I don’t know who all the guys wearing the purple jerseys on Sunday were, but they sure didn’t play like the team that won five straight games to start the season. The names were (mostly) the same, but the effort just didn’t match what the Vikings had been doing earlier in the season. There were a few individual performances that stood out (Diggs, Thielen, Bradford), but many who just seemed to be sleepwalking through most of the game (Barr, Alexander). There were, of course, more injuries during the game (Long, Rhodes, Kendricks) and those still not playing due to injuries in earlier games (Sherels, Floyd, Munnerlyn), but the team just didn’t seem to have the same passion they had to start the season, and the responsibility for that falls on the coaches.

At ESPN1500, Matthew Coller offers some instant analysis of the game:

– For the second straight week, the Vikings had a chance to win with under a minute left and couldn’t get the job done. Against the Lions, Sam Bradford drove down the field with the pressure on and scored a go-ahead touchdown, but in Washington that was not the case. On two fourth quarter drives, Bradford failed to give his team the lead, getting picked off on one and taking a pivotal sack on the final drive of the game. It will be a bad taste in Vikings fans’ mouth on what was actually a very good day for Bradford, who went 31-for-30 with 307 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 INT.

– The Vikings’ running game may end up being one of the worst in NFL history. They already came in dead last in the league, averaging just 2.7 yards per carry and were completely shut down by Washington. Minnesota totaled 21 carries on 47 yards. They repeatedly went back to rushes on 3rd-and-1 and failed over and over.

– It didn’t make a huge difference in the game, but Blair Walsh’s missed extra point may mean the end of his Vikings career. The Vikings brought in six kickers to try out last week as more or less a warning shot and then he couldn’t come through on a kick that the league makes 95% of the time.

– Minnesota’s offensive line did not have THAT bad of a day until the end of the game when they not only allowed a sack, but then took a holding penalty with under 20 seconds remaining and allowed another sack on the hail Mary attempt. But they still couldn’t get the slightest amount of push in run blocking or short-yardage situations and continue to be the weakest point. And things aren’t going to be better if Jake Long is out for an extended period of time. Long had actually shown significant improvement over the last two weeks.

– The Vikings’ No. 1 ranked defense can no longer be referred to as so and a big part of that is injuries. We figured that Terence Newman could simply slide into Captain Munnerlyn’s spot an things would be fine, but they weren’t. The ripple effect forced Trae Waynes into a full-time spot covering Pierre Garcon, which did not work out in Minnesota’s favor. Then Mackensie Alexander was called upon at the end of the game and didn’t play well after Xavier Rhodes missed snaps with an injury. Not to mention that Eric Kendricks left the game on the first drive and Anthony Barr looked dinged up. Injuries aren’t an excuse but they are an explanation here…

At the Daily Norseman, Christopher Gates fills in for his fellow DN writers on the Stock Market Report:

Much like the actual stock market, the Minnesota Vikings were up and down. . .and wound up down.

Hey, everybody. Both Ted and Eric are unavailable to do this week’s Stock Market Report, so I’m going to take a whack at this one. Hopefully I can do it justice.

This afternoon’s contest had plenty of ups and downs for fans of the Minnesota Vikings. There was the second quarter, where the Vikings showed as much energy as they had at any point since their five-game winning streak. That was the high point of the roller coaster for this week. However, rather than descending into an amazing, fun-filled thrill ride, we just slowly sort of lurched down the hill into the slow, painful inevitability of another painful loss to put a damper on a season that started out with so much promise.

[…]

Buy: The Vikings’ offense is better – I do think that the Vikings’ defense has gotten significantly better since Pat Shurmur took the reins. They’re moving the ball between the 20s, and this week they started converting when they got into the red zone this week, going three-for-three on that front. When you contrast things to the two games before Shurmur took over, the Minnesota offense looks like it might be coming around.

Sell: The Vikings’ offense is good enough – That said, this team still has too many issues offensively, and the defense hasn’t been able to cover up for them anymore. Some of this has to do with penalties at inopportune times, and some of it has to do with just a complete lack of execution. They could continue to get better, but we should be past the “building” stage at this point of the season. Time is running short, and with the Vikings now on a four-game skid, the chances to get things turned around are getting fewer.

Buy: The Vikings’ rush offense is historically (and hysterically) bad – I’ve been a fan of the National Football League, and of the Minnesota Vikings, for over 30 years. Never in my life have I seen a team struggle so much to get one. . .freaking. . .yard. Honestly, when there’s one yard to go, the Vikings apparently go into Tecmo Bowl mode. There’s generally only one play in the playbook (give up the middle to Matt Asiata), and everybody in the freaking stadium knows that it’s coming. When the Vikings got to first-and-goal at the 1, they hammered Asiata up the middle three straight times. Sure, it eventually worked, but there are plenty of other times that it hasn’t.

Sell: Adrian Peterson is going to fix this run game – The Vikings weren’t running the ball worth a damn with Peterson in the lineup. Peterson was averaging 1.6 yards/carry before he got hurt, and we don’t know what sort of shape he’s going to be in if/when he comes back. This is an issue with the offensive line not being able to run block worth a damn, and Adrian Peterson isn’t going to fix that. At this point, it doesn’t appear that anyone else is going to fix it, either.

Buy: This defense is still very good – This defense still has the talent to be a very good unit. They’re still likely going to be #1 or #2 in the NFL in points allowed after this week’s games, and when you’re giving up that few points, you should be able to win football games. Sure, injuries have started to take their toll on the defensive side of the ball as well, but teams aren’t running up the score against the Vikings by any stretch. It’s generally just come down to a stop here and a stop there over the past few games, and the Vikings just haven’t been getting them.

Sell: This defense is firing on all cylinders – That said, there are still some pieces of this defense that haven’t been playing up to the level that we’re accustomed to. I’m not sure what’s happened to Anthony Barr this season, but he’s really disappeared after spending his first two years looking like one of the NFL’s next great linebackers. Eric Kendricks may have come back too soon from his injuries. Xavier Rhodes, literally, gets hurt in some way every week. I know that the Vikings are deep on the defensive side, but eventually even those depth guys have to make plays when they’re called on, and they’re not doing it.