And the inevitable begins....

[comet52]

Tonight's performance did not do anything to change my mind. In scripted situations he and KOC are successful. Outside of that it's a struggle. Under pressure his brain locks up and he misses wide open guys and obvious opportunities.

That said this game was an embarrassment in NFL terms. The refs were in the Rams pockets all night long culminating in the ridiculous no-call on the facemask, not that we were likely to go 100 yards at that point but jesus, what a crap product.

[Caactorvike]

This loss is not on Darnold. Lots of penalties on both sides of the ball—just like Sunday. DBs sucked. They were able to throw on us all night. In fact the defense as a whole sucked. Stafford had all night to throw—even when we blitzed! Result: Vikes came crashing back to earth. Maybe things improve with TJ and Reiser coming back.
Has anyone heard anything about Darrisaw’s status? I had the sound off but the knee injury looked bad.

[StickierBuns]

The D looks horrible and solved by opponents the last 2 and a half weeks. Darnold is a slightly better version of what he used to be, we should want more and so should KOC. Thank god we drafted McCarthy, but Sam wasn't the reason the team lost the game.

[TBro]

The D looks horrible and solved by opponents the last 2 and a half weeks. Darnold is a slightly better version of what he used to be, we should want more and so should KOC. Thank god we drafted McCarthy, but Sam wasn't the reason the team lost the game.

Worst QB pressure rate in a game since 2020. The Flores' Scheme requires pressure on the QB to disrupt their timing to be successful and it just didn't happen which is really disappointing considering the Rams were starting 2 Rookies on their OLine. Our Secondary can't be relied upon as a stand alone unit so we shouldn't be surprised at the outcome considering the Rams got a huge boost with Puca and Kupp returning to the lineup. Time is also not our friend as the schemes that Flores has been successful with at the start of the season with new looks and new personnel are getting dissected by some really good Coaching Staffs that also get paid a lot of money to figure out the Flores Secret Sauce. I'm also concerned that our First Round Edge Rusher that we spent a lot of capital on to acquire can't seem to get on the field ahead of Patrick Jones who has reverted back to what he has been his entire Vikings career: a Non-Factor yet Rookie Edge Rusher Jared Verse was a force all game even before Darrisaw went out with his injury. I think Turner maybe had 4 snaps all game despite the Vikings inability to get to the QB. Pretty pathetic effort but this game really showed how both KOC and Flores were outcoached and didn't seem to have any counterpunch when the Rams made their adjustments, especially after the scripted plays on offense were done. The D was chasing the Rams all night and the Penalties extended 3 failed 3rd down conversions and derailed both sides of the ball all game.

[ArizonaViking]

The chucks of yardage the defense gave up last night was astounding...Stafford's play-action passing was killing us. Their backs and receivers running wild all over the field.

[MaroonBells]

This loss is not on Darnold. Lots of penalties on both sides of the ball—just like Sunday. DBs sucked. They were able to throw on us all night. In fact the defense as a whole sucked. Stafford had all night to throw—even when we blitzed! Result: Vikes came crashing back to earth. Maybe things improve with TJ and Reiser coming back.
Has anyone heard anything about Darrisaw’s status? I had the sound off but the knee injury looked bad.

Couple MDs weighed in on Twitter. Both thought it looked l like an MCL, which isn't as bad as an ACL, but could keep him out 3 or 4 weeks. I think that's the best we can hope for.

[purplefaithful]

The D looks horrible and solved by opponents the last 2 and a half weeks. Darnold is a slightly better version of what he used to be, we should want more and so should KOC. Thank god we drafted McCarthy, but Sam wasn't the reason the team lost the game.

Yah, Sam wasn't the sole reason but I am wondering if we're aren't seeing his ceiling at this point. 

I think the team was gassed, mentally small after Detroit and had to travel on top of all the other things we see happening on the field. 

We'll see how/if they re-jigger anything during this mini-by. Might be time for Turner to get more snaps.

[pattersaur]

Worst QB pressure rate in a game since 2020. The Flores' Scheme requires pressure on the QB to disrupt their timing to be successful and it just didn't happen which is really disappointing considering the Rams were starting 2 Rookies on their OLine. Our Secondary can't be relied upon as a stand alone unit so we shouldn't be surprised at the outcome considering the Rams got a huge boost with Puca and Kupp returning to the lineup. Time is also not our friend as the schemes that Flores has been successful with at the start of the season with new looks and new personnel are getting dissected by some really good Coaching Staffs that also get paid a lot of money to figure out the Flores Secret Sauce. I'm also concerned that our First Round Edge Rusher that we spent a lot of capital on to acquire can't seem to get on the field ahead of Patrick Jones who has reverted back to what he has been his entire Vikings career: a Non-Factor yet Rookie Edge Rusher Jared Verse was a force all game even before Darrisaw went out with his injury. I think Turner maybe had 4 snaps all game despite the Vikings inability to get to the QB. Pretty pathetic effort but this game really showed how both KOC and Flores were outcoached and didn't seem to have any counterpunch when the Rams made their adjustments, especially after the scripted plays on offense were done. The D was chasing the Rams all night and the Penalties extended 3 failed 3rd down conversions and derailed both sides of the ball all game.

Couldn't have said this any better on all points. Offenses get stronger leaguewide as the year goes on, it's not just against us, but yeah if our defense plays like last night suddenly we have gigantic, possibly unsolvable issues.

Specifically on Turner-- I wasn't worried a week or two back. The defense was playing well, we were winning, no reason to rush it. Well after last night's crap sandwich and yes, Pat Jones remembering who he is the past few weeks, there are now very compelling reasons to rush it.

We traded up for him in the middle of the first round. That is a guy who you'd really hope to see on the field. I'm not sounding the panic alarm by any means, but maybe glancing around the room to see where it's at, just in case.

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Yah, Sam wasn't the sole reason but I am wondering if we're aren't seeing his ceiling at this point. 

I think the team was gassed, mentally small after Detroit and had to travel on top of all the other things we see happening on the field. 

We'll see how/if they re-jigger anything during this mini-by. Might be time for Turner to get more snaps.

We definitely looked gassed. Our DBs aren't spring chickens and it hurt us. We got really lucky Stafford underthrew Atwell on that one, and that LAR didn't go back to Atwell afterwards (game was winding down). He looked like he could fly right past any of our secondary late in that game.

Gilmore especially got picked on it felt like.

[AGRforever]

Sam was expected to win us 5-6 games. We’re soooo on the house at this point. JJM is the future

[purplefaithful]

Sam was expected to win us 5-6 games. We’re soooo on the house at this point. JJM is the future

I had us at 6.5 when the year began. In spite of last night, I would be disappointed if we dont get 5 more wins this season.

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Before Cashman injured his toe, the Vikings had allowed an average of 67.2 rushing yards per game.

In the past two games, with Cashman sidelined, the Vikings have allowed an average of 126 rushing yards per game — almost twice as many.