Daily Norseman
Where did all the feelings go? What about that happy glow? Was that so long ago, when we were first in love?
-Neil Young, Mr. Disappointment
When J.J. McCarthy hit Jalen Nailor on a 3rd-and-5 to seal a victory at Ford Field over the Detroit Lions, it really felt like the Minnesota Vikings had finally found their footing for this 2025 season and were, potentially, getting ready to turn the corner.
That was three weeks ago. At this point, it feels like about three years ago.
After losing a couple of winnable games against Baltimore and Chicago, the Vikings decided to just not even show up for yesterday’s game at Lambeau Field, falling by a score of 23-6 in a game that, honestly, never really felt that close. The loss dropped them to 4-7 and, effectively, ended the competitive portion of the 2025 season. Even if this team does manage to run the table. . .and there’s, essentially, no chance of that happening. . .a seven-loss team is not going to make the playoffs in the NFC this year. We’re not going to insult everyone’s intelligence with playoff pictures or anything like that, because this team isn’t in that picture, and they’re not going to find their way into it going forward.
This is season number twenty for this website covering this football team, and while there have been some bad seasons in the past, I don’t think I can recall a season as disappointing as this one. You can maybe make a case for 2010, but at least 2010 wound up being one of the weirder seasons in franchise history, at least towards the end. This season, on the other hand, has just turned into something dreary and dreadful.
Yes, the reason that everyone is going to focus on is going to be McCarthy, and that’s completely understandable, given the position he plays and the way that he’s looked. Again, barring an injury, I still think the Vikings stay with him for the rest of the season, so take that for what it’s worth. The talent is in there. We know the talent is in there. We’ve seen it. But, for whatever reason, it’s not happening. It has happened, but it’s not happening consistently enough. We’ve beaten that horse to death and, in all likelihood, will continue to do so until it turns completely into glue over the coming weeks and months.
Having said that, there are a lot of other issues at play here as well, as nearly every other big move the Vikings made this offseason has backfired spectacularly. In no particular order:
