The loss to the Cooper Rush-led Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night was the final nail in the coffin for Minnesota Vikings fans. It was assurance that the current regime’s strategy isn’t going to result in a Super Bowl. What makes it even worse is that, if the past is any indicator, the Vikings will knock off either the Baltimore Ravens or the Los Angeles Chargers on the road in the next two weeks. Don’t take the bait if they do.
The Vikings started the season 1-5 last year. All hope was lost. Then in Week 8, Minnesota went to Green Bay and knocked off the Packers. Dalvin Cook ran for 163 yards in the victory. All of a sudden, even at 2-5, Vikings fans looked ahead and saw winnable games against the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears.
Minnesota would go on to win both of those games to crawl back to 4-5. While still not an impressive mark by any stretch, they’d found a pulse. That hope was punted off a cliff in Week 11 when the abysmal 2-7 Cowboys rolled into US Bank Stadium. Andy Dalton made the start and put on a clinic against the Vikings’ defense. Dallas won the game 31-28, and those who had taken the bait were left tucking their tail between their legs.
We’ve seen this movie before. We saw it again when Rush replaced the injured Dak Prescott on Sunday. This wasn’t a 2-7 Dallas team strolling into town. Quite the opposite. The Cowboys were 5-1 entering last weekend. However, for the first time this year, they were without their superstar quarterback. In came Rush for his first career NFL start, and he did just enough as the Vikings handed the game over to Dallas on a silver platter.
It will be on par with who the Vikings are to go on the road and take one of the next two games against the Ravens or Chargers. Both teams appear set to contend in what is turning out to be a free-for-all in the AFC, but both teams have flaws Minnesota can exploit. The key this time is not to buy the hype if Kirk Cousins and Co. come out on top.
The Vikings might be able to turn this thing around and vie for a wild card spot. While the schedule suggests a daunting task ahead, there’s still too much talent on this roster to completely rule it out. As it pertains to any Super Bowl dreams, if they existed before the Cowboys game, they were washed down the drain afterward.
There is a log jam of top-tier teams in the NFC, including the Rams, Packers, Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Minnesota isn’t riding that same wave. They’re in the next group with the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks (when they don’t have Russell Wilson), and maybe the Carolina Panthers, too. It’s unreasonable to expect Minnesota to shake free of a 3-4 start and rebound. Do we expect them to go on the road three-straight games and beat the likes of Tom Brady, Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and Dak Prescott?
At best, this is a team that’s able to hurdle over the tension between Cousins and head coach Mike Zimmer to finish 10-7 or 9-8 and be in the wild card hunt. One win in the playoffs would feel like an overachievement at this point.
The flip side is a worst-case scenario where a team that still has to face the Ravens, Chargers, Packers twice, and the Rams completely implodes. That might be the worst thing in the long term. Perhaps at that point, it would be understood that something major has to change. Vikings fans don’t want to keep living in limbo. With the current construction of this roster and coaching staff, that’s exactly what will continue to happen.
It would be just like the chaotic Vikings to go on the road and take out either the Ravens or Chargers. Both seem super unlikely given that this appears to be a slightly dysfunctional bunch, even for a 3-4 record. When they do win one of the next two, don’t fall for the trap. This is a good team when everything is clicking and a disaster when even some of the plan goes awry. Cooper Rush proved that on Sunday night.
