Before the game started, even the most fanatical fans were looking at this as a likely loss: the team got eight wins this season primarily due to the stout defence and the running of Adrian Peterson. On Wednesday, the team had already declared that their three best defenders were out (each ranked in the top 3 in the NFL by Pro Football Focus), and might even start a newly signed street free agent and a player just called up from the practice squad as their safeties for the game. On Thursday morning, Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan explained why a loss to the Arizona Cardinals might not be the end of the world for the Vikings:
It’s time like these that cause overreaction. Here’s the right way to react to three key issues:
1. Losing to Arizona won’t be disastrous, unless injuries mount.
If the Vikings lose tonight, they’ll be 8-5 with two winnable home game between now and their season finale at Lambeau Field. That’s about where any optimistic realist would have projected them to be before the season began. They still can reach 10 victories and make the playoffs for only the second time since 2009, and they might be better off finishing second in the division if that means a chance to play against the NFC East champion instead of Seattle.
In a theoretical world, you could argue that the Vikings would be best off resting as many important players as possible against Arizona and preparing for the final three games. In the real world, you can’t expect the Vikings not to try. For at least two or three quarters. Then they need to save their most important bodies.
2. Adrian Peterson is the kid who won’t eat his spinach.
Just as the Vikings are bound to try to win against ridiculous odds on Thursday night, Peterson will want to carry the ball 25 times. And like trying to beat Arizona, that’s a fine plan going in, but if this game turns into a blowout the Vikings would be right to again put him on the sideline.
Peterson hated missing 15 games last year, but that rest probably led to his remarkable performance this season. He hated getting only eight carries against Seattle, but that game became unwinnable and he and the Vikings might benefit if he’s fresh going into the last three games and the playoffs.
This might be a good time to develop Jerick McKinnon, who has played well and might be a bigger help than Peterson to the passing game.
It turned out to be a much closer game than anyone was predicting, and might have gone to overtime if the Vikings had elected to kick a field goal in the final 30 seconds rather than run one more play (where Teddy Bridgewater was sacked on the final play and lost the ball (and I’m not saying they were wrong for continuing to try to win rather than just settling for a field goal to tie)). It may not have been a signature game for Minnesota, but they played amazingly well against a playoff-bound Arizona team, coming back twice to tie the score and driving in the final two minutes before falling just short. Even that understates how comparatively well the Vikings played against the Cardinals … except for turnovers, the Vikings might well have won by a two-score margin.
Pro Football Talk characterized it as the Vikings coaches “got cute”:
The Vikings were on the verge of sending Thursday night’s game to overtime before the coaching staff got cute.
Trailing by three with no timeouts, the Vikings insisted on continuing to run plays instead of summoning Blair Walsh for a field goal. Dwight Freeney sacked Teddy Bridgewater and forced a fumble that Calais Campbell recovered, and the Cardinals held on for a 23-20 win.
It was an inexcusable decision by the Vikings’ coaching staff. The Cardinals had taken the lead with 1:28 left on Chandler Catanzaro’s 47-yard field goal, and the Vikings had used their final timeout trying to get into field goal range.
The Vikings were at the Cardinals’ 31 with 23 seconds left but kept trying to throw. Earlier in the game, Walsh had made a 54-yard field goal.
The strip sack ensured he didn’t get another shot. The Cardinals moved to 11-2 and clinched a playoff spot, while the Vikings fell to 8-5 and into second place, at least for now, in the NFC North.
Update: Jim Souhan follows-up on yesterday’s column (probably while trying hard not to injure his shoulder while patting himself on the back).
On Thursday, a Vikings team weakened by key injuries faced the Arizona Cardinals, the rare NFL team that appears to be good at just about everything.
Anthony Barr, Linval Joseph and Harrison Smith were out. Cornerback Terence Newman, so important in so many Vikings victories this year, was forced to play safety, meaning rookie Trae Waynes would start for Newman against a team deep at receiver.
This was not only a blowout waiting to happen, this was a game in which the Vikings could be excused for playing Shaun Hill. At every position.
[…]
Thursday night, the Vikings and Cardinals were tied 10-10 at the half. They were tied 20-20 inside two minutes remaining. The Vikings lost 23-20 when the Cardinals produced a last-drive field goal and the Vikings’ last drive produced a sack and a fumble by Teddy Bridgewater when the team could have attempted a 48-yard field goal.
A victory would have been the most impressive of the season, by far. As a loss, it remained their most impressive performance, even if the particulars — failing to tackle John Brown, calling a reverse that produced a fumble when the offense didn’t seem to need a trick play, and that last drive — will nag.
Against Arizona, on the road, on a short week, without their three most important defensive players, a week after collapsing in the worst home loss of the season?
Athletes overuse the word “character.” This week, the Vikings can use that word without sounding trite.
“Against a playoff-caliber team, we’re able to look back and say we got things going,” Peterson said.
A week after looking startled by an opposing pass rush, Teddy Bridgewater looked much sharper. He threw for 335 yards and a touchdown, led a fourth-quarter touchdown drive to tie the score, and, until the last drive, ably managed a challenging pass rush.
