Vikings - Cowboys

Well, that was awful.

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t look ready for a football game. The Dallas Cowboys did. 40-3.

This game was probably over when Micah Parsons head-butted Christian Darrisaw out of the game. The Vikings left tackle spent the week in the concussion protocol after suffering one against the Buffalo Bills. He was cleared on Friday. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have played yesterday. Unfortunately, football decisions have to be made in real time. The Vikings needed their best blocker against one of the game’s best pass rusher. Parsons made sure Darrisaw’s time on the field was brief. The Vikings are going to be ultra-careful with Darrisaw moving forward. With the typical, bullshit short week of a Thursday game, he’s already been ruled out of the Thanksgiving night game against the New England Patriots. Hopefully, Darrisaw will be in a better place in two weeks. He’s, arguably, been the team’s best and most indispensable player. 

It would’ve been nice if the Cowboys had used the same defensive strategy against the Vikings that they used against the Green Bay Packers last week. I’d heard that Parsons only rushed on nine occasions last week. That’s an inconceivable strategy. The Cowboys defense is a modest one when he isn’t ripping through offensive backfields. Once Darrisaw was knocked out of the game, it was a feeding frenzy for the Cowboys pass rushers. The score and later loss of left guard Ezra Cleveland made it even more so. Once the Dallas defenders didn’t have to concern themselves with the run game, they pursued Kirk Cousins without restraint. The Vikings quarterback was sacked seven times and pressured a on ridiculous 63% of his drop backs. 

Maybe two months of close, tense games had gotten to the Vikings. Maybe they assumed that good fortune would continue to follow them. Maybe they were basking in their first positive press clippings. Whatever the reason, they clearly weren’t ready for a football game. The entire team looked off. Offense, defense, special teams. It looked like they were ambling through an emotion-less walkthrough. It was a sad, difficult-to-watch performance. 

Hopefully, this pathetic performance will serve as a reset. The Vikings are still in a good place at 8-2. They won’t remain in a good place if they don’t immediately shake off the stink of this pathetic performance. Perhaps it’s a good thing that they have a super short week. They are back on the field in three short days. The Vikings face the Patriots on Thanksgiving night.