Witch Too Anne Dough Team Czar Four Eel?
Read the headline aloud! A rogue's gallery of welterweights have started the season 2-0. Walkthrough is here to set some realistic expectations for everyone from the Vikings to the Chargers.
The following is a traditional Week 2 “let’s talk about the teams which are 2-0” NFL feature. The Minnesota Vikings kick things off because they upset the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday and therefore cannot be dismissed as flukes, despite: a) the possible high cost of their victory; and b) the fact that they are probably flukes.
The Vikings beat the 49ers 23-17 because the 49ers were without Christian McCaffrey. Yes, that’s reductive. After all, the Vikings were without Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson and first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, and they would lose the irreplaceable Justin Jefferson in midgame. But the 49ers are a precision-tuned Formula 1 racecar that explodes if it hits a neighborhood pothole. Without McCaffrey, Brock Purdy played down to his critics for all but a pair of drives, Kyle Shanahan’s system did not look as much like reverse-engineered alien technology as it often does, and the 49ers offense could not overcome lapses on defense (Jefferson outrunning double coverage for a 98-yard touchdown) or special teams (a blocked punt set up an early Vikings field goal).
As Pyrrhic victories go, however, Sunday’s Vikings win initially looked like it might rank just below the Battle of Asculum. Jefferson limped off the field with a quadricep injury in the second half and did not return. Linebacker Dallas Turner, the Vikings’ other first-round pick, suffered a late-game knee injury. Kevin O’Connell downplayed both injuries after the game, but there’s a chance that the Vikings will be forced to survive a week or two with Sam Darnold leading a glorified offensive scout team full of Jalen Nailor, Ty Chandler and Johnny Mundt-types.
The Vikings did an impressive job holding off the 49ers despite those injuries and the absurd number of improbable events which went the 49ers way in the second half. A muffed Jacob Cowing punt ended up in the hands of a 49ers teammate. Aaron Jones fumbled just as he was about to score a Vikings touchdown, sparking a 99-yard 49ers drive fueled by a roughing-the-passer penalty and a narrow replay review on a Deebo Samuel third-down catch. Andrew Van Ginkel nearly did to Purdy what he did to Daniel Jones in Week 1, but Van Ginkel’s almost-interception on a slot screen leapt from his fingertips and into the hands of Samuel. It was as though the Madden AI was working to keep the 49ers in the game. But the Vikings held on, thanks to some timely third-down conversions by Darnold on a clock-munching fourth-quarter drive and a Brian Flores gameplan that produced six sacks and a very perplexed Purdy.
So are the Vikings “for real?” Or did they just catch a weary opponent coming off a Monday night victory in Week 2 after easily dispatching Blue Rutgers (the Giants must earn their real name) in Week 1?
It’s important to remember that the Vikings have entered their third season of flying in the face of both conventional wisdom and common sense. When their roster is relatively healthy, they play poorly. When everyone is injured, they play well. That’s because many Vikings games (like Sunday’s game) are decided by one score, and the Vikings always do the opposite of what they are expected to do in such games. If you note they are on a winning streak in one-score games, they begin to lose. If you note such streaks are unsustainable, they sustain one. The Vikings are a f**king Heisenberg Particle: just paying attention to them changes the result of their games.