I am ready to get hurt again…
“Madness, and Badness. Combination.”
Four wise words said by the 6 God can accurately describe how Sunday’s game went. Before I get into the recap, I want to get a few things off my chest:
Baker Mayfield is a cheater, he was reading our defensive signals.
Kirk’s statline is not entirely indicative of how he played, he was framed by Ed Ingram and K.J. Osborn.
This loss does not define us, we had a lot of stupid mistakes that should not happen again for the rest of the season.
But… the fact that Baker and the Bucs beat us does not look good. That’s all. Story time.
Sunday was like Christmas for me. The first Sunday of the NFL season always feels so refreshing, there is so much excitement, enthusiasm and nervousness coursing through my veins.
However, soon after the game started, I was slapped in the face.
It’s almost like I forgot that I was a Vikings fan. Like what in the world made me optimistic that this would be a normal season? (Shoutout to the Magic School Bus). Besides wanting to prove my grandpa wrong, I really don’t know. Believing that the Vikings can put together a dominant win over an inferior opponent is like thinking that you can get value out of your clothes at Plato’s Closet. It just isn’t going to happen.
The very SECOND Kirk Cousins fumbled on the Vikings’ second offensive possession, I knew we might be in for a long game. But as soon as I saw Ed Ingram being the reason the fumble occurred, I lost my mind. How does a player find so many ways to alter the game in a negative way?
I got over it soon enough, because it’s a long game, and it won’t happen again right?
Wrong. On THE VERY NEXT POSSESSION, Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield, Jr. came in undetected through the Vikings group of “protectors” to blow up Cousins, forcing another fumble. Sigh. Luckily, we were still playing Baker Mayfield, so we only surrendered a field goal. After the teams exchanged punts, I was reminded of our brilliant first-round pick, Jordan Addison. As he caught the first touchdown of his career and the Vikings’ season, I was reminded by my wonderful girlfriend that I advised her to start Skyy Moore over him, and that I should never give fantasy advice ever again.
At least they scored. On their very next drive, Greg Joseph nailed a 25-yard field goal to put us up 10-3. After the teams exchanged punts, Baker finally got things going, leading a seven-play, 61 yard touchdown drive to tie the game at 10. This left the Vikings with 1:09 left in the half to score a touchdown or turn the ball over in the most unlikely way possible. Guess which one actually happened.
Two plays after hitting a 42-yard pass to a wide open Justin Jefferson over the middle, Kirk fired a pass in the direction of K.J. Osborn, which he caught, but he was overpowered by Buccaneers CB Christian Izien, who came away with the interception, essentially ending the first half. Tie game at the half.
To begin the second half, the Buccaneers put together a 16-play drive that took up over half of the third quarter, ending in a touchdown and driving me insane. Because not only did that drive take away so much time for the Vikings offense to cook, but because we had them held to a field goal. However, because nothing can go completely according to plan, Jay Ward was offsides. On a field goal. That would have been the difference in the game.
The Vikings punched back with a 16-play drive of their own, ending with a touchdown thrown to Not-Dalvin-Cook, Alexander Mattison to tie the game at 17 to begin the fourth quarter. I still can’t believe there were only two possessions in the third quarter. But as Mohamed would say, “that’s methodical football.”
Tied at 17, the Vikings high-powered offense went through a power outage, going three-and-out twice on their last two possessions. The Bucs were able to add a field goal in between the depressing offensive sets, but let’s just move to the final drive of the game, and more importantly, 3rd and 10 from the Vikings 39-yard-line. What was the point of showing coverage from the jump, if we don’t actually plan on playing the sticks, therefore not allowing such an easy throw from Baker Mayfield to Chris Godwin? I was enraged, sad, confused and perturbed by that play call to send us to 0-1.
Much like the Vikings have to do, I want to forget about Week 1 and move to Week 2. We play the Eagles tonight, and I am ready to get hurt again. It should be a good game, considering the Eagles just struggled to tame the Patriots insanely mid offense. Heading into tonight’s game, we know that Garrett Bradbury will not be playing, but more importantly, four players will be missing from the Eagles’ lineup. S Reed Blankenship, RB Kenneth Gainwell, LB Nakobe Dean and CB James Bradberry IV. Not to say that I root for injuries, but I am glad that they will not be participating in Week 2. Get well soon, but you can get healthier after your team drops to 1-1. Skol.
Header Photo: Props to the Vikings for coming up with these amazing jerseys, but the way they played in them makes me think we should never put them on again. Until next time, “Vikings Classic.” (Bruce Kluckhohn/The Associated Press)
Write to Hayden Lee at hayden.lee@smsu.edu