Analysis: Little time for Vikings to recover from blows delivered by Eagles and their own errors

Three times on Sunday, Vikings defensive players readied themselves for the kind of third down they wanted, with the first-down marker too far away for the Eagles to reach with one of their quarterback sneaks. Three times, the U.S. Bank Stadium crowd rose to its feet, roaring in anticipation of the stop that would put the Vikings in position to overtake the Super Bowl champions.

Three times, Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts eluded the Vikings pass rush — twice with his legs, once with his quick release — and delivered blows that seemed to siphon the air from the building.

The Vikings lost 28-22 to the Eagles on Sunday in a game where they so frequently seemed on the precipice of victory. The Vikings (3-3) outgained the Eagles (5-2) by 26 yards, committed fewer penalties, punted just once, converted a higher percentage of their third and fourth downs and put a stopper in the Philadelphia run game, holding reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley to 44 yards and giving up one run longer than 10 yards.

The Vikings’ relative efficiency ultimately became an ingredient in why the loss was so dyspeptic. This was a game decided by jolts, almost all of them delivered by the Eagles, that swung win probability meters in Philadelphia’s favor and staggered a fan base that hadn’t seen its team play at home for almost a month.

There were four touchdowns in the game that covered at least 25 yards; Hurts threw three of them, while Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt had the fourth, dropping into a throwing lane to intercept Carson Wentz’s throw for Justin Jefferson and returning it 42 yards for a second-quarter touchdown. The Vikings reached the red zone six times, scoring a touchdown on just one of the trips while having one TD overturned by a Blake Brandel holding penalty and another by a replay review that determined T.J. Hockenson’s fourth-quarter catch had hit the ground.

And on the Eagles’ final three drives, they faced third downs of 15, 13 and nine yards. Hurts, who finished with a perfect 158.3 passer rating, converted them all. He rolled away from pressure on a 28-yard completion to Devonta Smith and 13-yard throw to A.J. Brown before he beat a blitz with a 45-yard throw to Brown, who used a jab step to freeze Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers.

“It felt like three of their third-down conversions were all long yardage, pretty backbreaking kinds of plays, when you’ve done everything to force those [down and distances],” coach Kevin O’Connell said. “And then, they not only end up converting, but for some explosive gains there. So I know our guys competed all day long. I thought the defense, even with us turning the football over for a touchdown, and they were able to give us some [opportunities] to keep that competitive and stay in the football game.”

It was there where the Vikings’ misses were most costly. An errant Brandel snap forced Wentz to retreat 16 yards and fall on the ball at the Eagles 41, turning the first red zone trip into the first of five Will Reichard field goals on the day, this one from 59 yards. After a second-down incompletion that Justin Jefferson said he regarded as a drop against Cooper DeJean, O’Connell chose to pass on third-and-1 from the 6 and Wentz overshot Jalen Nailor, before a Brandel holding penalty wiped out Wentz’s fourth-down TD to Nailor.

“Just a normal technique you see around the league,” O’Connell said of Brandel’s block. “It’s called a trap; you knock your guy’s hands down. There was some discussion among [the officials], but they’re going to make those calls. Can’t give them the opportunity to throw those penalties, because penalties and negatives in the red zone make it really hard to come away with points.”

The Vikings had another one when Wentz was flagged for intentional grounding at the Eagles 9 in the third quarter, and the quarterback was sacked on the Vikings’ final two red zone drives of the day. The last one came after a replay review overturned a Hockenson touchdown; the tight end said two officials on the field told him they thought he caught the ball, but NFL Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth told a pool reporter the league used additional angles from broadcast cameras (beyond what was shown on Fox) to determine Hockenson lost control of the ball as he went to the ground.

So after six games, the Vikings are tied for 12th in the NFC with the Commanders, sitting at the bottom of the only NFL division that doesn’t have a team with a losing record. They play their next two games on the road against teams with winning records, traveling to Los Angeles to face the Chargers (4-3) on Thursday night before a Nov. 2 matchup with the Lions (4-2) at Detroit’s Ford Field, where the Vikings haven’t won since 2020.

A quarterback decision will again be at the top of their agenda this week, as they see how Wentz, who was playing with a left shoulder injury, recovers from a game where he was hit eight times. The Vikings won’t stage a full practice this week; such a tight turnaround complicates the idea of bringing J.J. McCarthy back from his high ankle sprain for the Chargers game, though O’Connell said the Vikings would have to assess Wentz’s health before committing to a QB.

So, too, is the task of assessing a defense that got singed downfield. Before Sunday, the Vikings had given up only six completions of 20 yards or more, the fewest in the NFL by three. The Eagles, though, nearly matched that total in one game, with Hurts hitting all five of his deep throws for 215 yards and three touchdowns, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

The Vikings hit Hurts only four times, but sacked him three times while using Blake Cashman as a spy and seeking to contain him in the pocket. The quarterback, though, wasn’t afraid to challenge the Vikings secondary, picking on Rodgers, his former teammate, for a 79-yard touchdown to Smith.

“Bad leverage, for one,” Rodgers said. “I shouldn’t have even turned [inside]. Despite that, I’ve got to make those types of tackles.”

Hurts had a clean pocket for a 26-yard TD throw to Brown that put the Eagles back up by nine with 6:35 left, as the receiver fought through contact from Byron Murphy Jr. to beat the cornerback on a post route. Then, with the Eagles in need of one more third-down pickup with the Vikings trailing by six, Hurts hit the 45-yarder to Brown.

It was the final thunderbolt on a day where the Eagles had too many of them. It meant a game the Vikings could have won, against a well-heeled NFC opponent, slipped just out of reach.