Yeesh...

its like KOC wanted the kid to fail, play calling sucked, the team played like they werent motivated ( something I almost assured others would not be the case ) its not often I am embarrassed to be a fan of this team, but yesterday was certainly one of them.

JimmyinSD wrote:
its like KOC wanted the kid to fail,  play calling sucked,  the team played like they werent motivated ( something  I almost assured others would not be the case ) its not often I am embarrassed to be a fan of this team, but yesterday was certainly one of them.

I thought the D was there to win, at least for the first 1/2 of the game...Kudos to BFlo for having them ready imo.

I've given up on this season a few games ago. With the poor quarterback situation, the injured and gimpy offensive line, below average cornerbacks and horrendous play calling...I can't see them winning another game against anyone.
Let's just get through this season and wait for the upcoming disaster called the draft, free agency and next season...
I'm almost 66 yrs. old and don't foresee this team ever winning a super bowl. I'll just grit my teeth and go through as many seasons as I got left.

Glad to see the article call out Jefferson and Addison. And it has not just been yesterday, but for the past several weeks where both of them have not stepped up to help out the young QBs and then to top it off, we have seen numerous views of Jefferson then pouting on the sidelines. And they are not the only two, the entire OL has been absolutely putrid, giving the QBs absolutely no protection. Both QBs have been awful on their own, but they have gotten very little help from the guys who are suppose to be the stars and leaders of this team. Surprisingly, it was Hockenson yesterday who tried to really step up and help out Max and get the team going, but no one else stepped up, they just continued to pout and give little effort.

StickierBuns wrote:
Ifs and buts....if they were candy and nuts, well...you know how Christmas would go then. Do I need to go play by play to notate the passes dropped on JJ's watch? The TD he lasered to Jefferson that he bungled? The Addison drops? To say Max got 'no help' goes to JJ as well. Bottom line: both JJ and Max have played poorly....and the 'star power' failed them both at times. I'm sure some sportswriters wanted Max to rock it solely so they could shit on JJ's grave because they think he's 'performative'. I guess that's the social media game today, because that stuff gains WAY more engagement, the rage baiting. But Brosmer shit himself and so here we are as fans, holding a smelly bag of 'where did the season go'?

Plenty of blame to go around everywhere.

Jefferson looks like he's quit.  I don't think sportswriters cared what Max did but clearly the b.s. peddlers at TCO were pumping the Brock Purdy comps all week.  Why put all that on him?  So stupid.

I don't know if it's true but Zulgad speculated that it's folks there hoping he'd do well so they could take credit for discovering him and somehow save their jobs.  Seats must be getting warm out there now that the big spend and the big expectations are deep in the dumpster.   Only the big talk aka hot air remains.

Vikings QBR in Week 12 (JJ McCarthy): 34.2
Vikings QBR in Week 13 (Max Brosmer): 32.8

QBR if you spiked the ball EVERY PLAY: 39.6 😳 pic.twitter.com/zVGWZvmAGZ

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 1, 2025

badgervike wrote:
https://x.com/BleacherReport/status/1995285792374337791?s=20

Lol...

That's brutal!

purplefaithful wrote:
Sorry, but this is a GM issue Sunday’s 26-0 loss at Seattle — the Vikings’ most humiliating defeat since last being shut out 34-0 by Green Bay 18 years ago — isn’t just a quarterback issue. It’s an overall general manager problem. Sustained success isn’t possible when your GM gets lapped by his peers annually in the draft. 

Throwing $300 million at other teams’ aging free agents can’t replace building core starters and quality depth among players entering their prime at three to five years, or generally ages 23 to 26. 

The Vikings have four players on their roster who were drafted three to five years ago — one from the last year under Rick Spielman (2021) and three from the first two years under Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (2022-23). Two are regular starters (Christian Darrisaw, Jordan Addison). Darrisaw didn’t play Sunday.

As for the rest of the NFC North, the Packers have 18 players and 12 starters who they drafted from 2021-23 while the Lions have 13 players and 11 starters, and the Bears have six players and five starters. Feel free to say, “Wow.”

Vikings among league’s most inconsistent
We tend to think of the Vikings as a proud, consistent franchise. Maybe we should amend that thinking as they fell to 4-8 and all but secured a 16th consecutive season of being unable to string two playoff years together. 

Yep, the last time this team made the playoffs in consecutive seasons was 2008-09. Let’s measure the stink level of that amazingly consistent stretch of inconsistency. Since 2000, the Vikings have made the playoffs 10 times. That’s tied for ninth most. But they’ve put together consecutive playoff seasons only that one time.

They are one of only five teams with one or fewer streaks of fewer than three seasons of making the postseason since 2000. The others: Chicago, whose only streak was 2005-06, and Washington, Jacksonville and Cleveland — none of whom have reached the playoffs in back-to-back years since 2000. It’s come to this: The Vikings being mentioned in the same breath with, gulp, Cleveland.

