Analysis: Vikings’ fits and (false) starts on offense put the brakes on their season

The Vikings, down 27-19 to Baltimore and out of timeouts, began their final drive at their own 8-yard line after Dwight McGlothern’s holding penalty, the team’s 12th of the day, had wiped out Myles Price’s punt return.

After the way they had played for the first 58 minutes against the Ravens on Sunday, even those table scraps felt like a gift.

“To have the football with a chance to tie the game there at the end was an encouraging thing,” coach Kevin O’Connell said, “considering how many things we did that we can’t do if we want to beat a good team like that.”

They had reached their own 38, after a 26-yard scramble that made J.J. McCarthy their leading rusher and a 4-yard completion to T.J. Hockenson. McCarthy yelled, “Roger, Roger!” as he pointed to the Ravens overloading the right side of the Vikings line, put his hands up and shouted, “Hut,” hoping to bait Baltimore into jumping offside. Right tackle Brian O’Neill flinched for his third false start of the day, the Vikings’ eighth overall, to make it third-and-11.

McCarthy scrambled for 7 yards, then threw incomplete for a diving Aaron Jones Sr. on a broken fourth-down play. The Ravens then kneeled once to end the game.

“For all the good things we did,” McCarthy said, referring to 365 yards of total offense and 6 yards a play, “it was there. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”

The Vikings’ loss to the Ravens, their fifth of the season and third at U.S. Bank Stadium, served as a jarring brake on the momentum they had built last Sunday with a victory at Detroit and put them further behind the NFC playoff competitors they will be straining to catch in the season’s second half.

They were penalized 13 times for 102 yards, committing more false starts at home than any team since the 2009 Rams, according to ESPN Research. McCarthy threw two interceptions, saw a handful of passes get batted down at the line of scrimmage, and completed only 20 of his 42 attempts, while the Vikings’ penalties detoured any attempts at offensive balance. Five of their eight false starts came on first down. The Vikings dropped back to pass after all eight of them, with McCarthy’s fourth-quarter scramble their only run after a false start.

Despite taking a 10-3 lead and not allowing a Ravens touchdown until the middle of the third quarter, the Vikings trailed by as many as 14 in the second half and only made it a one-score game again after McCarthy hit Jalen Nailor on a fourth-down throw to the back of the end zone for his first TD pass at U.S. Bank Stadium with 3:23 left.

“We’ve got to stay ahead of the sticks, not have this guy take one turn, this guy take one turn, this guy take one turn on some operational stuff,” O’Neill said. “No quarterback in the NFL wants to be in long downs, so we’ve got to keep these third downs manageable.”

The pre-snap penalties were the most perplexing issue of the day for the Vikings, who nearly doubled their total of false starts for the season. McCarthy said he took full responsibility for the false starts. O’Connell said “maybe there was a little bit more of a hard count emphasis by J.J. at certain times,” though he was still puzzled why the Vikings had so many at home after committing no false starts while using a silent count in Ford Field’s din last week.

The Vikings use multiple cadences to keep defenses from keying on one snap sequence, and O’Connell said they simplified the cadence “as much as possible” Sunday to curb the penalties. They gained 72 yards on 13 handoffs to Jones and Jordan Mason, but O’Connell said adverse down-and-distance situations discouraged him from running more frequently.

After Jones had gained 22 yards on two runs to open the second half and McCarthy hit Jordan Addison for 4 yards, though, the Vikings (4-5) faced a third-and-1 at midfield leading 10-9. They lined up with two tight ends and two running backs on the field, inviting a heavier defensive group from the Ravens. O’Connell said he had planned to go for it on fourth down and called for a deep shot to Justin Jefferson in single coverage on third down so McCarthy could take advantage of a one-on-one matchup.

“It’s one-on-one, and I have the greatest receiver in the world,” McCarthy said. “I don’t care who it is out there [defending him], I’m going to give him a chance. It’s one of those things where, if he catches it, it’s great. If he doesn’t, it’s incomplete. Or, it’s an interception and it’s [like a] punt. There’s different things where you know that could lead to that outcome, but 10 times out of 10, I’m gonna give him a shot.”

McCarthy said he didn’t see Jefferson fall, as his legs got tangled up with those of the Ravens’ Marlon Humphrey. The cornerback intercepted the pass at the Baltimore 2, costing the Vikings a chance to build on their lead in the third quarter.

The Ravens (4-5) would score on three of their next four drives, with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry gaining steam against a tired Vikings defense that lost Jonathan Greenard to a left shoulder injury in the second half. Baltimore defensive coordinator Zach Orr called for more blitzes with the Ravens up multiple scores, testing McCarthy’s ability to work under pressure with the run game no longer a factor.

In the locker room after the game, Jefferson found McCarthy and gave a hug to the 22-year-old quarterback who lost for the second time as a starter in the NFL after absorbing just one defeat as Michigan’s starting QB.

The Vikings now trail their three NFC North rivals by at least two games apiece, with back-to-back division games against the Bears and Packers taking on critical importance. They will play host to Chicago next Sunday before a trip to Lambeau Field and a trip to Seattle for a reunion with Sam Darnold, their former QB who has the Seahawks (7-2) atop the NFC West.

They will revisit the Ravens loss with McCarthy, hoping to turn Sunday’s painful moments into Monday’s teaching tools. The quarterback tried to do that after the game, calling a three-and-out sequence before halftime “a beautiful example for me to learn from” after two incompletions left the Ravens enough time to drive for a field goal.

“It’s just all things about growing in this great game of football, and all experiences that I take that data and collect it and then use it for the next time,” he said.

As the Vikings continue tiptoeing through their minefield of a schedule, continuing the development of their first-year starter with a reduced margin for error against playoff-caliber opponents, they can’t afford many more slip-ups like they had Sunday if they want to return to the postseason.

On Sunday afternoon, co-owners Zygi and Mark Wilf departed the locker room with expressionless faces after the third home loss of the season, as players dressed in a subdued locker room that bore little resemblance to last Sunday’s Ford Field revelry.