Why the Vikings Could Be Forced to Grind Out Wins If Carson Wentz Remains Under Center

Here's what the Purple and Gold's outlook could look like if the former NFL MVP finalist keeps starting.

The Vikings might have to show plenty of patience if Carson Wentz continues to be the Vikings' starting QB with Kyler Murray out. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Vikings have played so many crazy games that it isn’t even that shocking anymore when they have less than a 10% chance to win late in the third quarter on Sunday, according to ESPN’s gamecast, and then come out with a 17-point victory. Yawn. Another day at the ballpark for the franchise that brought you the Minneapolis Miracle and the largest comeback in NFL history. 

What should stand out about the Vikings’ victory without starting quarterback Kyler Murray for all but a handful of plays is that head coach Kevin O’Connell did everything he could to stick to the run game, avoid turnovers, and let Brian Flores’ defense cook. 

The Vikings ended up with 27 quarterback drop-backs to 34 rushing attempts – an unusual ratio when the other team had the lead for most of the game—and Flores blitzed on 87% of Jordan Love’s pass attempts, per Pro Football Focus. 

Admittedly, this approach had some pretty funky results for a large part of the game. The run game crawled along, finishing with 3.9 yards per carry, but a big part of that number was a single 28-yard rush by Jordan Mason. They had some issues blocking Green Bay’s fronts and had a number of carries that went for only a yard or two. 

But Wentz finished without a turnover (his lone INT was negated by a penalty), and the Vikings had the ball for nearly 33 minutes time of possession —an area where they have struggled under O’Connell. 

The defensive strategy of spamming blitzes had its rough moments too. Love hit an 81-yard touchdown pass and found multiple other big plays against the open spaces in the defense. He finished with 387 yards passing. Not exactly how they drew it up.

But the defense ended up only allowing 22 total points because the blitz-mad Vikings sacked the quarterback four times for 34 lost yards, caused two fumbles (one recovered by Andrew Van Ginkel at the goal line), and picked off Love late in the game. 

Beyond the turnovers, the Vikings held the Packers to 3-of-15 on either third or fourth down. 

As long as Murray is sidelined by a concussion, this will have to be Vikings football, particularly as they head to face a Chicago team that scored 59 points against Carolina in its opener.

Week 1 was a preview of what Vikings will look like with Carson Wentz starting

O’Connell has talked a lot this offseason about learning from last season’s 5-0 run to the end of the season that his team can win games in other ways than just passing for 300-plus yards. They can win by controlling the game, winning the turnover battle, and getting a big special teams play like Myles Price’s 68-yard return and great kicking from Will Reichard. They can win by relying on Flores’s defense to get game-changing sacks and third-down stops. 

Vikings DC Brian Flores's unit must continue to lead by example if Kyler Murray remains sidelined. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It’s certainly not how they envisioned the start of the season going or the offense looking after Murray had a strong training camp throwing to the Vikings’ weapons. It’s the position that they are forced to live in as long as Murray is out. 

Wentz did a very good job overall of handling the duties that were dropped onto him after getting barely any practice reps all summer long amidst the QB competition. He completed 12-of-19 passes and had two excellent touchdown throws. But the reasons for Wentz being a backup were also on display. 

He took three sacks and only completed two throws on eight drop-backs that were pressured. As we saw last year, Wentz has a tendency to take big hits. There was at least one instance where he got up hobbling and then another where he got body-slammed to the ground. He also can have freakout moments where he throws the ball directly to the other team, as he did on a play in the fourth quarter in the end zone.

Lucky for him, it got negated by a flag. Since 2021, Wentz has 21 INTs in 31 starts. 

Looking ahead to Week 2

Not that Chicago’s defense should strike fear into any quarterback after allowing Bryce Young to have a career day on Sunday, but even against the Bears’ bumbling defense, the Vikings should still take a ball-control and field-position approach. Chicago’s offense behind Ben Johnson has always given the Vikings trouble, but last year the Vikings should have won a game behind J.J. McCarthy in which they scraped and clawed to stay in the contest until giving up a long kickoff return that set up the game-winning field goal.

That’s exactly the type of game they want again with Chicago. 

How can the Vikings make it work? It starts with being able to run the ball much more efficiently and getting the O-line on the same page. PFF graded them 24th out of 30 teams (pre-MNF) in Week 1 in terms of run blocking. They talked all offseason about running effectively again; now that has to happen. 

The other thing is getting the secondary on the same page. There were too many instances of wide-open receivers running all over the field for Green Bay. If that happens with Caleb Williams, he has the capability to scramble all over the place and find them. 

Who knows what the season will look like when Murray returns. Folks trying to project his performance based on 11 plays are being silly, but it is possible that the Vikings will need to play this hard-nosed, blitz-wild fashion all year long and hope that variance and turnover luck fall their way. 

We’ll find that out when we get there. What the Vikings need most is to survive the next stretch of the season. Winning against the Packers—no matter how it looked—was huge for staying alive in a tough division despite losing their QB1 in the process.

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