Instead of beating a winless Detroit Lions team, the Minnesota Vikings suffered their seventh loss of the 2021 season.
Favored to win by eight points, Sunday was just supposed to be an opportunity for the Minnesota Vikings to get their season back on track against a Detroit Lions that hadn’t earned a victory since 2020.
Instead, the Vikings played down to their opponent and the Lions escaped with their first win of the season thanks to a last-second touchdown pass.
Minnesota is now sitting with a 5-7 record and the playoffs are basically out of reach unless they figure out a way to win at least four of their final five games. But based on what happened in Detroit on Sunday, no one should be counting on the Vikings earning a spot in the postseason this year.
Quick thoughts on the Vikings loss to the Lions
Zimmer’s fate appears to be sealed: Mike Zimmer’s seat has been on fire multiple times this season, but on Sunday, his seat became fully engulfed in flames.
Minnesota is heading towards missing the playoffs for the third time in the last three seasons and a loss against a winless Lions team isn’t going to instill confidence in the Vikings’ owners who will have to make a decision about Zimmer’s future in the near future.
Injuries continue to pile up: Already without several top players on Sunday including Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Dalvin Cook, the Vikings saw Adam Thielen go down early on Sunday with an ankle injury. Thielen wasn’t ruled out of the game until the second half, but one should expect the veteran receiver to at least miss Minnesota’s next matchup on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
More quick thoughts from Minnesota’s loss to Detroit
Jefferson is doing everything he can: With no Dalvin Cook, and Adam Thielen out for the majority of Sunday’s game, most assumed the Lions would place a very heavy emphasis on stopping Justin Jefferson. It didn’t really matter though.
Jefferson was still able to finish with 11 catches for 182 yards and one touchdown as he continued to maintain his standing as one of the top receivers in the entire NFL.
Breeland’s time in Minnesota is almost over: Heading into the 2021 campaign, some thought Bashaud Breeland would be one of the Vikings’ best new additions to their defense. Well, it’s been clear all season that he’s not.
Breeland had another disappointing performance on Sunday against the Lions that included getting hurdled by a tight end and drawing a 17-yard pass interference play. He’s a free agent in 2022 and it’s safe to say Minnesota probably isn’t going to be bringing him back.
Osborn is actually still on the roster: Sunday was the first time in a while that K.J. Osborn has been able to make a difference for the Vikings’ offense this season. Against the Lions, Osborn finished with four catches for 47 yards and a touchdown. In his previous four games, he accumulated just three catches for 44 yards.
Re-signing Berry should be a priority in 2022: It’s never good when one of the few bright spots on a team’s roster is their punter, but that has been the case for Minnesota and Jordan Berry this season.
Already averaging 47 yards per punt heading into Sunday, Berry performed well against Detroit as two of his three punts landed inside the 20-yard line. He is a free agent in 2022, and unlike Breeland, the Vikings should make an effort to bring him back next year.
Even more quick thoughts from Minnesota’s loss to Detroit
Prevent defense inside the 15-yard line?: With the game on the line, Mike Zimmer decided to have his defense basically line up in a prevent formation to try and stop the Lions from scoring a touchdown. The problem was that Detroit was snapping that ball from Minnesota’s own 11-yard line.
Unsurprisingly, Lions quarterback Jared Goff didn’t have much trouble throwing the game-winning touchdown pass with the Vikings defense playing soft coverage and only rushing three defensive linemen.
Udoh is a backup and nothing more: Due to an injury to Christian Darrisaw, Minnesota decided to have Oli Udoh start at left tackle on Sunday. Udoh, who spent the majority of his time as an offensive tackle in college, didn’t really do much better at left tackle than he did lined up as a guard this season.
His blocking efforts weren’t terrible, but he drew two more penalties on Sunday for what felt like the 75th and 76th time this season. Maybe Udoh could develop into a starter later down the road, but right now, he’s just not ready for that much responsibility out on the field.
What’s next for the Vikings?: Some might feel that the immediate reaction to come out of this terrible loss would be to fire Zimmer. But that’s really not going to solve much at this point in the season and Minnesota doesn’t really have anyone who can step in as their interim head coach (maybe Andre Patterson?).
At the very least, the search for a new Vikings head coach needs to begin. And if the team’s decision-makers have already begun to look for someone, that search needs to be taken much more seriously.
Playoff hopes are technically still alive: As surprising as it might seem to some, Minnesota is still far from being out of the race for a spot in the NFC playoffs.
With five games left to go, the Vikings are only a game out of the final spot in the NFC after Sunday. So the postseason is still a possibility for Minnesota this year, but it’s hard to feel confident about the chances of it actually happening after losing to the Lions.