On Sunday afternoon, the 6-2 Minnesota Vikings visited the 5-3 Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Both teams were hoping to get recently injured stars back in time for the game, with Minnesota’s star wide receiver Adam Thielen recovering from a hamstring injury suffered in the Detroit Lions game and the Chiefs’ starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes (reigning NFL MVP) having suffered a knee injury (the Chiefs activated Chad Henne from injured reserve on Saturday as insurance). The Vikings hadn’t won a game at Arrowhead since December 1974, a 35-15 result, and came in hoping to change that and move to 7-2 on the season.
“4762 Arrowhead” by nickhall is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Adam Thielen started the game, but was quickly benched as his injury flared up again. Mahomes was not active for the Chiefs, so Matt Moore got the start.
Although the Vikings had the NFL rushing leader, they started the game with a run-deficient plan that saw quarterback Kirk Cousins throw three times on the opening “drive”, then yield to Britton Colquitt to punt the ball away. The second Vikings possession went by just as quickly with three plays and a punt. The Chiefs got on the scoreboard on their second possession with a long pass to Tyreek Hill that beat the Vikings’ coverage. The following drive may have featured the best play by former first-round pick wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, who had two key receptions on the drive that was capped off with a touchdown pass to Olabisi Johnson to tie the game at 7-7.
The second quarter saw each team eke out a field goal to keep the score tied 10-10 at the half. At that point, it was clear that November Kirk Cousins is a poor second to October Kirk Cousins, who was the NFC Offensive player of the month … 9 of 21 for 101 yards isn’t the kind of thing we’d been led to expect from the Vikings quarterback.
In the third quarter, the TV announcers re-iterated that Kansas City wasn’t known for their running game, just in time for a 91-yard scoring run by Damien Williams (have you ever noticed that TV announcers have a knack for pointing out something relevant about the game just before a big play happens…). The score was tied in the last few minutes, but the Chiefs were in field goal range and scored the winner just before time expired.
You knew from the very first drive that it was Bad Kirk time on Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Minnesota Vikings opened their contest against the Kansas City Chiefs in a manner that did not reflect their last four weeks of offensive excellence. Dalvin Cook had a pass bounce off his hands on the opening play and then Kirk Cousins tentatively flipped a pass into the flat in the direction of Adam Thielen but the low throw not only fell incomplete, it ended Thielen’s day. He came into the game with a “questionable” designation with a hamstring injury and did not see the field after the first drive.
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Cousins overcame some frustration — that was caught, as always, by the FOX TV cameras — to give his team a chance to win.
The defense, however, showed its weakness again. After sacking Moore on second down, the Chiefs’ quarterback found Hill open over the middle for a first down. He created separation from Xavier Rhodes, who has struggled to shut down receivers as he did in the golden age of the Vikings defense. Moore then heaved the ball up to Hill down the sideline and he jumped over Trae Waynes for a 41-yard to put KC in field goal position.
Harrison Smith came through with a sack on third down but the Chiefs were still able to tie the game at 23.
Bad Kirk returned on the subsequent drive. Not only did he go three-and-out but Cousins’ only completion was a 7-yard loss.
The Vikings’ defense had a chance to redeem itself for a day of allowing big plays in big spots after Colquitt shanked a 27-yard punt to put KC at mid-field. Maybe two years ago they would have. This time around, Hill found space in the middle of the field for a first down to set up a game-winning field goal.
Here’s what it means: If the Vikings want to prove themselves as legit contenders, they can’t have Bad Kirk show up for any length of time. They can’t put everything on their defense. Otherwise they will end up walking off with the same defeated feeling as they did on Sunday at Arrowhead.
Everybody on the Vikings is going to have a rough go of it on Monday when they watch the game film of this loss.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins, whose inaccuracy throughout the first half left first downs and points on the field, will hardly be able to re-examine some of his poor showing. His offensive line won’t have an easier time of it, watching themselves bullied by their Chief opponents from quarter one to quarter four.
Vikings’ offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanksi may have to leave the room as the film comes to its last minutes, lest he see just how bland and predictable his playcalling was in the Vikings’ final two possessions.
Mike Zimmer may be the most uncomfortable of all Viking players and coaches, having to re-experience the fact that the one player his defense should have kept in check (Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill) had six catches for 160 yards and a touchdown in the game.
Update: From the ever-reliable Daily Norseman, here’s the Buy/Sell section of Ted Glover’s Stock Market Report.
