Copyright Star Tribune
This year, the Vikings lost at home in Week 7, are heading back to L.A. on four days’ rest and will … “There certainly are ebbs and flows to every game, every season,” Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores said before his team’s latest ebb, a 28-22 loss to the Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday. Perhaps it helps that Thursday’s game is against a 4-3 Chargers team that has lost three of its last four games. Perhaps not, since last year’s loss was to a Rams team that was 2-4 before momentum and better health smiled upon it. Momentum is a funny thing. Unless, of course, you’re an NFL team and you can’t control it — the good, the bad, probably the ugly, too — no matter how hard you try to match the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only team to finish an NFL season with a perfect record. On Sunday in Denver, the Broncos trailed the Giants 19-0 entering the fourth quarter. Fifteen minutes later, they won 33-32, becoming the first team to score 33 points in the fourth quarter of a game they were shut out in through three quarters. Quarterback Bo Nix, drafted two spots below the Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy, became the first player with multiple touchdowns passing and rushing in the same quarter in NFL history. He should know. He played for the Indianapolis Colts in 2022 when they led Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings 33-0 at halftime only to lose 39-36 in overtime in the largest comeback win in NFL history. O’Connell is 37-20 as Vikings coach in the regular season. He is 10-8 after a loss, including last year’s playoff loss to the Rams after losing at Detroit with the NFC’s top seed up for grabs in the regular-season finale. He’s had five losing streaks, three of them lasting only two games, one lasting three and the other lasting four. “When I think back on my entire time here as the head coach … what I’m challenging our guys to do [to get momentum back] is doing routine things a little bit more routinely, and if we do that, momentum is a little more attainable and holdable,” said O’Connell, citing the game-winning drive against the Cleveland Browns’ No. 1 defense with four backup offensive linemen on the field as a prime example. Showing no signs of outward panic as a leader and play-caller also has served O’Connell well and meshes with Flores, the team’s defensive play-caller. Aggressive play-callers by nature, they talk often during the game about what each can do to help the other regain or retain momentum. A year ago at this point in the season, the Vikings were 5-1. They had 10 giveaways, 14 takeaways and at least one takeaway in each game. This year, the Vikings are 3-3, alternating wins and losses. They have one more giveaway, seven fewer takeaways and have only two takeaways outside of the five in their 48-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. So, yeah, momentum is a funny, fickle thing. Once again, the Vikings don’t have it when they really need it as NFC North basement dwellers. Offensively, they just went 1-for-6 in the red zone and turned the ball over twice, including an interception returned for a touchdown. Defensively, they just allowed the first perfect passer rating of Jalen Hurts’ career while failing to register a takeaway for a third straight game. Flores was asked how the good teams he has been on of have successfully surfed these inevitable ebbs and flows. Flo was Bill Belichick’s defensive play-caller in 2018 when the New England Patriots started the year 1-2 and finished it by dominating the Rams’ No. 2-ranked offense 13-3 in the Super Bowl. “I think it boils down to relationships,” Flores said. “The best teams I’ve been a part of have had great relationships within the team. And those relationships allow them to overcome the adversity that’s going to hit within the season. “We know it’s going to happen. It’s not going to always be 30-0 [wins]. That’s just not this league. It’s hard. There’s adversity. There’s frustration. There’s stress. There’s anxiety. All those things occur in the National Football League, as well as in life. … I think you get through those through the people around you and with the people around you.” Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune Cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, who got a statement of support from the Vikings, called the messages “some of the most racist comments I ever seen or read since I entered the league.” Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune The question of when J.J. McCarthy will return is still applicable in the short term. But in the long term, it is clearly his job when he’s healthy.
