“Ah – Playoffs? Don’t talk about — playoffs?! You kidding me? Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game!” — Jim Mora.
The good thing about this gig is that it doubles as therapy. Writing has a way of easing the mind and spirit amid the emotional roller coaster of being a Minnesota Vikings fan. While there are moments – heck, even months – of elation in any given season, the only thing that’s ever guaranteed is disappointment.
Warren Ludford did an outstanding job touching on the general mess the Vikings find themselves in, while Christopher Gates followed it up with a terrific look at the latest surrounding the embarrassing Carson Wentz injury drama.
With that, some of my takes. The recurring theme: I was wrong.
The Lowest Point of KOC’s Tenure
Thursday night was the worst loss of the KOC era. Yes, the 40-3 beatdown by the Dallas Cowboys in 2022 was technically worse in terms of point differential, but context matters. KOC was a rookie head coach; we were 8-1 at the time, and coming off one of those highs mentioned above —a win in one of the most entertaining regular-season NFL games in recent memory against the Buffalo Bills.
This was a trainwreck of another kind. With a 3-3 record and a brutal schedule ahead, the Vikings needed a solid effort. Heck, they needed to seem at least…interested. They failed to clear that low bar. KOC’s body language throughout was alarming to me. He looked exhausted, confused, and, worst of all, like a man resigned to his fate – something you never want to see in a head coach. It all played out like a scene from some cheesy, schmaltzy, depressing Lifetime TV movie or a New York Jets documentary.
The seemingly endless string of injuries is now reaching historic and comical levels. You have to laugh or you’ll cry. That has to take a toll. The same goes for the ongoing quarterback drama, along with the legitimate questions and conspiracy theories that have come with it. At the end of the day, however, it comes with the territory. As Hyman Roth noted in The Godfather II: “This is the business we’ve chosen.” KOC is getting paid the big bucks to navigate such stormy waters, and with it, the expectation that such problems can be solved, however daunting.
Wentz Takes One for the Team
We can engage in the useless exercise of assigning blame for the last two games. Was it 100% Wentz? 90%? 80%? Considering we now know he had absolutely no business playing for weeks, and endured pain that would have put most of us in a hospital bed, let alone being a sitting duck behind a makeshift offensive line for NFL defensive linemen and linebackers to tee off on.
This much is now clear: Carson Wentz is the only one who comes out of this mess looking good. If this does prove to be the end of his career in the NFL, he went out as a warrior and as a consummate team player who sacrificed his health for his coaches, teammates, and a franchise he’s been part of for all of two months. I wish him a full recovery and all the best for whatever the future holds.
I saw the astute point made in one of the DN’s comment sections: You can’t hold KOC blameless for scheming receivers open and calling good games, while simultaneously keeping a quarterback in the game so hindered by injury that he was incapable of executing the offense with a minimal standard of competence. He’s not the offensive coordinator; he’s the head coach. And no, I’m not saying it’s 2001, we’re the Patriots, and Max Brosmer is Tom Brady. But Wentz was not a functional NFL quarterback for the entirety of the Eagles game and clearly was not at the outset of the Chargers game. Brosmer (or any other NFL backup) could at least scale that minimal hurdle. KOC opted for the Ivan Drago “if he dies, he dies” approach, and it backfired spectacularly.
Yes, Wentz…But Something Else is Up
I received some pushback in the comments for my last article about KOC’s tendency to abandon the run. He has the fourth-highest pass-to-run ratio since 2022. Then there’s this doozy.
Yes, I know game flow and playing from behind influence decision-making. Then again, we can debate whether being behind 17-6 to the Bears with 12:51 left in the third quarter, or 15-6 at home against the Falcons with 11:16 left in the fourth quarter, necessitated panic. We (allegedly) have a shutdown defense, after all (more on that later). Regardless, the awful 3rd-and-1 pass call in the first quarter on Thursday further hammered the point home.
I was wrong. I clearly put way too much stock in the offense’s performance in the Browns game. KOC has clearly not yet found his way out of the funk that dates back to Week 18 last year. Things continue to look way too disjointed to throw all of the blame into the Carson Wentz injury basket. Something is wrong with the entire operation. I love the Xs and Os, but perhaps someone more experienced and adept at their nuances could determine on the merits of the “KOC’s scheme has been exposed” narrative.
