After the Minnesota Vikings started 0-3, Kevin O’Connell and offensive coordinator Wes Phillips were quick to mention that the Los Angeles Rams went on a three-game losing streak when they won the Super Bowl in 2021. O’Connell was Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator the year before the Vikings hired him, and Phillips was part of his staff.
The Rams started 7-1 in 2021 but lost to the Tennessee Titans, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers in consecutive weeks. However, they recovered and won five straight, including a 30-23 win that essentially eliminated the Vikings in Week 16, before winning it all. Rams GM Les Snead said he didn’t need picks, and McVay flirted with retirement. Meanwhile, Minnesota scooped up O’Connell, who hired Phillips, and they won 13 games in their first season.
But like 155 teams that started 0-3 before them, the Vikings missed the playoffs this season. So did the Denver Broncos, who started 0-3 but reached .500 after grounding Joshua Dobbs and snapping Minnesota’s five-game win streak. Still, this year’s San Francisco 49ers are another example of a team that lost three-straight games and recovered. The Niners lost to the Cleveland Browns, Vikings, and Cincinnati Bengals before entering their bye. But they won six straight, made the playoffs, and advanced to the Super Bowl.
Still, it’s pretty unbelievable that Minnesota beat the Niners in Week 7. The Vikings entered their Monday night matchup as seven-point underdogs. But Cousins threw for 378 yards a week after the offense looked lost without Justin Jefferson in Chicago. Jefferson had injured his hamstring in Minnesota’s Week 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, which dropped the Vikings to 1-4. Despite Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s aversion to tanking, Minnesota may have had no choice but to try and bottom out to get a franchise quarterback if the Niners had beaten them.
Let’s pause in that moment for a second. Cousins had just had his best game of the season, and the Vikings were heading to Lambeau to face the 2-4 Green Bay Packers. Beat the Packers, and Minnesota suddenly had a chance to go on a run while burying their biggest rival. The Vikings had six winnable games after playing in Green Bay:
- A matchup with Arthur Smith and old friend Taylor Heinicke in Atlanta.
- Derek Carr’s New Orleans Saints came to U.S. Bank Stadium a week later.
- Sean Payton and Russell Wilson were 2-5 after winning an ugly game over the Packers in Week 7.
- Chicago was also 2-5, and the Vikings had already beaten the Bears at Soldier Field.
- The Vikings would face the Las Vegas Raiders, who had dropped to 3-4 after losing a Week 7 game to the Bears, out of the bye.
- Finally, Minnesota would play the Joe Burrow-less Bengals to round out their winnable slate.
If the Vikings win those six games, they’d have to play the Detroit Lions twice and the Packers at home to determine their playoff seeding. Green Bay looked like they were in a transition season after Week 7. Jordan Love was in his first season as a starter, and the Packers were the youngest team in the league. Meanwhile, the Lions were 5-2, but the Baltimore Ravens had beaten them 38-6, Detroit’s worst loss of the season.
Another miracle season seemed possible for the Vikings in that moment. But we know how it played out. Cousins suffered a non-contact injury at Lambeau. Dobbs pulled off an improbable victory in Atlanta and followed it up with a win over the Saints. But the Broncos grounded him in Denver, and Minnesota lost six of their last seven games to finish 7-10.
The Vikings had the Dobbs game but finished in no-man’s land. They may not have a high enough pick to take their quarterback of the future, and they might not have enough picks to fix the defense. Cousins is coming off an Achilles tear and isn’t under contract. Minnesota hasn’t extended Jefferson. Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell enter a pivotal offseason that will affect the Vikings for years.
Nobody could have suspected that Cousins, one of the league’s most durable players, would suffer an injury in Minnesota’s only double-digit win this season. Nor could anyone have foreseen Dobbs beating the Falcons in Week 9. But it seemed just as unlikely that the Vikings would beat the Niners in Week 7.
We may be talking about which franchise-altering quarterback they should take in the draft if they lost. Instead, we’re left wondering how they’ll compete with the Packers and Lions, who advanced in this year’s playoffs, and Chicago, depending on what they do with the first-overall pick. Minnesota’s win over the Niners seemed like it would change their season. Little did we know that it may have altered their franchise’s trajectory.
