Opinion: Ugly loss to Packers reminiscent of Vikings' struggles early in season

MINNEAPOLIS — This was the kind of loss, the kind of utter ineptness, that the Minnesota Vikings were supposed to be beyond.

After bottoming out in Chicago, Kirk Cousins and the offense had somehow figured things out. Not every game was perfect, by any stretch. But good enough to climb back into the NFC North race and, coming into Monday night’s game, have a spot in the playoffs locked up and an outside chance still at the No. 1 seed.

And then it all came apart in stunning, soul-shaking fashion.

Cousins played as bad Monday night as he has all year, maybe ever, in a 23-10 loss that was uglier than the score indicated. He and the Vikings couldn’t move the ball, gaining a measly 139 yards and only getting on the scoreboard when the Green Bay Packers gift-wrapped the points for them.

They had no answer for Green Bay’s pressure, with Za’Darius Smith making Cousins and left tackle Riley Reiff look like rag dolls for how easily he tossed them aside. Kyle Rudolph and Adam Thielen might as well have been invisible, with all of one catch between them.

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Worst of all, the Vikings couldn’t adjust, looking even worse in the second half. If that’s possible. With everything still to play for in the postseason, the Vikings looked more like a team playing out the string.

“We just couldn’t find our rhythm,” Irv Smith Jr. told USA TODAY Sports. “I feel like we got away from some of the stuff we’ve been doing all season.”

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The loss of Dalvin Cook hurt, no doubt. He has been the engine of Minnesota’s offense, No. 3 in the NFL in yards from scrimmage. His absence (shoulder injury) was aggravated by the absence of his backup, Alexander Mattison, who missed the game with an ankle injury.

But the Vikings backed a Brinks truck up to Cousins’ locker two years ago to win games like this. He’s supposed to deliver even when no one else is, and be the steadying force when things go south. He couldn’t do that against the Packers, and he and the rest of the Vikings were at a loss as to why.

Cousins was 16 of 31 for 122 yards and a 58.8 rating. Minnesota’s best drive ended in an interception that the Packers turned into the go-ahead touchdown.

“I’m not going to get into this 'Kirk Cousins on Monday Night' thing,” coach Mike Zimmer said, referring to Cousins falling to 0-9 in the NFL’s showcase game. “Offensively we didn’t play as well as we can play, I’ll say that. Defensively, we could have played the run better.

“There’s a lot of things we need to clean up.”

As bad as this loss was, it will be even worse if it carries over into the postseason. The loss locked the Vikings into the No. 6 seed, which means they’ve got less than two weeks to get themselves back on track or their stay in the postseason will be short.

“We’ve got to go back and look at how, why and certainly the answers to those questions, in theory, should be of some help going forward,” Cousins said. “Not just if we play (the Packers) again but in general.  

“That would be the silver lining,” he added, “just learning from the mistakes so that they get corrected so when big games up ahead are being played, they don’t repeat themselves.”

It’s not all that different from what they had to do earlier this season.

Minnesota lost a heartbreaker to the Packers in Week 2, when Kevin King intercepted Cousins in the end zone late in the game. Two weeks later, the Vikings were bulldozed by the Chicago Bears, prompting Thielen to question what Cousins and the offense were doing.

The Vikings looked like a team ripe for implosion. Instead, they regrouped and figured things out. They won eight of their next 10 games, their only losses coming in Kansas City and Seattle, and Cousins played like someone deserving of his monster contract.

Which is what made Monday night’s flop so surprising. So disheartening.

“It’s one week,” center Garrett Bradbury said. “Hopefully we’ve got a lot of football left. Just like any other week, whether we win or lose, we’ll get in and figure out what we did wrong and move forward.”

This game could wind up being a one-off, indicative of nothing. Or it could foreshadow the end of Minnesota's season. The Vikings have precious little time to decide which one it's going to be. 

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. 

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