Scoggins: Inept second half vs. the Packers is the low point of the Vikings’ season

GREEN BAY, WIS. - Beep, beep, beep.

Look out, the Vikings offense is backing up.

A sack here, a run for negative yards there, a false start on top of that.

Beep, beep, beep.

The objective in football is to proceed forward down the field. The Vikings played the second half Sunday at Lambeau Field in reverse.

A garbage-time drive saved their offense from finishing with negative yards in the final 30 minutes. As it stood, they generated 4 yards after halftime.

Four.

“There’s just too much bad football in the second half that didn’t give us a chance whatsoever,” coach Kevin O’Connell said.

Bad was putting nicely.

The Vikings lost to the rival Packers 23-6, but it felt like 233-6 because their second half was one of the most feeble, noncompetitive, embarrassing performances I have ever witnessed in an NFL game.

Six plays in the third quarter resulted in minus-10 yards. They had six plays total in the second half that lost yardage. Plus, a false start penalty. And two interceptions. And another special teams blunder that flipped the game upside down.

“You’re not going to come to Lambeau and win a game playing like that in the second half,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell noted that his team has a “pretty razor thin” margin for error, which is a polite acknowledgement that he has a quarterback problem. J.J. McCarthy’s first season as the starter is spiraling from bad to worse to dreadful.

McCarthy took five sacks, threw two interceptions, passed for only 87 yards and showed zero signs of improvement.

He looks overwhelmed by the assignment. He’s holding the ball excruciatingly long in the pocket, waiting and hitching, until he either forces an errant throw or takes a sack. His second interception came on a wild overthrow, now a troubling trend.

O’Connell said this past week that he’s waiting to see the concrete start to dry in McCarthy’s development, meaning progress and consistency. Instead, the offense is functioning as if its swimming in quicksand.

“The formula cannot be to end up being down double digits in the second half,” O’Connell said. “It takes you out of the game you want to play.”

That’s just not realistic, especially for this Vikings team, which is proving to be unreliable and undisciplined in all phases. On Sunday, the highly compensated offensive line finally played together for the first time, then promptly lost its matchup decisively and encountered more injuries.

The dream scenario for O’Connell is to grab a lead, run the ball effectively, chew up time of possession, play stout defense and, thus, minimize what he calls the “variance of a young quarterback.”

The loss reiterated what happens when that wish list doesn’t materialize. Punt returner Myles Price gifted the Packers a touchdown with an avoidable gaffe that resulted in a fumble inside the 10-yard line. O’Connell called it a “catastrophic turnover.”

Why?

Because a 10-6 deficit grew to 17-6, and the young quarterback is ill-equipped to overcome adverse circumstances. Things just snowball if McCarthy is needed to pull the team out of a jam.

“I think you can,” he said. “I do believe that, but it does require as a football team not doing things that loses games.”

They are accomplishing neither. The Vikings own the second-worst turnover differential in the NFL. They entered the game with the third-most presnap penalties in the league. They are second-worst in third-down offense.

Essentially, a flawed team needs to play perfectly to create the best conditions for a young quarterback who is regressing with each performance. When those stars don’t align, the operation falls apart.

“I’ve got to do a lot of things better,” McCarthy said.