Reporters milling around outside the doors at Winter Park were told that a rare Monday practice would end at 11:15 a.m. And yet here it was more than an hour later and nary a Viking had emerged.
It had been four days since the Vikings lost 36-17 to Tampa Bay as an entire nation raised its collective eyebrow, scoffed and went back to ignoring Minnesota. It also had been three days since coach Leslie Frazier and his staff assessed the damage and decided that a typical Monday walkthrough wouldn't suffice.
Not on this particular week. Not with Sunday's game at Seattle kicking off a rugged eight-game stretch that has the Vikings traveling five times and playing five games against teams currently with a winning record. And not when every finger on Zygi Wilf's payroll will be needed to plug all the leaks that sprang during the course of a nationally televised prime-time meltdown.
"It wasn't pretty," wide receiver Michael Jenkins said. "But we're 5-3. It's going to change. It's definitely going to change."
With one eye on Sunday's game, let's turn the other back 10 days to look at the film and examine the most prominent of many issues facing the Vikings this week:
Pressure!
The Vikings' inability to neutralize extra pass rushers, throw the ball efficiently under duress and provide open passing targets has been a problem for three consecutive games and will be tested at CenturyLink Field, where Seattle is 3-0 and has enjoyed a league-high 113 false-start penalties by opponents since 2005.
"I'm sure other teams will see what's happened and say, 'You know what, that's probably the blueprint,'" Frazier said.