The Vikings Need to Bounce Back Quickly After Getting Embarrassed By the Cowboys
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The Vikings have a lot to fix after failing to show up in a 40-3 loss to the Cowboys. They don't have a lot of time to do it.
In just four days, the Patriots will be in town for a primetime Thanksgiving showdown. It'll be Kevin O'Connell against the first head coach he had as an NFL player, Bill Belichick. New England boasts one of the best defenses in the league, leading all teams in opponent EPA per play. They've won three in a row and have held two consecutive teams to just three points.
Coming off a three-point offensive effort of their own, the Vikings have their work cut out for them.
"We've got to learn from this," O'Connell said. "We've got to use this as an opportunity to grow as a football team and handle adversity the right way."
The Vikings simply didn't show up on Sunday. Three plays into the game, a Micah Parsons strip sack of Kirk Cousins set the tone for what would be a long, frustrating day for Minnesota in every phase. It was one of the most lopsided losses in the history of the franchise, both in terms of margin of defeat and the yardage differential (458 to 183).
The Vikings fell behind early, became one-dimensional, and got torn up by the Cowboys' pass rush. Cousins was sacked seven times and was under pressure seemingly every time he dropped back to pass. On the other side of the ball, the Vikings couldn't stop the run and gave up too many explosive plays through the air. They also committed seven penalties for the second week in a row.
It was just one of those games where nothing went right.
"We had a good week of preparation and it didn't translate to us playing our style of football in any way, shape, or form," O'Connell said. "I thought we were sloppy. I thought there were too many penalties. The early turnover, even though the defense was able to hold (Dallas) to a field goal, we then drive back down and have a chance to put seven on the board and we only get three. It just felt like from then on out, we were just reaching for momentum instead of doing the things that we've done, whether trailing or with the lead, throughout the season. We didn't do any of those things tonight. I think we've really got to look inward."
Depending on how they respond, this loss could actually be a good thing for the Vikings' season. They had been cruising, winning seven one-score games in a row. The vibes were great. Seven days earlier, they had pulled off a miraculous 17-point road comeback against the Bills.
Even though they were 8-1, the Vikings hadn't put together a full four quarters of consistent football. Losing in the way they did on Sunday could be a wake-up call for a team that has a lot to improve down the stretch.
"I do believe that we will respond to this the right way, but at this point in the season, November comes, and sometimes you can get hit in the mouth," O'Connell said. "This league has a way of humbling any football team at any point in time if you don't play good football."
"We didn’t do the things that have helped us win eight games," Adam Thielen said. "We expected that we would find a way to win because we’ve been doing that. Sometimes these games are good to wake you up a bit and realize that you’ve got to bring it every single week. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’ve got to bring it. You’ve got to find a way to bring your best football. It doesn’t matter if you’re sore, tired, injured, nicked up, you’ve got find a way to mentally play your best football. Otherwise, what happened tonight happens."
The Vikings will do their best to process this game and learn from it. But with a short week to prepare for the Patriots, there's also a need to quickly put this game behind them and turn the page. They can't let one ugly loss turn into something more.
For as ugly as Sunday's game was, it might've just not been the Vikings' day. They were coming off an emotionally draining win over the Bills and ran into a Cowboys team that's good enough to win the Super Bowl this year. The Vikings were without Dalvin Tomlinson, were down to their third-string cornerback opposite Patrick Peterson, and lost Christian Darrisaw in the first half. Dallas played a great game and steamrolled them.
There are legitimate things to be concerned about from this Vikings performance, most notably the play of the offensive line. But even a 37-point loss doesn't mean the Vikings' season is suddenly over. This is still an 8-2 football team with a lot of talent and a clear path to the No. 2 seed in the NFC. They just need to respond the right way on Thursday.
The sentiment from players after the game was that they're glad to have the opportunity to turn around and get this taste out of their mouth without having to wait a full week.
"100 percent," Adam Thielen said. "These are the weeks that you want to get back on the field as quickly as possible and go play a game. It will be good to get back on the field and be able to show who we really are. Flush this one and move on and find a way to get better."
"If you could pick a Thursday to have it, for me, personally, this is the one I’m picking," Jordan Hicks said.
The Vikings will get right back to work over the next three days, trying to figure out how to bounce back against a tough Patriots team. Before they know it, they'll be right back on the very field where they got embarrassed on Sunday. Their hope is that the version of the Vikings we've seen for most of the season will show up, not the version that got smacked around by the Cowboys.
"This will be a good test for us to understand that we did not play our best, or even close to it, and can we respond in the right way," O'Connell said. "And really try to look inward to a player, to a coach, and I'll be right out in front doing that. I didn't coach well enough tonight. I didn't coach well enough for our team, and we got outplayed. Luckily, you get 17 opportunities in this league, and we'll look back on this one, and we'll be able to see how we handled it moving forward, which will ultimately tell the story of our 2022 season."
"We’ve got to find a way to play our best football on Thursday night," Thielen said. "With a primetime game, we want to show who we really are, not what we showed today."
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