Vikings Open as Significant Underdogs Against Eagles in Week 2

The Vikings' season opener on Sunday didn't go to plan, as they were doomed by their own mistakes in a frustrating 20-17 loss against the Buccaneers at U.S. Bank Stadium. In many ways, they played well enough to win, but three turnovers and a few sloppy penalties were too much to overcome.

One big reason why this was such a brutal defeat is that the schedule only gets tougher moving forward. Right away, the Vikings have to shake this one off and get ready to head to Philadelphia in a few days for a Thursday Night Football showdown with the defending NFC champions.

Minnesota has opened as a 7.5-point underdog for that game against the Eagles. It's going to take a very strong all-around performance to pull off the upset and avoid starting 0-2.

"Whether we won or lost today, this was still going to be a heck of a challenge," Kevin O'Connell said. "And now that we didn't get it done today, we just have to have that much more urgency, that much more detail. Everybody's got to look inward, and we gotta persevere together. This is not our first time dealing with adversity, and my hope is we'll circle back on some of that experience and play our best possible game we can play Thursday night."

The Eagles looked somewhat shaky in their opener on Sunday, but they managed to hold off the Patriots for a 25-20 win in Foxborough. A Darius Slay pick-six helped Philly jump out to a 16-0 lead in the first quarter. New England cut the deficit to two points at halftime, but Jalen Hurts and company did enough to win despite being held to 251 yards of offense.

Although they weren't dominant this weekend, there's little reason to believe the Eagles won't again be one of the NFL's top teams in 2023. This is a team that went 16-4 last season (including playoffs) and very nearly bested the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. They did lose both coordinators and several starters this offseason, but the core remains intact and they reloaded in the draft.

The Vikings know quite well how tough of an environment Lincoln Financial Field is in primetime. Just last year, they were coming off a season-opening victory against the Packers when they traveled to face the Eagles on Monday Night Football in Week 2 and got smacked around. Kirk Cousins threw three interceptions in that game as the Vikings struggled to get much going on offense. Defensively, they were gashed for nearly 500 total yards as Hurts scored three touchdowns in the first half of a 24-7 game.

Can things go differently this time around? The Vikings will throw a much different defensive scheme at the Eagles with Brian Flores at coordinator instead of Ed Donatell, but they'll have their hands full. Cousins will look to avoid turnovers and build on the positives from a Week 1 in which he threw for 344 yards. With a quick turnaround, O'Connell and the Vikings' offensive coaches will study the tape from the opener and quickly put together a plan for how they want to attack the Eagles' defense.

It's going to be a major challenge, but this is a Vikings team that never lost two games in a row last season. They have experience dealing with adversity and finding a way to respond.

"This is the week to bounce back," Justin Jefferson said. "Just coming off a loss and now playing a team that just was in the Super Bowl, it would be a confidence booster coming out with a W. We gotta learn from this game and then go into next week, a short week at that, ready to play and getting our bodies right."

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