The Minnesota Vikings so believed that they were on the precipice of postseason greatness that they traded a first-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles to acquire Sam Bradford after losing Teddy Bridgewater for the season to a devastating training camp knee injury.
Betting on this being a big season wasn’t a terrible idea, in theory: the Vikings went 11-5 last year, winning the NFC North but losing to the Seattle Seahawks in the wild-card round. Even without Bridgewater, they still had Adrian Peterson, who had just over 1,700 yards from scrimmage in 2015, and a rising young star in Stefon Diggs on offense, and a defense that was among the best in the league on third downs and inside the red zone.
So general manager Rick Spielman pushed all his chips to the center of the table, giving up the team’s first-rounder next year and a fourth-rounder that can be as high as a two in 2018.
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| The Vikings were trying to catch up to the Colts all afternoon. (Getty Images) |
At first, it looked like it was a fantastic decision: Minnesota started the season 5-0, the last team in the NFL to lose a game. But on Sunday, the Vikings were embarrassed at home, 34-6, to the most up-and-down team in the league, the Indianapolis Colts.
The loss dropped the Vikings to 7-7, meaning they’ve gone just 2-7 since that fantastic start. They fell even further out of the playoff picture, particularly with the Green Bay Packers winning in Chicago.
And their struggles continued on Sunday despite welcoming back Peterson, who underwent surgery after suffering a torn meniscus during the Week 2 game and was back on the field less than three months later.
Peterson had just 22 yards on six carries, as Minnesota mustered 282 yards – 213 of them coming after halftime, when it was already down, 27-0.
More troubling, the Vikings’ defense, which is supposed to be the strength of the team under head coach Mike Zimmer, was terrible in the opening 30 minutes vs. the Colts: Indianapolis had 21 first downs, 281 yards, and converted five of eight third-down chances as they punted just once in six first-half possessions. Andrew Luck was a highly efficient 21-for-28 passing.
“Obviously it was a poor performance by us today,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said in his postgame news conference. “I thought defensively we were very poor, lethargic, didn’t get off blocks, didn’t make tackles, busted coverage, didn’t cover people, poor on third down. Offensively we started with three three-and-outs…not a very good day.”
Obviously frustrated, Zimmer said he wants to figure out which of his players are willing to scrap for the next couple of weeks.
“I want to find out who’s going to fight because that was not a fighting performance there. They were more physical than us today, played with more tenacity than we did,” he said.
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