Everson Griffen Says Vikes Need to Win Next Four Games
Joe Johnson
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Times are dark for the Vikings right now. While 2-2, they’re still down their starting quarterback (who is still “Day to Day” per head coach Mike Zimmer) and got confirmation yesterday that their star rookie running back, Dalvin Cook, will be out (for at least) the rest of the year with an ACL tear. Despite that, though, this Vikings team should really be 3-1 and tied for first in the NFC North as they had every opportunity to beat the Lions Sunday and really ended up losing that game more than the Lions ended up winning it. So, with the first quarter of 2017 out of the way, things definitely could be worse considering that they lost their starting quarterback after the first game and while things aren’t hopeless at the running back position (thanks to the off-season’s other big RB acquisition in Latavius Murray), they’ve definitely lost some of the danger that they had at the position. Murray is a big, slow back (especially when compared to Cook who was extremely elusive) and while he is a decent pass catcher and elite blocker, he most likely won’t be able to turn negative plays into positive ones the way that Cook did and that concerns me. Perhaps because it’s starting to feel a lot like 2016 all over again, a season in which the Vikings lost their starting QB and RB for the season (again, Bradford is day to day), so I/fans are rightly worried and apparently that has extended to the team in some way shape or form.
Vikings star defensive end Everson Griffen spoke with the media yesterday and stated that the Vikings needed to essentially make up for their 2-2 start by going 4-0 over the course of their next four games. According to the Pioneer Press, he said:
“We finished the first quarter 2-2, and the biggest thing for us right now is to finish the next quarter 4-0, we’ve got to go out there and finish this next quarter 4-0 to put us at 6-2.”
The Vikings face the Bears (and their rookie QB’s first game), the Packers, the Ravens and the Browns (in London) over their next four games and even without Bradford and Cook you’d have to think that at least three of those games are or should be easily winnable (or as easily winnable as an NFL game can be). With Bradford still day to day (and “getting/feeling better”, per Zimmer) it’s not known when he will return but it’s widely thought that he will return for the Packers game next weekend. This team definitely needs him, as the loss of Cook removed one of the main security blankets for up-and-down backup quarterback Case Keenum (Who had another bad game against the Lions). In my piece explaining Cook’s injury and how devastating it is for him/the team/the hearts of Vikings fans, I mentioned that offensive line coach Tony Sparano should be on the hot seat for a call that allowed Keenum to get sacked by a completely unblocked defensive end. It turns out that that play was the result of Keenum changing the play/coverage of the line and then either immediately forgetting what play he had called or not understanding it. Either way, he should’ve identified that the defensive end was coming right at him (as opposed to dropping back as I’m assuming he thought he would) and either ran to the left or gotten rid of the ball right away, as a sack is the second worst possible outcome there besides a turnover. That, combined with the fact that Keenum is operating on about half of the actual playbook, means that the Vikings offense is limited as well and considering the fact that it’ll need every trick it has to play with the Packers in a couple weeks, hopefully Monday Night is the end of the Keenum era in Minnesota.
That’s not to say that the Packers are some unstoppable juggernaut, as they’ve shown that they’re very beatable this season as well. However, the loss against Detroit does put the Vikings in a position where they need to come off of a win against the Bears on the road with a must-win against the Packers at home (if they want to stay in the division race). Sure, they could still lose (and drop to 1-2 in the division, losing to both the Packers and Lions at home) and end up winning the division by winning games on the road, but it’d be a lot more difficult and essentially become out of their hands at or after Week 5. Beyond that, purpleJOURNAL Podcast co-host Luke Braun mentioned on last week’s show that Case Keenum is a “high variance” QB, meaning that he’s either really good or really bad, which is what you want from your backup QB (if the only other option is someone who is mostly subpar). Why would you want a hot-or-cold backup QB? Well, it’s because a subpar QB wouldn’t be enough to win you any games anyway so why not have a QB who can play good enough to win those games from time to time and then bad enough to lose games you’d have lost anyway (in spectacular fashion). The only issue there is that that assumes that they can control when they’re really good and really bad and they may end up playing really bad in a game that you could’ve won and really good in a game that you have choice of winning, but I digress.
So, I do think that Griffen is on to something but am not sure whether or not he believes that for the same reasons that I do. My reasoning for the first two games is really that this Vikings team needs to win those (division) games for a chance to win the division (Stop the presses!). Outside of that, really, assuming Bradford returns for the Ravens and Browns games, if this Vikings team can’t beat a set of terrible teams like them then they might as well pack things up and look towards 2018. I don’t believe that will happen but really with how things are going this season, I wouldn’t put anything past this team.