Another disappointing performance by the Vikings. The offense just isn't very good at scoring. Nor is the Vikings defense very good at stopping the Packers on third downs or preventing second half scoring drives. And of course, the special teams return/coverage squads have yet another game determining synapse? I was amazed at, but not really surprised at all, by the Vikings offense absolutely worthless performance in the third quarter Below are my 3 Ups and 3 Downs for the game:
1. Nice FG drive to open the game: 52 yarder — well done by Will Reichard!
2. Offense played well at the end of the half — they prevented a late first half score by the Packers and scored the long FG right before halftime. Nicely done.
3. Ryan Wright's punting game was spot on.
1. We are driving in the second quarter, and K.O. calls a trick play on third-and-1. Followed up by a fourth-down run with Jordan Mason running into the teeth of the Pack defense who sold out on a Jordan fourth-down run; for an easy turnover on downs. What a self-inflicted and totally wasted opportunity. Just plain dumb.
2. We stop the Packers on their opening possession of the third quarter, forcing a Packers punt. Then we give the ball right back to them on the 5-yard line for an outright gift Packers TD after Price touches the punt but fails to recover it. Followed by a Vikings three-and-out — crushing and sad.
3. The entire Vikings offense. We cannot score a TD the entire game? We have absolutely nothing on offense the entire second half? Multiple punts out of our own end zone? Back-to-back to back three-and-outs in the second half? We can't even score a garbage-time TD; but instead have two more McCarthy interceptions? Our offense is just totally unproductive, weak, unreliable and downright unacceptable by any measurement standard? When watching the fourth quarter, my only thought was, "please make it stop." Something has to change.
We are going nowhere at the speed of light in my opinion. Hope we can do better next week, but my confidence is gone. I wish I was looking forward to [Sam] Darnold and the Seahawks.
Respectfully,
— Jeff Ludwig
Kudos to Reichard on the 52- and the 59- (by the way, there was a great catch at the end of that one by equipment staffer Ben Ryan) yard field goals. A great job of snapping by Andrew DePaola and holding by Ryan Wright.
I really thought the execution at the end of the first half, which was dramatically better than the previous week, was going to lead to some momentum in the second half.
It started to happen with the defense forcing a punt on Green Bay's first possession, but the muff and Packers recovery at the 5 started an avalanche.
Wright did have a good day punting, downing the ball at the 2 on one and handling two backed-up-deep punts in the second half.
The trick play was a frequent source of disdain for emailers this week.
I'm not sure why that was the play that was called in that situation, but O'Connell did say it was one the team had worked on during the week.
There's a lot of drinking from the firehose that occurs for young QBs, especially against good defenses. Green Bay has a good defense and was able to create pressures without blitzing, which is disappointing since Sunday was the first time all five intended offensive line starters were simultaneously available.