Vikings Still Searching For Answers After Yet Another Leads Disappears in Loss to Ravens

The Vikings just can't find a way to put teams away, and it's killing their season.

The Vikings, seven-point underdogs on this day in Baltimore, were already leading 14-3 when an opportunity emerged to extend that lead even further. It was late in the first half and rookie safety Cam Bynum had just made an incredible play, diving for an interception on an errant throw by Lamar Jackson. Not only that, but Bynum had the presence of mind to get off the grass and scamper 27 yards deep into Ravens territory.

Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota offense were set up perfectly to take a 21-3 lead into halftime if they could capitalize on the field position and get into the end zone. Yes, they had punted on two offensive possessions in a row, but this was a great chance to find someone of the momentum they had created on two explosive touchdown drives to begin the game.

It was an opportunity to put their foot on the gas and bury the Ravens, who had gotten nothing going on offense all half.

Instead, the Vikings went backwards. A first down run to Dalvin Cook lost a yard, which was a frequent occurrence in a feast-or-famine afternoon for the Vikings' star running back. Three of Cook's 17 carries went for a combined 105 yards. The other 14 amounted to just five yards.

Then Kirk Cousins threw a couple errant passes. On 2nd and 11, he fired a ball too high for Adam Thielen. On 3rd down, he just missed an open Justin Jefferson near the line to gain. The Vikings settled for a field goal, and the Ravens scored a pass interference-aided touchdown in the final 90 seconds of the half. Instead of a 21-3 lead, it was 17-10.

"That’s on me," Cousins said. "I felt second down, you know, we need to hit Adam on his out route and I felt third down, on third-and-11, we need to hit Justin on his out route. That’s an 11-point swing, because we kick a field goal instead of getting a touchdown and we don’t run clock. So now, we give them a chance to get seven and we only get three. That was a play or couple plays where I was very disappointed in myself for not making those plays and staying on the field."

Settling for a field goal on that possession felt like the beginning of the end, and the continuation of a trend that has haunted the Vikings this season. They simply have not been able to put teams away when they get leads. They let their opponent hang around, and hang around, and hang around until things fall apart at the end and they lose a close game.

The Vikings are 3-5, and all five of those losses are by seven points or fewer. They've lost games by 3, 1, 7, 4, and 3 points this year. That's how you end up with a plus-3 point differential to go with their disappointing record.

"We have to capitalize on turnovers, the opportunities we get," Cousins said. "We have to make plays and score points and distance ourselves. We have not done that enough to this point."

The Vikings momentarily delayed the inevitable a couple times, first with a kickoff return touchdown to open the second half. But that 24-10 lead turned into a 31-24 deficit, as the offense continued to struggle and the Ravens scored a touchdown on four straight possessions dating back to the end of the first half.

Then Cousins and company mounted one final rally at the end of regulation, getting their act together after two second-half punts and driving 75 yards for a game-tying score.

But it never really felt like this was a game the Vikings were going to win. The defense's second interception of the day — this one a fantastic solo effort by Anthony Barr in OT — created another opportunity. And once again, the Vikings couldn't capitalize. On their lone offensive possession in overtime, they had two short gains to set up a 3rd and 9, then seemingly weren't prepared for the Ravens to blitz.

"They brought pressure and had a free runner," Cousins said. "We had longer developing routes. They brought one more than we could block and we didn’t have the ability to hang on for the longer developing routes. That led to the incompletion and punt."

This was the 3rd and 9 play in OT.

Cousins: "We had longer developing routes. They brought one more than we could block and we didn’t have the ability to hang on for the longer developing routes."

Not having a quick option for Cousins to combat the blitz is hard to understand. https://t.co/n3u3DJdkOc pic.twitter.com/wl4EPBFRPb

— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) November 7, 2021

This game was there for the taking on numerous occasions. But as has been the case all year, the Vikings did this to themselves by letting a team hang around and remain in striking distance. Instead of staying aggressive and extending the lead, the play-calling became conservative again and the execution was lacking. The offense's failures resulted in a shorthanded defense spending over 46 minutes on the field and running out of gas.

The Vikings leaned too much on Cook on early downs, setting up difficult third downs that killed drives. Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen finished with just five catches on 12 targets, which isn't nearly enough.

"We need to be better possession in, possession out," Cousins said. "If we could do that, I think we’d be able to put up a lot of points, a lot of production, ultimately leading to wins."

The story of the Vikings' season is all about the what-ifs. They've had ample opportunities in all five of their losses. But conservative play-calling from Klint Kubiak — combined with inopportune struggles from Cousins, the offensive line, and Mike Zimmer's defense — have put them in an unfortunate position. 

They're 3-5 and still searching for answers about why every single game comes down to the final play, even when they have an early lead.

All the players can do is keep working and hope the results change. But the coaches — specifically Kubiak and Zimmer — need to take a long look in the mirror and realize that what they're doing hasn't been good enough. They need to continue pushing the ball downfield to Jefferson and Thielen, to go for the kill instead of letting the game be decided at the very end.

"We obviously put in the work, we want this more than anything," Eric Kendricks said. "We're working every day to do that. Obviously, the product isn't showing on the field. We're losing these really tight games over and over, but at some point, it's gonna turn. We battle every day, we come into work on Wednesday, and we study our opponent. We practice hard. We care for one another in the locker room, and it's just unfortunate that this keeps happening, because we do care about the fans, and we do care about winning. But we've gotta start putting it all together."

Unfortunately for the Vikings, time is starting to run out. The second half of their season officially begins next week against the Chargers, and they can't afford many more losses.

If they don't make serious changes to the way they call games and make adjustments, this season will continue spiraling out of control.

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