Viking Free Fall In Power Rankings

Oct 21, 2013; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Minnesota Vikings special teams players watch a punt roll dead against the New York Giants during the second half at MetLife Stadium. The Giants won the game 23-7. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

After losing to a winless team on a national stage Monday night, the Vikings are really in free fall.  They were once a team full of playoff hopes, now they’re just a team hoping not to be the laughing stock of the NFL.  Here is a look at the Power Rankings and comments of some of the media out there:

• Pro Football Talk – #30 (#28 last week): “The team apparently took Jared Allen’s advice to “embrace the suck” a bit too literally.”
• SB Nation – #30 (#25 last week): “That probably wasn’t what Josh Freeman or the Vikings wanted to see in his debut. The worst part about it is that, in some small way, Greg Schiano has a tiny ounce of vindication. Freeman overthrew 16 passes, an NFL record. He only completed 20 of 53 passing attempts.”
• USA Today – #30 (#29 last week)
• ESPN – #30 (29 last week): “Not a great debut for Josh Freeman, who overthrew his receivers for incompletions 16 times Monday, the most for any QB since 2006.”
• Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner – #30 (29 last week): “I can never erase from my mind the horror I witnessed from Josh Freeman on Monday night.”
• Bleacher Report – #30 (#28 last week): “The Vikings attempted to save their season by picking up quarterback Josh Freeman off the scrap heap. It was a bad move then, and it was a bad move onMonday Night Football, as the club was embarrassed by the atrocious New York Giants.”
• Philly.com – #30 (#28 last week) – “Lost to NYG at home. Josh Freeman probably isn’t that good to begin with, but he clearly wasn’t ready to play with his new team yet.”
• Blogging  The Boys – #30 (#29 last week): “Leslie Frazier is making a drastic case that he is not meant for the head coaching life. Or maybe his front office is interfering. 12 days after Josh Freeman was brought into town, he’s starting and Adrian Peterson gets 13 carries in a game where the Giants only led by 3 midway through the third quarter.  Freeman made Nick Foles look accurate.”
• The Phinsider – #30 (29 last week): “Starting Josh Freeman so soon after signing him definitely did not look like the right decision on Monday night.”
• CBS Sports – #30 (29 last week): “Monday night looked like a job interview for Josh Freeman. He was in Minnesota for a few practices and they called 54 pass plays in his first game.”
• NFL.com – #30 (#28 last week): “Where do the Vikings go from here? If Josh Freeman is not the guy, then somebody in college must be. What else can the Vikings do? Go back to Christian Ponder? Haven’t they decimated his confidence?  Agree with the post-game remarks made by Steve Young and Trent Dilfer: Minnesota set Freeman up to fail by playing him this soon.”

Oct 21, 2013; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman (12) drops back to pass against the New York Giants during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

I could keep going, but by now the theme has already been established.  According to the experts, it seems like it is unanimous that the Vikings are currently the third worst team in the NFL.  The only teams that they are consistently rated better than are the winless Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Things don’t look to get any easier for Minnesota for their next game, where they face off against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football.