SEATTLE — As heavy underdogs on Sunday afternoon at Lumen Field, the Vikings had a chance to pull even with the Seattle Seahawks shortly before halftime. A chip shot field goal by kicker Will Reichard would’ve tied the score at 3-3.
Instead, head coach Kevin O’Connell opted to roll the dice, perhaps believing the Vikings needed to be aggressive if they were going to upset the Seahawks on their home turf.
The decision was defensible. The play call was not.
Though the Vikings only needed about a yard to move the chains, O’Connell dialed up a play action pass, asking a lot of rookie quarterback Max Brosmer, who was making the first start of his career.
It proved to be a disaster of epic proportions.
A fake handoff to fullback C.J. Ham fooled nobody and Brosmer was under immediate pressure by edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence. In an effort to not take a sack in that situation, Brosmer wildly chucked the ball to nowhere in particular, and it landed in the waiting arms of linebacker Ernest Jones IV. The rest was a blur as Jones raced 85 yards the other way for a touchdown that turned the game upside down.
That was the beginning of the end for the Vikings in an embarrassing 26-0 loss to the Seahawks. It was a brutal performance from Brosmer as he finished 19 of 30 for 126 yards and 4 interceptions.
The issues for the Vikings go much deeper than the struggles of an undrafted free agent, however, as the offense that once thrived under O’Connell has completely lost its identity.
After the offense looked lost last weekend in the loss for the Green Bay Packers, the Vikings were even worse against the Seahawks. They couldn’t do much of anything when they had the ball as gaining positive yardage started to feel impossible.
The struggles of the offense spoiled a pretty good showing from the defense on the other end. The scoreboard is rather misleading from that perspective as the Vikings managed to keep the Seahawks out for the end zone for prolonged stretches.
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