Addition by subtraction is a real thing. It’s practically the editor’s credo. Any film director can explain what a difference it makes cutting five minutes from a two-hour movie. As jazz icon Miles Davis famously said, sometimes it’s about the notes you don’t play. (I had two more examples to prove my point here, but of course I cut them.)
One of the keys to the Minnesota Vikings’ early-season success may, in fact, be attributed to a note they didn’t play — or a specific player, that is. I’m talking about Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
It was considered something of a surprise when the Vikings cut the former Iowa wide receiver this offseason after selecting him in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. He had an unremarkable but not terrible rookie season, playing in eight games and starting one, catching five passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns. He also proved to be something of a nerve-wracking punt returner.
It wasn’t exactly a shock when the Vikings dumped him in favor of Jalen Reagor, but Smith-Marsette wasn’t considered a likely roster casualty in his sophomore season. Now that’s looking like a pretty smooth move.
Two games in a row, Smith-Marsette has been the goat for the Chicago Bears. Not the capital G-O-A-T, the Tom Brady kind of GOAT. The old-school, Charlie-Brown-loses-the-game kind of goat. In fact, Smith Marsette’s last two weeks have been downright Charlie Brown-esque.
Vikings fans think fondly of his big screwup in Week 4. The Vikes were toying with the idea of blowing one against the bumbling Chicago squad. Minnesota regained the lead late, and Chicago was making a fairly improbable final drive, hoping to flip the script. Smith-Marsette caught a pass near the sideline, but while trying to gain some extra yardage he forgot about the tenacious Cameron Dantzler, who bounced off of the initial contact but stuck with the play to strip the ball right out of Smith-Marsette’s hands. It was a textbook pickpocket.
Smith-Marsette later explained himself to NBC Sports:
“I lost track of him after I stiff-armed him. I wasn’t expecting that, I should have just went out of bounds instead of looking to extend the play. Just got to be smarter in that situation. That’s it. … I thought the safety was overplaying it. I turned to the sideline, stiff-armed, and then I thought he was overplaying it, so when I stopped to go back in, he was still in there. So when I turned to go back out of bounds, he just came from behind.”
Smith-Marsette got a chance to redeem himself on Thursday Night Football against the also-lowly Washington Commanders, whose staff was apparently spending as much time digging up dirt on fellow team owners as ginning up strategies against the teams they own. The game was so dull, it made last week’s sleepy Broncos-Colts kickers duel look like the opening scene from The Last Boy Scout. The only way this game made any sense was to mute the TV and play “Yakety Sax.” (At least Benny Hill might have been able to make a tackle or two.)
The Bears didn’t just blow it, they blew it twice, and Smith-Marsette kiboshed a big drive with a pair of plays rather than one simple fumble. Thanks to another ugly Commanders drive ending in a missed field goal, Chicago improbably got the ball back with a couple of minutes to go, which they botched in hilariously heartbreaking fashion at the goal line. But before that, in what would have been the final drive against almost any other team but the inept Commanders, Smith-Marsette choked on two of the four plays to turn it over on downs.
First, near midfield and with the clock ticking, Smith-Marsette got the ball in the backfield and attempted to swing out to the left, then cut inside a block. He had some space in front of him, but when the Washington blocker halfway lost his battle, getting pushed back a step or two, Smith-Marsette tripped over his own guy’s feet to fall behind the line of scrimmage, even though there was plenty of room to make that cut.
Then, after the bumbling Bears took a comically dopey delay-of-game penalty, they were forced to throw it on fourth-and-16 to keep the offense on the field. A catchable pass from Justin Fields bounced off Smith-Marsette’s hands.
The second-year WR ripped off his helmet in frustration. No doubt, all over Chicago, slices of overrated pizza splattered and oozed cheesily down living room walls. Shouts of frustration echoed throughout overpriced, poorly maintained Wrigleyville apartments. Suddenly, Illinois state tax rates were the least of everyone’s worries. (I could go on like this all day, but, editing!)
First, let’s just all take a moment to savor the fact that we aren’t Bears fans who live in Chicago. It’s helpful sometimes to remember that things could always be worse.
But after that, take another moment to be glad for that surprising roster change of just a few weeks ago. There’s no guarantee that Smith-Marsette would have seen much action; his replacement, Reagor, has had a splash play or two…or maybe just the one. But he hasn’t been horrible, or consistently involved outside of special teams.
Smith-Marsette, on the other hand, has been a key factor in two consecutive Chicago meltdowns. (Good lord, doesn’t that sound like the world’s most terrible sandwich?) He’s at his worst in the big moments. And the Vikings certainly aren’t running away with games. Their 4-1 might look more like the Bears’ jankety record with just a couple of plays here and there going the wrong way. We know they might not have won one game this year if Smith-Marsette wasn’t on the other team. How many more losses may they have if he was still wearing purple?
It’s a fine line between winning by the seat of your pants and winding up on your ass. Sure, there’s Kevin O’Connell‘s new, youthful culture and more modern offensive schemes. There’s the defense that still struggles but doesn’t give up the biggest plays. There’s a kicker who’s okay-to-struggling (rather than the traditional doomed-to-cursed). But, in the delicate balance that has slightly tipped the scales in the Vikings’ favor, don’t under-weight the wisdom of their cutting Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
