Vikings once-proud defense disappears in tough shootout loss to Rams

Senior writer

Fri, Sep 28, 2018, 5:33 AM

If you could have known Kirk Cousins would play as well as he has most of this season, you’d have thought the Minnesota Vikings would enter October as runaway Super Bowl favorites.

Yet, they don’t even have a winning record.

For the second time in three games, Cousins was incredible. He was fantastic against the Green Bay Packers in Week 2, and really good in Week 4 against the Los Angeles Rams. And yet, the Vikings haven’t won since the season opener.

The Rams piled up yards and points with ease in a 38-31 win on Thursday night. While the Rams look like the best team in football by a mile, it’s still weird to see the Vikings struggle to a 1-2-1 start.

It’s because the defense, full of stars and coming off a great season, has disappeared.

Vikings defense a major letdown

Minnesota should win most games in which it scores 31 points. But its defense was no match for the Rams and Jared Goff.

Goff had 251 yards and four touchdowns by halftime. Cousins and the Vikings offense was good, but it couldn’t keep up. Goff threw for 455 yards and five touchdowns. The Rams gained 10.1 yards per play and Goff had a 158.3 passer rating. The Vikings had no answer.

Schematically they seemed lost. Three different times linebacker Anthony Barr got matched up against someone he couldn’t cover in the open field, and Todd Gurley, Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods all beat him for touchdowns. Rams coach Sean McVay had a heck of a night.

The Vikings are without Pro Bowl defensive end Everson Griffen, who is tending to personal matters, and that hurts the defense. But it still shouldn’t be this bad. It’s a group that led the NFL in points and yards allowed last season, and brought back 10 starters. It hasn’t been the same group. Not even close.

Kirk Cousins can’t keep up with Jared Goff

The Vikings got a rare stop late in the fourth quarter, trailing 38-31. And for one of the few times all night, Cousins couldn’t deliver.

With 1:18 left, Josh Franklin-Myers came around left tackle, hit Cousins’ arm as he went to throw and forced a fumble. The Rams recovered. It was a tough end for Cousins, who threw for 422 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and because of the defense, that still wasn’t good enough to win.

It’s impossible to lay the Vikings’ slow start at Cousins’ feet. He wasn’t good last Sunday when the Vikings were blasted by the Bills, though the defense didn’t show up then either. The Vikings allowed a big game to Bills rookie Josh Allen. Cousins has been pretty good other than that, and they have a losing record to show for it.

The Vikings have some issues to fix, and most surprisingly, their biggest issue is their once-fantastic defense.