The Vikings Can Be Great — If They Can Just Hold Onto the Football

Regression was inevitable for the Vikings this season, but for it to his this hard, this early almost feels like some sort of sick joke from the football gods.

Through two games, the 2023 Vikings are the complete opposite of their 2022 selves. Whereas last year's team outperformed its talent level with improbable victory after improbable victory, this year's group has quite literally fumbled away two potential wins. A team that famously went 11-0 in one-score games last season just went 0-2 in that department in a five-day span.

After the Vikings coughed up four fumbles in their loss to the Eagles on Thursday night, head coach Kevin O'Connell relayed the baffling numbers to his players in the locker room. They've lost the turnover battle 7-1 through two games, and yet, the combined point differential of those two defeats is nine. O'Connell's message was straightforward: This team has to take better care of the football, because they have a chance to be great if they can stop shooting themselves in the foot.

"Clearly, I have to coach it better from a standpoint of something that we talk about every single day," O'Connell said. "Ball security is a major, major focus in our football philosophy, but clearly I need to do a better job, and our staff. We have to go back and continue to find ways to re-emphasize how important it is when you have the football in your hands playing for the Minnesota Vikings."

On Sunday, the Vikings dominated the Buccaneers on a per-snap basis but were doomed by three turnovers. They faced a stiffer test against the Eagles on Thursday and had other issues — they were out-gained in rushing yards 259 to 28 — but the story was basically the same. Four turnovers, all of them fumbles, were too much to overcome for a team that otherwise did a lot of good things.

It's been remarkable to see a team struggle this much to hold onto the ball. Brandon Powell and Alexander Mattison had it punched out while going to the ground. Kirk Cousins lost his third fumble in two games, but it's hard to say any of them have truly been his fault (in this instance, backup left tackle Oli Udoh was beaten cleanly by Josh Sweat on Cousins' blind side). Justin Jefferson lost a fumble on the weird touchback rule when he attempted to extend the ball beyond the goal line late in the first half.

The turnovers have come in all shapes and sizes — and the Vikings are fed up with themselves. They work on ball security a lot, but O'Connell said they're going to do even more to find a way to fix this problem.

“Every single day we do some variation of a ball security circuit gauntlet drill," he said. "Different variations of working the techniques and fundamentals that we try to apply when having the ball in your hands. ... To me, it's number one on our football philosophy. We talk about it a lot. We have meetings about it, weekly meetings. 'It’s all about the ball' is how we talk about it."

"We’re probably going to have to continue to emphasize different ways of drilling," O'Connell added. "Almost having your scoring differential be the same as your turnover margin is not something that you ever want to preach as a positive, but I do know that locker room is confident. I do know that you get what you emphasize with them. So my anticipation is if we make ball security the living, breathing way that we talk and walk about everything in our building, it will improve. And that’s what my hope is and that’s on me and our coaching staff to emphasize it, minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, how we practice and ultimately start seeing it show up on Sundays."

The most frustrating thing about these turnovers for the Vikings is how they've overshadowed and spoiled what's been, in some ways, a strong, encouraging two-game start to the season. There was garbage time involved, but the Vikings averaged 6.8 yards per play against the Eagles on Thursday. Kirk Cousins threw for 364 yards and four touchdowns without an interception, giving him 708 yards and six passing TDs this season on nearly 73 percent completions. Jefferson became the first player since Steve Smith Sr. in 2011 to open a season with consecutive 150-yard receiving performances, and Jordan Addison became the third Vikings rookie to ever open his career with a touchdown reception in two straight games.

Even the defense, which wore down against the run, played pretty well against reigning MVP runner-up Jalen Hurts. Outside of two deep balls to Devonta Smith, Hurts was 16-of-21 for 76 yards with an interception, four sacks, and no explosive runs. That's a notable change from last season, when he ripped Ed Donatell's defense to shreds.

"The positive side of it is we’ve lost these games by nine points," said T.J. Hockenson, who caught two touchdown passes. "There’s no excuse for that, we’re 0-2 and we have to look ourselves in the mirror these next three days and just really put that on us. It’s on us as players, we hold the ball. When we have the ball, it’s the organization in our hands. We’ll come in next week, try to get that corrected. We can move the ball, we can stop anybody, it’s just those things are hurting us right now."

Two weeks into their season, the Vikings know they have to have an extreme sense of urgency when it comes to fixing their turnover issue. At the same time, there are real things they can build on and be confident in as they move forward.

"We don’t just look at it with one broad stroke brush, and say, ‘Oh, we lost, that was bad,' or 'We won, that was good,'" Cousins said. "You know, if anything, you have to avoid it when you win. Last year, I think it was a lot of times where we were winning but you have to look back and be like, ‘This isn’t good enough, this isn’t sustainable,’ and so there’s a little bit of the opposite, too, when you lose — saying, 'Hey, I liked what you did here, I like what you did here,' but obviously there’s a need to coach and fix things and be hard on ourselves anytime you lose."

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