Falcons-Vikings

That was terrible. Just terrible. 

Did the Minnesota Vikings start their bye week a week early? Did they underestimate an 0-5 Atlanta Falcons that had just fired their head coach and spent a day or two dealing with a COVID scare? Who knows? I don't. I do know that this was one of the worst, most depressing Vikings performances since a late season no-show against the Indianapolis Colts in 2016. It was terrible. 

Falcons 40 

Vikings 23

There really isn't much to recap or analyze with this game. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins threw an interception on the first play of the game. Football becomes a pretty easy game when an offense only has to deal with about thirty yards of the 100-yard field. The Vikings' defense was on their heels from the start and stayed on their heels as Cousins threw two more interceptions before the first half was done. Each interception gave the Falcons offense a very short field and 17 easy, breezy points. Those easy points were the bulk of the points in the Vikings' 20-0 halftime deficit. 

The second half opened with the potential for the sort of break that the Vikings desperately needed. The Vikings forced a fumble on the return of the second half kickoff. The ball bounced right into the hands of Dan Chisena. If he catches it cleanly he might stroll into the end zone for the Vikings' first touchdown of the day and only seconds off the second half clock. Instead the ball ends up in the hands of the Falcons. It was that sort of game. The Vikings couldn't buy a break and the Falcons couldn't avoid them.

Justin Jefferson was great. 

9 catches, 166 yards, and two touchdowns.

This game got out of hand from the first snap and continued to get out of hand with each Cousins interception. The loss isn't all on Cousins throwing to the wrong team. Those three throws aren't as simple as that. One the first one, he clearly didn't see linebacker Deion Jones drift back into his passing lane. He has to see Jones. He simply can't miss that read. On the second one, he forced a third-and-nine throw to Jefferson. Falcons rookie corner A.J. Terrell managed to hold onto the ball despite it hitting each of his four limbs multiple times. It was one of those juggling catches that ends up on the ground nine out of ten times. Not on this day. On the third one, the ball was batted as Cousins threw it. The three miscues "gifted" the Falcons easy opportunities for points. 17 points. In a game that was ultimately decided by 17 points. 

The past two games Vikings' miscues have "gifted" their opponents with short fields of  29, 40, 46, 15, and 29 yards. The Seahawks and Falcons took advantage of those opportunities and scored 31 points. It's tough to win games in the NFL when giving teams so damn many easy points. 

There's no explaining away this terrible game. The Vikings are now 1-5. There's no explaining away that record. They are now on their bye week. That means that they have two weeks with this terrible performance as their last performance. That doesn't seem like a pleasant two weeks.