I’m a huge KOC supporter. But I don’t reside in a world of denial, either. He must get this fixed. I absolutely believe he can. But if he doesn’t, and this continues, we may not only be looking at a disappointing season, but also one where the Vikings are potentially staring down a Top 10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. If you’d told me this in August, I’d have asked for a hit of whatever people were passing around.
I also want to say this: KOC is not getting fired, nor should he. A 3-14 season wouldn’t justify it. That said, something in the range of 5-7 wins would consume a great deal of the goodwill he’s built up. 2026 has to mean the playoffs, or talk of a “hot seat” wouldn’t only be legitimate, but likely.
The Defense is Even More Surprising
I was wrong…again.
As surprising as KOC’s issues have been, the problems on the defensive side of the ball are even more alarming. There was always a risk of going into the season with an unproven, first-time starting quarterback. But the prospects of a proven, Top 5 defensive unit that (on paper) got even stronger collapsing seemed as likely as, well, Daniel Jones leading the MVP race after eight weeks. It was supposed to be lights out and serve as an insurance policy amid some expected McCarthy hiccups.
Don’t talk to me about PFF grades, DVOA, EPA, or ABCDEFG. The eye test doesn’t lie: this unit has underperformed. The expectation was not simply shutting down Jake Browning, Dillon Gabriel, or Caleb Williams (for a half). We were also supposed to make life miserable for Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, and Justin Herbert, too, remember?
The run defense is non-existent, particularly against heavy looks, sans selling out completely and leaving the backend vulnerable. There are growing issues covering the mid-to-deep center of the field. The pass rush has been disappointing, especially given the emphasis on boosting interior pressure. Yes, the Cashman and Van Ginkel injuries played a role, but the former was in there on Thursday night. You know, when the defense decided to celebrate Halloween early and go out in front of a nationwide audience dressed as the 2022 unit. Or was it 2020? Maybe 2011? No, not 1984!? Regardless, it was certainly no treat.
The way in which the defense faded down the stretch in Brian Flores’s first year was understandable. The smoke and mirrors he used to compensate for across-the-board talent deficiencies can only last so long. Things get put on film, and opposing offensive coaches adjust quickly and effectively. That’s why it’s the NFL; the coaches are the best of the best. At the end of the day, a superior scheme must be matched with a certain level of skilled playmakers.
I have absolutely no freakin’ clue what’s happening so far this year. I’m sure our inability to stop the run has limited some of Flores’s innovations, which thrive in third-and-long situations, but there’s clearly more at play. I’m genuinely at a loss. I prepared myself for some McCarthy growing pains, but in no way, shape, or form did I think a defensive performance like the one we saw against the Chargers was possible. I don’t care if the Vikings were on 10 hours rest, down nine starters, and the game played on Mars.
Some optimism: Like KOC, Flores can fix this. He’s an outstanding football coach. No one has been a bigger supporter. The Vikings defense may not be a well-oiled machine entering November as I predicted, but they can still right the ship and get close to playing like the elite unit we all expected. If not, well, then we start talking about what we’re going to do with that Top 10 pick in the draft.
Some Notes on KAM
Back in June, I wrote a detailed assessment of where the KAM era stood so far. Grades were given in a variety of areas under a general manager’s purview. They ranged from an A+ for team culture to a C- for the draft, with an A- grade overall. In hindsight, I believe those were fair and objective.
Am I disappointed with the way the 2025 season has gone after seven weeks? Definitely. Am I going to get all riled up at KAM for it? Nope. Why? Because I wouldn’t have done much differently if I were GM after the Vikings walked off the field following the playoff debacle against the Rams.
The calculation with McCarthy was sound. Given the roster, KOC’s track record, added to the fact that he’d been in the building for a whole year, the argument in favor of a 2024 Daniels/Nix-type season, or a 2023 C.J. Stroud campaign, was convincing.
Hindsight is 20/20, and this Sam Darnold second-guessing is too much. The guy was persona non grata with the overwhelming majority of the fanbase following his spectacular implosion. Say he was brought back at the expense of delaying the McCarthy era by another year. What would the response have been? Exactly. Daniel Jones wanted to start and took less money in exchange for the best opportunity to do so. And don’t even get me started on Aaron Rodgers. Please.
