From Disappointment to Hopelessness

The Vikings House of Horrors

The Minnesota Vikings are broken, and the only question that needs to be answered is whether the Wilf family ownership thinks their current football staff can fix it.

First off, the JJ McCarthy experience is not working. Whatever talent and potential may still remain, he is not progressing as a QB at this point in his young career. Problems with accuracy and turnovers remain, and after yesterday's game at home against the Bears, they've become more apparent and problematic.

More concerning is the performance of the Vikings receivers. Justin Jefferson is openly frustrated, and he, along with Jordan Addison, Adam Thielen, and TJ Hockenson are dropping passes right and left, passes that should be easily caught. What's going on here? Is it a symptom of their larger frustrations?

Head coach Kevin O'Connell has had a mostly healthy offensive line for a couple of games, and although they gave McCarthy time to throw yesterday, he still took too long to progress through his reads and get the ball off in time.

Although KOC showed a greater commitment to the run, he didn't stick with it enough to make a difference in the final score. McCarthy did engineer a go-ahead drive late in the fourth, but the inability of the Vikings special teams to pin Chicago back on the ensuing kickoff sealed their fate.

So what now?

They're not making the playoffs. Looking ahead at their schedule, I only see two more possible wins: at home against the Commanders and at the NY Giants, but they stink at home, and the Giants are frisky at times.

Here are the on-field questions we need to answer this season:

1. Can McCarthy show improvement in terms of accuracy and reducing interceptions?

2. Can the offensive line stay healthy and protect McCarthy?

3. Will KOC increase his commitment to the run game?

4. Will the defense hold up if the offense keeps sending them back out onto the field?

5. Will the Vikings receivers start making catches? Are they so frustrated with the poor play of their young QB that they're giving up?

Beyond the season, here are the three most important questions the Wilfs will have to decide for themselves:

1. Has McCarthy shown enough progress by the end of the year to warrant giving him a second season at QB? If not, is there a Plan B?

2. O'Connell has built a great culture in Minnesota, but is he the right coach to take the team to the next level?

3. This team is too old and lacks depth. They should have at least 10 picks in the next draft, but GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has a terrible track record in the draft. Can he and his draft team be trusted to pick the right players to build for the future?

Sitting here today, those answers are all, "I don't know. It doesn't seem like it," and that's why Vikings fans today are slipping from disappointment into hopelessness.

Photo credit: "US Bank Stadium interior - Minnesota Vikings orientation" by Darb02 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.