How about a little star-power help for Brosmer?
Max Brosmer was awful on an undrafted rookie level of awfulness (although his 32.8 passer rating was only 1.4 lower than first-rounder J.J. McCarthy’s Lambeau Field debut debacle the week before). But he got no help in getting comfortable from his side of the ball.

How many times have we said, written and back-patted Justin Jefferson and Addison as one of the best receiving duos in football? Well, they let Brosmer down when he needed them to step up early and keep this game from becoming the joke that it became. 

Brosmer was 4 for 4 for 26 yards and a first down when he dropped back to pass on second-and-9 from his 27. He threw a great ball 15 yards downfield that a wide-open Addison dropped. That came on the Vikings’ second possession and led to a second straight punt. Two possessions later, Brosmer was 6 of 9 for 46 yards and two first downs, and the Vikings trailed only 3-0. It was first-and-10 when Jefferson dropped a ball thrown to him a yard from the first down.

If Addison and Jefferson catch those two balls, Brosmer starts 8 of 10 for about 76 yards, and he’s a whole lot more comfortable than what he morphed into en route to completing 19 of 30 for 126 yards. Spread some of that blame around to the stars.

Seattle knew it was over at 10-0
It’s especially embarrassing for an NFL team to be down only 10-0 with over 31 minutes left and have its opponent start playing as if that lead is insurmountable. 

How else can we explain Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald easing up and not bothering to use one of his three timeouts when his defense sacked Brosmer at the Vikings’ 24-yard line with 1:50 left in the first half? He allowed the Vikings to punt the ball at 1:12. Seattle then ran three plays from near midfield and waited another 13 seconds before Macdonald called his first timeout with 23 seconds left. 

Probably fearing a Vikings’ defensive score more so than anything, Macdonald didn’t even try for a touchdown before settling for a 56-yard field goal and a 13-0 halftime lead.

STRIB

The Vikings have four players on their roster who were drafted three to five years ago — one from the last year under Rick Spielman (2021) and three from the first two years under Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (2022-23). Two are regular starters (Christian Darrisaw, Jordan Addison). Darrisaw didn’t play Sunday.

As for the rest of the NFC North, the Packers have 18 players and 12 starters who they drafted from 2021-23 while the Lions have 13 players and 11 starters, and the Bears have six players and five starters. Feel free to say, “Wow.”

Pretty much says all there is needed to be said.  100% on the GM.   The buck has to stop somewhere.   Not knowing how the drafting process works behind the closed doors so I cannot comment on KOC as it relates to personnel but I can say by watching these games his play calling and decisions are mind boggling stupid.

How is the rest of the league doing during this same timeframe? Obviously, comparing the teams that are doing the best to the ones that are struggling is probably going to be pretty lopsided, but what's the overall league baseline?

badgervike wrote:
https://x.com/BleacherReport/status/1995285792374337791?s=20

This is one of those useless comparisons for clicks. Anyway, the Vikings poor QB play opened the door for this nonsense.

We have young QBs who are not yet good at throwing deep or dissecting complex defenses. Can someone explain to me why we don’t do the following:

• Ground and pound run game
  
• More short throws like 10-15 yard throws
  
• Getting the ball to the receivers/ play makers closer to the LOS
  

I understand this is not a long term success plan but it keeps the team tighter and avoids some of the costly turn overs.

Like many have said and I agree there are more issues with this team and not just the QB. I really believe there needs to be a review of our offensive tendencies especially when we are trying to develops a young QB.

JimmyinSD wrote:
its like KOC wanted the kid to fail,  play calling sucked,  the team played like they werent motivated ( something  I almost assured others would not be the case ) its not often I am embarrassed to be a fan of this team, but yesterday was certainly one of them.

How so? The playbook, especially in the first half, was completely dumbed down. Very basic offense like it was a preseason game.

Canthony wrote:

How so? The playbook, especially in the first half, was completely dumbed down. Very basic offense like it was a preseason game.

Well going for it on 4th and 1 with a play that had very few options and likleyhood of success.  Take the damn points there.  Running on first down to the point of running against over loaded boxes because everyone knew what was coming.  

And not sticking with the dumbed down passing game,  if the receivers catch the damn balls its a completely different ball game.

JimmyinSD wrote:

Well going for it on 4th and 1 with a play that had very few options and likleyhood of success.  Take the damn points there.  Running on first down to the point of running against over loaded boxes because everyone knew what was coming.  

And not sticking with the dumbed down passing game,  if the receivers catch the damn balls its a completely different ball game.

Yesh Brosmer has been the only QB that WRs dropped the ball.

Canthony wrote:

Yesh Brosmer has been the only QB that WRs dropped the ball.

Where did i say that,  he was the only QB we had play this week... for fucks sake,  if you want to look for fights all the time,  go somewhere else,  not worth the time.

