Being a Minnesota Vikings fan isn’t for the weak of heart. Vikings history is filled with unexpected highs, but over the past six years, it’s also been replaced with an anxiety that anything can go wrong at any given time.
Sunday was not one of those days. Everything went right for the Vikings in a 34-7 victory over the Houston Texans. The offense finished drives. The defense obliterated its opponent. The intensity of 66,000 people cheering on one of the best teams in the NFL flummoxed the visitors. It was a great day to be wearing purple.
Many NFL pundits have looked at the Vikings and wondered how this could happen.
The simple answer? The Vikings have run out of fricks.
Six years ago, Minnesota took a swing at quarterback by signing Kirk Cousins to the first fully guaranteed contract in NFL history. While we can agree that the Vikings didn’t reach their primary goal of winning a championship during Cousins’ tenure, the signing also went a long way toward shaping the building’s culture.
Think about how the quarterback can influence a team. Patrick Mahomes can make any play on a football field, so the Kansas City Chiefs never feel out of a game. Tom Brady‘s quiet intensity sparked a pair of dynasties with the New England Patriots. C.J. Stroud had a bravado that turned the Texans, one of the league’s most woeful franchises two years ago, into a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
But with Cousins, there was an expectation that the worst could happen. That expectation dates back to Cousins’ origin story, which he explained in his book Game Changers, which Arif Hasan of the Wide Left substack cited.
In a piece for The Athletic, Hasan explained the forward to Cousins’ book. Playing for the Michigan State Spartans down three points, Cousins suggested to his coaches a play he thought would win the game. When he forgot to put the receiver in motion, Cousins threw a pass over the middle of the field that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown to end the game.
“My quarterback coach always taught me: ‘Don’t make a bad situation worse,’” Cousins wrote. “In other words, when things go wrong, and they will, cut your losses and play for the next play. Rather than heed my coach’s advice, I panicked and threw the ball into a host of players over the middle of the field.”
Nobody knows if that story stuck in Cousins’ brain. But for the first four years in Minnesota, it felt as traumatic as Brennan Huff’s appearance in a talent show.
There were several instances where Cousins opted for the safe play instead of taking a risk. A head coach who spewed Red Man chaw like a venomous rattlesnake made bad mistakes even worse. Even Mike Zimmer, notorious for his conservative views on offense, would beg Cousins to be more aggressive, only to be met with even more conservative play on the field.
Two-high safeties felt like a death sentence for Minnesota’s offense. Double coverage, whether on Stefon Diggs or Justin Jefferson, was even worse. The bigger the game, the more Cousins ground his teeth. That attitude permeated through the Vikings’ roster.
Kevin O’Connell did his best to fix the problem by encouraging Cousins to take more risks. Playing loose provided a temporary solution by tying a record with eight fourth-quarter comebacks. The Vikings won 13 games. But when the New York Giants double-covered Jefferson on a fourth-and-eight, a familiar check down to T.J. Hockenson ended his season.
This may sound like another one of those It’s all Kirk’s fault! articles, but other issues affected Cousins.
Replacing the rugged nature of Zimmer, O’Connell treated his aging roster like Club Med in 2022 and erred toward the side of caution in the final games of the season. When he had to fire defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, he stated it was “a difficult decision because of the tremendous respect I have for Ed as a person and a coach.”
There was also the front office, where Kwesi Adofo-Mensah executed his “competitive rebuild” plan. Adofo-Mensah kept the roster together in 2022 and tried to make one last run in 2023 to appease the players. With his admission of trying to hit “a 33-point play,” the situation felt just as tenuous as the final two seasons under Zimmer and Adofo-Mensah’s predecessor, Rick Spielman.
The Vikings reached a fork in the road when they finished 7-10 last season. Letting Cousins walk seemed too risky. Scrapping the “competitive” part of the rebuild meant risking his job for owners who are hell-bent on being “super competitive.” After the Atlanta Falcons gave him a massive offer, Cousins and all the fricks that had held this team back were gone.
Freed from the $35 million cap hit on the books, Adofo-Mensah went to work. He signed Jonathan Greenard, Blake Cashman, and Andrew Van Ginkel on the first day of free agency. Quarterback Sam Darnold signed a few hours later. The Vikings drafted their quarterback of the future, J.J. McCarthy, and handed the floor to O’Connell.
O’Connell followed up with one of the most vigorous training camps in recent memory. The starters played in a preseason game for the first time since O’Connell’s tenure – even if it was just one series – and a physical joint practice in Cleveland put Jordan Addison on the shelf.
Even so, the training camp laid the foundation for a tougher, more physical team when the season began. The Vikings punched the New York Giants in the mouth in Week 1 and landed a hook to the San Francisco 49ers’ jaw in Week 2. Sunday’s dismantling of the Houston Texans was a surprise, but not when considering how the Vikings are doing it.
Darnold leads the offense, who is playing for his fourth team in six seasons and has nothing to lose. Still younger than Joe Burrow, Darnold is letting it rip with 97-yard bombs, shovel passes, and an even keel for a team that had its quarterback line up behind the right guard not too long ago.
Brian Flores’ defense has also played a role, attacking opposing offenses rather than sitting back in an attempt to stop explosive plays.
Most of all, it may have impacted the fans who entered the season with low expectations after Cousins’ departure and McCarthy’s season-ending knee injury.
It all came crashing down on the Texans during a drive in the second quarter. Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-point lead, and Stroud was driving into Minnesota territory. A crowd of over 66,000 people seemed to get louder with each of the four pre-snap penalties, and U.S. Bank Stadium was a sight we haven’t seen (and heard) since the Vikings made a run to the NFC Championship in 2017.
It’s the type of setting that has led the Vikings to the top of the NFL with a 3-0 record. They’re playing loose and carefree, and the results are clear every Sunday.
It may not be sustainable and could come crashing down at any moment. But for right now, the Vikings are legit, and they’ve run out of fricks when it comes to what happens next.
