Over the last three years the spinning wheel of Minnesota Vikings blame has split it’s time between four culprits; the general manager, the coach, the quarterback, and the offensive line. Heading into the 2021 season it was hard to anticipate, if things were to go south, exactly where the wheel would stop first. Each culprit surely deserved part of the heat, but one would eventually be made the initial scapegoat.
Well, an insanely underwhelming start followed by an utter disaster on Sunday Night Football against the Dallas Cowboys seemed to give us some clarity. Mike Zimmer is in trouble. Even before the clock had struck all zeros on Halloween the Viking fan base had taken to social media to intensely ramp up an already loud fire Zimmer sentiment.
In the days that followed, as the disdain for Zimmer’s performance seem to only increase, some were working to expand the blame.
Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune took a look at “a three-play stretch in the third quarter of Sunday night’s loss helps to show how poor blocking doomed the Vikings offense, and had lasting effects.”
But it was Colin Cowherd who loudly sent the arrow in a familiar direction. Despite the poor game management that we’ve seen, the embarrassing timeout situations, and the conservative approach Cowherd sharpened up and let it fly in the direction of Kirk Cousins.
He defines average. And all I hear in Minnesota is oh it’s Mike Zimmer, oh it’s the play-calling, oh its the defense. There were about 6 great throws in that game, Cooper Rush a backup made the majority of them. If you didn’t know one of these guys was making a bunch of money and one was a backup and just had watched them play you can’t tell the difference. And there’s this term called Minnesota Nice cuz everybody in Minnesota’s nice and I think that’s one of the reasons Kirk Cousins survives…I mean folks you can’t tell the difference between Cooper rush and Kirk Cousins! Now is Kirk a better overall talent? Yeah I’m sure he is but Rush played with as much poise as much polish as much accuracy on the big throws as Kirk Cousins did!
And for those of you Viking fans who like Andrew Kramer want to talk about the o-line, Cowherd expressed a sentiment that many other fans have felt for quite some time.
Well, our offensive line isn’t great? Well you don’t get everything. You got great receivers Justin Jefferson and Adam Theilen and yet you had six passing first downs! You have Dalvin Cook yet averaged 4.8 yards an offensive play. You don’t get everything. Nobody gets everything.
Odds are, if things don’t improve, all four of the above-mentioned culprits could be in for repercussions. But, as Mike Zimmer’s seat continues to heat up and as the disdain for the conservative approach grows louder it will be interesting to see if we get any clarity on how game plans are put together, and who is truly most to blame for the Vikings current situation.
