vikings’ leader in sacks. Again, Ngakoue hasn’t played for Minnesota since Week 6, so the combination of Shamar Stephen, Jaleel Johnson, Ifeadi Odenigbo and others weren’t able to pick up the slack. To add further insult to injury, the Vikings traded their second-round pick to acquire Ngakoue, which would be nice to have for a team with multiple holes heading into next offseason.
4th and 1 Failures
Last Sunday’s debacle will be fresh in fans’ heads, of course, but perhaps the biggest 4th and 1 disaster came during the Vikings’ trip to Seattle. With Cook out of the game, the Vikings put the game in the hands of Alexander Mattison instead of kicking a field goal. Mattison missed a gaping hole to his right and Russell Wilson drove the Seattle Seahawks for the game-winning score.
This was the story of the season for the Vikings, who came close to picking up wins over Seattle and Titans but also pulled wins out by the skin of their teeth over Jacksonville and Carolina. With a razor-thin margin for error, it just wasn’t enough to get the job done.
3 (Hundred and Forty) Pound Opt-Out
Mike Zimmer’s defense took a blow even before the opening game when Michael Pierce decided to opt-out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19. With a 340-pound nose tackle that graded as PFF’s fourth-best interior lineman against the run in 2018, one of the Vikings’ key philosophies was pounded into the turf.
Teams smoked the interior combination of Shamar Stephen and Jaleel Johnson in the running game, dropping the Vikings from 13th against the run in 2019 to 20th in 2020. The injury absences of Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks also didn’t help and Minnesota’s defense was left in shambles.
2 Rookie Corners
When the Vikings dumped Xavier Rhodes, they knew that cornerback was going to be an issue. When Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander left for Cincinnati in free agency, it turned into a full-blown problem. To solve this, the Vikings relied on a duo of rookie corners in Cameron Dantzler and Jeff Gladney.
When Mike Hughes and Holton Hill got injured, Dantzler and Gladney had to have a crash course in playing in the NFL and the opening months. This went poorly, with Gladney grading 108th and Dantzler grading 119th among all corners during the Vikings’ 1-5 start.
But as is the case with most of this team, Dantzler and Gladney came around after the bye. Gladney has been steadily improving in coverage and has become a strong asset in stopping the run. Meanwhile, Dantzler is the second-graded corner in the league since returning a concussion in Week 11. It hasn’t always gone smoothly, but the Vikings may have something in their two young starters.
And one really bad “tweak”
When Danielle Hunter missed the opening days of training camp, nobody batted an eye. Zimmer described the injury as “a tweak,” and it was expected Hunter would be back in the lineup by Week 1. Then he didn’t work out at all in training camp. Then he was placed on IR. Then he had surgery to fix a herniated disc, and then he was out for the season.
Life comes at you fast, but even faster when you don’t have a pass rush. As the previously mentioned Ngakoue got the numbers but didn’t play within the system, the addition of Hunter could have paid huge dividends for a defense that struggled to get pressure all season long.
With the defensive line making quarterbacks like Mike Glennon and Mitchell Trubisky look like gods, the addition of Hunter could have helped steal a couple of wins and give this team a better fate. Instead, the Vikings will head into the offseason wondering what they can do to reach the holy grail of a 10-6 season.