Buy: Adam Thielen was healing and close to playing. Thielen is a big part of this offense and makes it immeasurably better. His hamstring injury was described as minor all along, so it felt like missing the Redskins game and then having 10 days off would be a smart plan for him getting back on the field.
Sell: Playing Adam Thielen. Yet, that plan backfired early. Thielen tweaked his hamstring on the Vikes first or second drive and didn’t return. Now the team is dealing with an injury that can linger for weeks, and no one truly knows how long he’ll be out. The smart play would be to keep him out for the next two games, as that leads into the bye week. Will that be enough time, though? Hamstring injuries are the worst, and they can linger for a lot longer than three weeks. It’s something that can be problematic for the rest of the season if Thielen pushes too hard, and when he’s out it affects what the offense can do. One thing we all agreed on coming into the season was the Vikings WR depth after Thielen and Diggs, and now here we are two months into the season with no real go to guys after Diggs.
Treadwell had a good game today, Bisi Johnson has had his moments, and maybe we’ll see something out of Josh Doctson in the coming weeks. But not addressing WR3 in the off-season has officially come back to bite this team in the ass, at the worst possible time.
Buy: Kirk’s decisiveness to run on third and 7 early second quarter. One of the things that Mike Zimmer wanted to see from Kirk Cousins this year was more decisiveness when deciding to keep the ball and run with it. Early in the second quarter today, Kirk bailed from the pocket and took off, with a lot of open field in front of him.
Sell: Kirk sliding and coming up short of first down. Yet, with all the open field, Kansas City closed in pursuit, Kirk gave himself up, and went into the “steal second base” dive. The only problem with that was that he was a yard short of the first down, bringing up fourth down. Minnesota ended up kicking the ball away to the Chiefs, who took the ball and ended up kicking a field goal.
Buy: Getting the ball twice late in the 4th quarter with a legitimate chance to win the game. With a 23-20 lead, Minnesota got the ball with 7:47 left. A team that’s serious about putting away opponents goes on a long, clock eating drive there, and ends the game. But they didn’t. Still, with the score tied at 23, Minnesota got the ball back again with 2:30 left. All they needed to do was drive about 50 yards to get into field goal range and get out of there with a win.
Sell: Winning the game. Those last two drives were particularly frustrating. The Vikes had momentum on that first drive, as the offense had scored and then the defense forced the Chiefs to punt. A long drive there that ends in points seals the game. Even with that last drive, it was a very doable situation. They had the 2 minute warning, two timeouts, and the ball on the 25. It wouldn’t take much against one of the worst defenses in the NFL to get into scoring position, kick a field goal, and win the game. Yet, in those two drives, the VIkings ran six plays and lost seven yards. Remarkable.
Buy: Kirk Cousins with three touchdown passes. Sometimes Kirk Cousins makes a throw, and I have to rewind my DVR to make sure what I saw just happened. His TD throw to Kyle Rudolph, for example, was one of those throws. It was in traffic, down in the red zone, and he placed the ball in a spot that only Rudolph could get it. Incredible throw and catch
Sell: Kirk Cousins, airmail specialist. Other times, Kirk Cousins makes a throw and I also have to rewind my DVR to make sure what I saw just happened, because I ask myself how the hell a vet with that much time in the league airmails that many throws? It felt like he overthrew guys seven or eight times today, easy. Very frustrating to watch, when a couple of those plays looked like they were going to go for some big yards if he makes those throws.
Buy: The re-emergence of Laquon Treadwell. With Adam Thielen’s hamstring now officially “a thing”, Treadwell stepping up today was a welcome turn of events. Someone is going to need to become WR2, and why not Treadwell?
Sell: Laquon Treadwell having more receiving yards than Stefon Diggs. Still, let’s chat about Treadwell having more receiving yards than Stefon Diggs today, because THAT is NOT a recipe for success. One catch, four yards. Really??
Buy: Going for it on 4th and 1 right before the half. I loved the call. Minnesota was driving, and got down to the KC 15 with 29 seconds left. On 4th and 1, the Vikes decided to go for it, and Cousins found Irv Smith for a four yard gain, and a first down at the Chiefs 11.
Sell: The play call sequence after that 4th down conversion. Maybe it’s me, but it kind of felt that after the Vikes got the first down, they were content with settling for the field goal at that point. On first down Cousins was pressured and threw it towards Treadwell. On second down and third down Cousins threw it out of the left corner of the end zone. Really poor play calls for the pressure KC was bringing, and the Vikes still had a timeout to play with. Just seemed like a haphazard plan, and it turned out to be one of the turning points in the game.
