RandBall: The bleakest two minutes from the Vikings’ loss to the Packers

If you thought things couldn’t get worse for the Vikings after last week’s loss to the Chicago Bears, you probably should have known better.

They were bleak enough Sunday in a 23-6 loss to the Green Bay Packers that I was thinking hard about Kevin O’Connell’s signature statement and wondering: Are the Vikings failing J.J. McCarthy, or is McCarthy failing the organization?

The Vikings simply weren’t competitive Sunday, nor did they look like they will be in the upper class of the NFL anytime soon.

The bleakness of the present and future came to a head during a particularly brutal but honest assessment from the Fox broadcast team in a two-minute stretch of the fourth quarter.

After the first of two interceptions thrown by McCarthy in the quarter — this one as his arm was hit after he held the ball too long AND pressure got to him from a leaky line, the next on a simple overthrow — play-by-play voice Joe Davis and analyst Greg Olsen let the Vikings have it.

“Everything that could completely go wrong for the Vikings offensively today has now gone wrong,” Olsen said.

“The second half has been one of the worst halves of football I’ve ever watched,” Davis said. (Chip Scoggins agreed.)

Yes, all true. The Vikings gained just 4 yards in the second half. But that’s just one game, albeit one in a pattern of struggles this season.

It’s the entire plan for 2025, how it has failed and how that now puts a referendum on the future, that is particularly troubling.

Olsen was unsparing in laying it out for viewers, signaling that while there is still time for McCarthy to improve after six historically bad starts there is also a reckoning coming “if they don’t have their quarterback” in McCarthy.

“If you’re a Vikings fan, there are some larger conversations at play here. You know, they went all in on free agency. Only the Patriots spent more. They thought this roster was good enough to compete for a championship,” Olsen said. “You go back to those decisions. You let Sam Darnold go in free agency. You also had Daniel Jones in the building, and all the conversations appear to be that they tried to sign him. They went all-in on J.J. McCarthy. ... In this moment right now, Vikings fans and the front office have to ask themselves if this doesn’t get better and we don’t get better offensive production, we’re in a tough cap situation, these contracts are going to continue to hold us down, and we’re just in a bad spot.”

The Vikings forced a punt not long after that. McCarthy followed with a few short completions that pushed the Vikings’ yardage total into the plus side for the half, followed by an interception on what proved to be their final offensive play of the game.

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