Is a quick turnaround good for the Vikings?
MINNEAPOLIS — It’s hard to believe that seven days ago the Minnesota Vikings were flying home from Buffalo as winners of the game of the year.
“This league has a way of humbling any football team at any point in time if you don't play good football,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said following his team’s 40-3 loss at US Bank Stadium on Sunday.
At no point did the Vikings play good football against the Dallas Cowboys. They opened the game with a fumble, dropped a touchdown pass, took seven sacks, allowed a 139.3 rating to the opposing QB and 189 all-purpose yards to Dallas’s running back. The Vikings pulled their starters because the came was so far out of hand in the fourth quarter and left the stadium as losers of possibly the worst home loss in franchise history.
In the locker room and press conferences, there was only one option for a silver lining: They won’t have to simmer over this one for very long as they return to the field on Thanksgiving night against the New England Patriots.
“Thankfully, we play on Thursday night, so we’ll be right back in this locker room pretty quickly,” receiver Adam Thielen said. “It will come up faster than we know it. You obviously have to learn a little bit from it, but I think for this one, probably just move past it and go onto the next. We know that’s not who we are.”
“The best thing is we get four days from now an opportunity to come out and try to get back on track,” O’Connell said. “I believe we'll do the things we need to do, control what we can control, and ultimately band together close as ever to come out here and try to get a win on Thursday.”
The sword cuts both ways on the quick turnaround.
On one side, the Vikings can regain the good vibes they had over the last seven weeks in which they repeatedly ripped off wins in the most difficult situations. They posted five fourth-quarter comebacks and pushed to the top of the conference standings by shining when things got tough. If they bounce back from the November Nightmare and feast on the Patriots, order will be restored and they can confidently carry on with their dream season. It will be forgotten in short order, the same way everything is from week to week in the NFL.
“What I've learned in this league in my years is they all count one,” Kirk Cousins said.
But there are downsides to having a short window before the Vikings play again, starting with their health issues. The absence of Dalvin Tomlinson and Cam Dantzler was very much felt as the Cowboys rushed for 151 yards and picked on rookie Andrew Booth Jr. repeatedly. During the game Za’Darius Smith, who was listed as questionable, was absent from key moments and Christian Darrisaw went down with his second concussion in as many weeks.
There might not be enough time for the missing pieces to return or for Smith to get back to 100 percent and O’Connell already ruled Darrisaw out for Thursday’s game. The coaching staff will have little opportunity to look at options to improve the O-line, which got mauled by Dallas’s violent defensive line.
“Knowing it's a tight turnaround, there's not going to be a lot of time for full speed reps or development, we've just got to go out and give our guys the best possible plan,” O’Connell said.
Chances for any type of adjustments are limited but they might be needed. Over the last three weeks, Cousins has been consistently under pressure and the answer has largely been to throw the ball up for grabs in Justin Jefferson’s direction. The Cowboys got to Cousins too quickly for even jump balls and Jefferson ended the game with three receptions. The Vikings haven’t had much to speak of with their screen or quick game, which would be a potential counter to New England’s strong rush.
The Patriots aren’t quite as stout up front as Dallas but they sport the NFL’s leader in sacks Matthew Judon and a top-10 graded coverage unit per PFF.
And, no matter New England’s weaknesses, Bill Belichick has historically been excellent in short-week situations. You can bet he won’t struggle to diagnose the Vikings’ weaknesses even in a time crunch.
“This is going to be an unbelievable challenge for our team,” O’Connell said. “Four days from now, we'll be right back here against a good football team. I'm willing to put everything we got into this game on a short week. And I trust our guys and what we've built here to respond the right way.”
On the plus side, the Vikings have built up a lead so big in the division that another loss wouldn’t come close to knocking them off their NFC North pedestal. But as the weather gets colder and the games get more intense, the Vikings want to be playing their best football, not showing cracks in the foundation. That means finding a way to put the worst loss in US Bank Stadium history in the past right away.
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