It was not a pretty game to watch, but it did have enough drama to keep watching to the end. As a rule of thumb, any time the fans on Twitter are bitterly complaining about the officiating, their team is losing … and I saw a lot of complaints about the refs on my Twitter feed during the game. Of course, if Blair Walsh had been able to convert an extra point, the game wouldn’t have gone to overtime. The Walsh death-watch may be back on the table in Minneapolis after Walsh missed and had a field goal attempt blocked (and the replays looked as if it was going to miss the target even if it hadn’t been blocked).
Tom Pelissero says the team can no longer mask the weaknesses as it was able to during the 5-0 start:
The problem with starting 5-0 is all subsequent games are viewed through the lens of that initial success, no matter how skewed it may have been.
It happened to the Atlanta Falcons last season and it’s happening now to the Minnesota Vikings, whose 22-16 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday extended their skid to three, further tightening an NFC North race that was never going to turn into a rout.
The difference is those Falcons were an 8-8 team, which is exactly where they ended up. The Vikings are better than that, even if they made the sort of mistakes Sunday that can leave a team scraping to play .500 football.
“Jeez, it’s been a rough last couple weeks,” veteran guard Brandon Fusco told USA TODAY Sports. “But we’ve got a good team. We know we do. We’ve just got to keep fighting.”
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Four days after Norv Turner’s surprise resignation, Vikings interim offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur deployed a quick-strike passing game that helped Bradford put up an efficient line: 31-of-40 passing for 273 yards and a touchdown, with just two sacks.
The Vikings defense did its part most of the day, too, intercepting Stafford in the second quarter and getting a big stop after the blocked field goal.
It’s not all bad for the Vikings now, just like it wasn’t all good early. So it’s hard to say things are falling apart when they weren’t totally together to begin with.
