The Minnesota Vikings won their first six games of the season, but that feels like a distant memory after losing to the Buffalo Bills 23-6 on Monday night.
Carson Wentz struggled to complete simple passes, and the Vikings squandered another strong effort from a defense that held the NFL’s top-scoring offense (33.0 ppg) to 23 points.
In a competitive NFC North race, losses like these are starting to mount up and make a 6-2 record feel worse than it seems. In the aftermath, there were several winners and losers from Monday’s game, and it could lead to some difficult questions as the Vikings prepare for a divisional matchup with the Green Bay Packers in Week 10.
Winners and losers from the Vikings' Week 9 loss to the Bills
Loser: Justin Jefferson – WR
Poor Justin Jefferson. Whether Kyler Murray’s hamstring injury was legitimate or not, Carson Wentz represented another attempt to get the star receiver going after he declined to speak to reporters following last week’s loss to the Detroit Lions.
Instead, Jefferson finished with just two catches for 35 yards on 10 targets. Somehow, it was even worse than that appears.
On one of his targets, Wentz threw a backwards pass that was overturned to a fumble recovered by the Bills after video review. On another, Jefferson had to use every inch of his 38.5-inch vertical jump just to get a hand on the ball.
ESPN cameras had Jefferson in focus throughout the night, and The Athletic’s Alec Lewis noted that Jefferson was “standing all by himself” and looked like he was “seething.”
At this point, nobody would blame Jefferson if he crashed out and demanded a trade after dealing with a year and a half of quarterback uncertainty. After Monday’s loss, it’s clear the situation is reaching a breaking point.
Loser: Carson Wentz – QB
We mentioned Wentz in the Jefferson write-up, but his performance was so bad, it deserves its own magnifying glass.
Wentz played like an ant in this scenario, completing just 8 of 25 passes for 81 yards with a pair of interceptions and a lost fumble. He also nearly threw a third interception that was dropped in the fourth quarter and was showered with boos throughout the night.
It was a disappointing performance for a quarterback that O’Connell had full confidence in throughout the week. It was also a brutal gut punch for a team looking for a shred of offense to complement a championship defense.
Wentz’s rough night could have the Vikings working the phones aggressively ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they acquired one quarterback just to throw something else at the wall.
Loser: Kevin O’Connell
O’Connell’s rough night started before the game began.
The Vikings' list of inactive players was basically an indictment of his offseason decisions, as his hand-picked quarterback (Murray), prized free-agent signing (Jauan Jennings), his first-round selection (Caleb Banks), and two more draft picks (Chuck Demmings and Jakobe Thomas) missed the game.
When the game started, O’Connell didn’t do himself any favors. While Wentz’s accuracy (or lack thereof) was a problem, so was O’Connell’s playcalling, as he called just 11 runs on a night when Jordan Mason averaged 5.8 yards per carry, and the Vikings averaged 4.3 yards per carry as a team.
Perhaps the most damning aspect of the evening was that O’Connell had full confidence in Wentz to make this start.
It was so confident that fans dusted off the “soft benching” narrative with Murray’s hamstring injury ahead of the start, and he was rewarded with one of the worst quarterback performances in the history of the franchise, posting an 8.9 quarterback rating.
Simply put, the quarterback whisperer has turned into a quarterback killer, and it may not matter who is under center until he figures things out.
Winner: Brian Flores
While O’Connell spun his wheels on offense, Brian Flores’s defense did everything it could to keep the Vikings in the game.
Byron Murphy made a sensational pick on Josh Allen early in the game, and Minnesota’s run defense stepped up, holding James Cook to 3.5 yards per carry and the Bills to 3.0 yards per carry as a team. The Vikings’ pass rush was also on point, collecting four sacks and 11 quarterback hits on the night.
The collective effort forced the Bills to settle for field goals early and allowed Minnesota to trail 13-6 going into the fourth quarter.
Eventually, Buffalo wore the Vikings down and added a touchdown from Cook with 6:17 left in the game, but Flores has done his job and is waiting for the offense to do the same.
Winner: Raiders GM John Spytek
While the Vikings were struggling to get a first down on Monday night, Spytek was probably somewhere laughing.
The Raiders have Kirk Cousins, and while they’re in the middle of a playoff race, people won’t stop speculating whether the Vikings could go after Cousins ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
Cousins has nostalgia on his side and previous experience in O’Connell’s offense. But the Raiders also just watched Wentz struggle on Monday night and know that the Murray experiment isn’t exactly working out.
This could leave the Raiders asking for the moon in return for Cousins. But even if the Vikings try to pivot, they could run into the same problem.
Geno Smith, Daniel Jones, or Mac Jones aren’t going to be cheap, as teams know the Vikings need a quarterback, and it could lead to the type of move that sets the franchise back for years to come.
At this point, it’d be nice to have a former first-round pick to throw into the lineup. But the Vikings have officially backed themselves into a corner, and it has left them open to getting fleeced at the deadline.
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