KOC does have some dirt on his hands this season imo...

But I really have noticed a dumbed-down offense the last 3 or so games. Sadly, that makes it easier on defenses too.

purplefaithful wrote:
KOC does have some dirt on his hands this season imo...

But I really have noticed a dumbed-down offense the last 3 or so games. Sadly, that makes it easier on defenses too.

The KO pile-on is so overblown. He's a great coach with one hand and a leg tied behind his back right now.

I imagine it's pretty hard to call a good game when you don't trust your Quarterback to protect the football, make accurate passes, or even to just play smart. It's likely the same reason our receivers are dropping balls this year and our O-lineman are false starting.

There is no familiarity. No comfort level. And no rhythm between Quarterback and the rest of the team. THAT part I'm happy to blame KO/KAM/everybody for. It's insane we went into the season with seemingly zero self-awareness of our QB room's true capabilities. Roast them all for that.

But to nitpick playcalls in a 26-0 loss that we weren't going to win regardless? What's the use

pattersaur wrote:

There is no familiarity. No comfort level. And no rhythm between Quarterback and the rest of the team. THAT part I'm happy to blame KO/KAM/everybody for. It's insane we went into the season with seemingly zero self-awareness of our QB room's true capabilities. Roast them all for that.

I've got a couple issues with O'Connell;

- Like you mentioned, he's a part (likely a big part) in the failed quarterback evaluations since he's been here. There's no way Kwesi and the front office haven't relied heavily on his "expertise" on the position and his evaluations on these guys. From Jaren Hall, to Sam Howell, to JJ McCarthy, to Brosmer. They've all been awful, so how can we expect him to pick out a franchise quarterback when the results have been what they've been? It's why I say, between the GM and the head coach, you have to have someone in the building that knows what they are doing at quarterback and I dont think we have that currently. 

- If you are an upper echelon offensive mind, you are going to find a way to generate some semblance of offense, especially with the skill position guys we have on the team. We are 29th in the league in average yards a game, 28th in points per game, 31st in converting 3rd downs. It's a total shit show and it leads me to believe he's somewhat of a fraud who can only do anything when all the pieces are in place. Well in the NFL that's rare and you need to overcome. His affinity for wanting to pass the football is well known. Starting an UDFA rookie on the road against Seattle, of the first 23 plays of the game, 17 were passes. That's inexcusable.

pattersaur wrote:

The KO pile-on is so overblown. He's a great coach with one hand and a leg tied behind his back right now.

I imagine it's pretty hard to call a good game when you don't trust your Quarterback to protect the football, make accurate passes, or even to just play smart. It's likely the same reason our receivers are dropping balls this year and our O-lineman are false starting.

There is no familiarity. No comfort level. And no rhythm between Quarterback and the rest of the team. THAT part I'm happy to blame KO/KAM/everybody for. It's insane we went into the season with seemingly zero self-awareness of our QB room's true capabilities. Roast them all for that.

But to nitpick playcalls in a 26-0 loss that we weren't going to win regardless? What's the use

It's a KOC pile-on because the majority of our struggles were KOC decisions.  It's a KOC pile-on because he's the QB whisperer and he's failing his QBs more than his QBs are failing him.

It's hard for KOC to call a game, because all the plays in the playbook they practiced are too hard for his QBs to run, and the simpler ones are probably ones they've practiced for the first time last week.

medaille wrote:

It's a KOC pile-on because the majority of our struggles were KOC decisions.  It's a KOC pile-on because he's the QB whisperer and he's failing his QBs more than his QBs are failing him.

It's hard for KOC to call a game, because all the plays in the playbook they practiced are too hard for his QBs to run, and the simpler ones are probably ones they've practiced for the first time last week.

The coach has been pretty transparent about his short-comings this year...

The biggest blunder was determining JJM was ready and letting Darnold and Jones walk. Hindsight is 20/20, but its an unforgivable error as its could set the team back years if McCarthy doesnt eventually "get it."

OTOH, the majority of fans are being too impatient with a QB thats barely played a 1/2 dozen games

medaille wrote:

It's a KOC pile-on because the majority of our struggles were KOC decisions.  It's a KOC pile-on because he's the QB whisperer and he's failing his QBs more than his QBs are failing him.

It's hard for KOC to call a game, because all the plays in the playbook they practiced are too hard for his QBs to run, and the simpler ones are probably ones they've practiced for the first time last week.

Which is exactly my point. San Francisco, who has been an absolute MASH unit this year with their plethora of injuries, ranks 11th in total offense and 3rd in third down conversion percentage. I don't want to hear all these excuses. If you are this supposed elite offensive mind, then why are we bottom of the league in almost every offensive catagory? We have skill position guys most rosters would die to have. The Jets....that's right, the Jets, have a higher ranked offense than this Vikings unit and its really a KOC problem