The one criticism could be the misguided Sam Howell trade, which is fair. It wasn’t good. The backup situation should have been settled long before the Wentz signing on the eve of the season. Familiarity within an offense and chemistry with your receivers matter.
I cheered every one of the free-agent signings, made possible in large part by the McCarthy decision. This was particularly true along the offensive and defensive lines. They were the clear areas of weakness holding the team back, and I was also thrilled about the specific players brought in.
I loved the Donovan Jackson pick in Round 1 of the draft. Outside of not addressing the safety position, I was fine with the rest of it. I didn’t scratch my head at any of the selections at the time. At a minimum, I understood the logic.
Like every general manager, KAM is paid to get it right. At the end of the day, he’s in charge. If McCarthy isn’t the long-term answer, we officially enter the danger zone. Going back to the drawing board at quarterback would be an unmitigated disaster, and one that could sink both KAM and KOC alike if such a nightmare materializes. The amount of pressure on McCarthy’s shoulders is both extraordinary and, if we’re honest, unfair too. Let’s hope he’s up to it. I’m confident he is, indeed.
In the end, I’m not going to sit here and go crazy blaming him for the 3-4 start when I sat there nodding in approval at nearly every decision leading up to it. There are 10 games left, let’s see how it goes.
With that in mind, however…
The Glass is Officially Half-Empty
As I stated last week, if we lost to the Chargers, my playoff outlook would officially shift from optimism to pessimism. Mind you, that was also taking into account a competitive loss, not the national embarrassment that unfolded.
In forecasting the 2025 season back in May, I had this to say regarding Week 9:
Week 9: @Detroit Lions: How much of the Lions’ success was due to Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn? That’s the question. I’d argue Detroit has too much talent to slip that far, and their floor is probably nine wins. However, I believe there’ll be added vulnerabilities on both sides of the ball. Campbell is a good coach, but not good enough to compensate for the coaching losses. They’ll be a playoff team, but not the well-oiled machine they’ve been over the past 2 seasons. Oh, and after four straight losses at Ford Field, we’re due. We come off the mini-bye and put together an impressive performance. It’ll be close, but we’ll take it.
Minnesota Vikings: 31
Detroit Lions: 26
To quote Hall & Oates: “I can’t go for that, no (No). No can do.”
Hey, look, I was wrong again. By all accounts, the Lions are very much the same well-oiled machine they’ve been in the past two years. The impact of losing Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn appears overblown. They may not go 15-2 again, but 12-13 wins seem likely. Heck, even 14-3 wouldn’t shock me.
There’s no need to go into the usual team statistical breakdown, because we know damn well what the Lions are. KOC is 1-5 against them, with the only win being the first meeting in 2022 before Dan Campbell’s bunch officially hit their stride the following year. They’ve also had Flores’s number, as he’s failed to hold them under 30 points in four games.
I have no idea what we’re going to see out of J.J. McCarthy. He could play really well, or he could struggle. The problem is, even if it’s the best-case scenario, I’m having a hard time seeing us stopping the Lions offense enough to win. They’re just too good. Sell out to stop Gibbs/Montgomery and Goff feasts. Play more balanced, and you’re staring at death by a thousand cuts. I have no faith in our ability to straight-up win the line of scrimmage on defense to make the Lions start pressing. Our only hope could be forcing multiple turnovers and playing mistake-free, with limited penalties. Good luck with that. “On the return, holding, receiving team, 10-yard penalty, first down.” “Before the snap, false start, offense, five-yard penalty, repeat third down.” “Illegal shift, offense, five-yard penalty, repeat third down.”
We don’t even enjoy the benefit of the mini bye because the Lions are on their real one. Nothing seems to be going our way. Maybe that’s the sign things are about to turn around? Weirder things have happened, like a team missing their draft pick or having the roof of their stadium collapse in a metaphorically perfect development for the season.
As of now, the goalposts have shifted on what will define success in 2025. With thoughts of the playoffs speeding away faster than Spaceball 1 at ludicrous speed, it’s now about J.J. McCarthy’s development and what it means for 2026. The good news? While there’ll be some growing pains, I think we’ll end the season highly encouraged come January.
The purple neurons of extraordinary bias have officially been locked up and shipped off to the outer reaches of my brain, where they’ll remain until some objective evidence warrants reconsideration.
Medicine taken.
Lions: 34
Vikings: 23
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