3 most disappointing Vikings players from the win vs. the Bears
By Nik Edlund
Austin Cutting – LS
Austin Cutting is the second special teamer to make the disappointing list after the Bears game and that’s because the Vikings special teams were a disaster for the second straight week. In Week 9 against the Detroit Lions, Minnesota had two punts blocked. On Monday night, the Vikings allowed a kick return touchdown and they also had a muffed snap that cost the team one point.
The man to blame for that horrible and costly snap was Vikings second-year long snapper, Austin Cutting. Cutting has one job to do and that is to snap the ball to the punter and kicker. That’s it, besides blocking a little bit after he snaps the ball. He’s usually been pretty consistent, but he actually had two bad snaps against Chicago.
The first errant snap was on Minnesota’s first extra-point attempt. Cutting sent the football a little to the left and fortunately, Vikings holder Britton Colquitt was able to snatch it and put it in place in time. The second one was basically a grounder that Colquitt did his best to get right. By the time he did though, a Chicago defender was bearing down on him.
Cutting can’t let this happen again. He needs to figure out what the problem is and fix it in practice this week. If that means taking 50 extra snaps during each practice, then that’s fine. Minnesota’s special teams almost cost them a win on Monday and Cutting was a big reason why.