The Passtronaut and the Minnesota Vikings splashed down Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium in an ugly, 12-10 loss to the toothless Chicago Bears. Quarterback, and new Purple hero, Josh Dobbs had by far his worst game since coming to Minnesota in a trade.
When Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said, "This game is over, thankfully," Viking fans could only agree.
A loss is one thing, but the Vikings come out of this game with serious question marks around an offense that was totally ineffective outside of one, 4th quarter TD drive which gave them a 10-9 lead. But Chicago QB Justin Fields, was able to drive down for a game-winning field goal in the last seconds.
To make matters worse, Chicago did everything they could to hand this game to the Vikings. Two second half fumbles by Fields handed the Vikings golden opportunities. And Chicago had seven penalties for 76 yards, several of those helping the anemic Viking offense. A 26-yard pass interference penalty set up the Vikings for a 25-yard field goal. The Bears also helped them out with penalties third-and-5 and third-and-9 giving them much-needed first downs. Both of those possessions ended with Dobbs interceptions.
The worst of it came late in the 4th quarter. After the Vikings scored to make it 10-9, safety Josh Metellus forced a fumble that was recovered by newly-signed linebacker Anthony Barr and gave the Vikings the ball near midfield with a chance to at least go up by four points with a field goal, forcing Chicago to get into the end zone to win the game.
Instead it was an offensive showing the Gophers would have been proud of. Two ineffective runs up the middle, and a wide receiver screen that went nowhere. The Vikings burned less than a minute off the clock and punted (it would have been a 61-yard field goal). It was tentative at best.
Making it even worse, somehow, punter Ryan Wright pushed the kick out of bounds at the Bears' 22-yard line instead of pinning them deep. That left just 45 yards for Chicago to get into field goal range and over 2-minutes to do it. Head coach Kevin O'Connell addressed that punt after the game and said it will be a "point of emphasis" going forward.
Quarterback Controversy?
If there isn't a QB controversy for the Vikings O'Connell didn't do anything to diffuse it.
Following the game, he said not only would the Vikings look hard at the quarterback situation during their upcoming bye week, he considered putting in backup Nick Mullens during Monday night's game due to the ineffectiveness of Dobbs who threw four interceptions and easily could have had five - or more.
There's a big reason Dobbs and his early success became the story of the last month of NFL football. It's not at all expected. He's a journeyman QB who had won one start in his career before coming to Minnesota, winning a game in relief in Atlanta, and beating New Orleans. He played pretty well in Denver despite the loss. But Monday night was a different thing all together.
"We did not have the performance we wanted offensively," O'Connell said late Monday after the loss. That's obvious.
So where do O'Connell and the Vikings go from here? They have a week off before a game in Las Vegas against the Raiders. Dobbs crashing back to Earth leaves the door open for the team to look at a now healthy rookie, Jaren Hall, or veteran Nick Mullens.
"We're going to take a look, really evaluate the inventory of plays we have now of Josh," said O'Connell. "We got healthy, we have Jaren back and Nick Mullens is available to us as well. Look, I think what Josh Dobbs has done, coming in hear on short notice, and going 2-2 in a stretch where a lot of people might have thought with Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson being out the deck's stacked against us. That's not the way this team thinks, that's not the way we operate, that's not the way I operate. We're trying to go out and win every football game we play."
Are Hall or Mullens a better option than Dobbs? That's a million dollar question. Anybody miss Kirk Cousins yet? There was no question the Vikings would face a drop off in play once Cousins went down with an Achilles tear, but Dobbs gave them hope. Until Monday night at least.
O'Connell has done a terrific job keeping this team together, and finding ways to win some games despite the injuries. He has his work cut out for him going into the last third of the season and hard decisions to make at the QB position.
Turnovers Are Killing Them
One thing is for sure, the Vikings must stop turning the ball over. After four more turnovers Monday night, the Vikings are now -8 in turnover differential (second worst) and have given the football away more than any team in the NFL. That is a recipe for losing and it's miraculous they're 6-6 going into the bye the way they have coughed it up this season.
If Dobbs continues as the starter, that is one place he has to get much better. The four picks Monday night weren't all his fault. One went off receiver Jordan Addison's hands. Two others were tipped. There could easily have been a fifth, but Bear's cornerback Jaylon Johnson dropped what would have been an easy pick-six.
"We'll be back, we'll be back, we'll look at the film, you know, I'll be better especially in those situations," said Dobbs after the game. "Making sure we're not playing defense on short fields and we're taking care of the ball on offense. Because it starts with me. We'll hit the ground running when we get back from the bye."
It's a quarterback's main job to protect the football, and Dobbs is not doing that. The interceptions and fumbles (14, the most in the league) are keeping this Viking team from having a much better record.
Viking Defense Deserves Credit
You have to credit the Viking defense who did all they could to win Monday. On almost every Bear possession, it seemed like the Vikings had their back up against the wall thanks to offensive mistakes. But they held strong, limiting Chicago to only field goals.
They deserve to be criticized for a late-game blown coverage that left DJ Moore wide-open in the middle of the field on 3-and-10, shutting the door on the Vikings and setting up an easy game-winning field goal with 10 seconds left.
Other than that? They did all they could in a game where Chicago could have easily blown out the Vikings. The Bears went with a strategy to get the ball out of Fields' hand quickly. He completed nearly all of his passes near or even behind the line of scrimmage. And the Vikings held them to four field goals, which should have been enough to win the game.
Fun Fact: The Bears won without a TD for the first time since 1993.
Bye Week
This will be the Vikings second latest bye week ever (it was week 14 in 1991). They need it. They're banged up, like all NFL teams this time of year. They will definitely get star wide receiver Justin Jefferson back. He's missed seven games with a bad hamstring, but all reports are he will be 100% and healthy going into the Las Vegas game. O'Connell said Monday they expect Jefferson to play after the bye and said he "was close" to playing Monday.
The QB issues are one thing, but the Vikings also need to get a moribund running game working too. The Vikings finished with 60 yards on 14 attempts but 21 of those yards came on one attempt. Besides needing more production, the Vikings could stick with it a little more too. 14 rushes out of 51 plays in a close, low-scoring game seems off.
"We'll take a look at everything," O'Connell said after the game. "We got a lot of work to do during the bye. I do want these guys to get some time. It's been a grind, it's been a stretch for them, they've continued to show up and play very, very hard. They prepare the right way. When they come back off this bye we'll make sure they've got a great plan for going to Vegas."
The Vikings still hold onto control of a playoff spot in the NFC. Even with the loss they're in the seventh and final playoff position. And with a schedule that includes a game against the Packers, and two against the Lions, the NFC North is still within their grasp.
But the way the offense played Monday night, there has to be major improvement coming out of the bye if the team is to be taken seriously as a playoff contender.