1:41Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of Josh Freeman's one and only start at quarterback with the Vikings. It was a desperate move in a desperate season — and his performance qualified as a low point, at least in recent Vikings history. One year later, though, we grudgingly ask this question: Are the Vikings really much better off in 2014 than they were in 2013? To do that, we took at some numbers through seven games in each season (the Freeman game was the sixth of 2014 because of an earlier bye, but for comparison purposes we took the stats out a week longer in 2013).
Record: 1-6 in 2013; 2-5 in 2014.
QBs to start at least one game: Three (Cassel, Ponder, Freeman) in 2013; three (Cassel, Ponder, Bridgewater).in 2014.
Combined passing statistics: 1,418 yards, five touchdowns, eight interceptions in 2013; 1,287 yards, four touchdowns, 11 interceptions in 2014.
Combined rushing statistics: 157 carries for 723 yards (4.6 ypc), 11 TDs(with Adrian Peterson) in 2013; 189 carries for 877 yards (4.6 ypc), 6 TDs (mostly without Peterson) in 2014.
Points for (per game): 163 (23.3)in 2013; 120 (17.1) in 2014.
Points against (per game): 225 (32.1)in 2013; 160 (22.9) in 2014.
Main undoing in 2013: The early quarterback carousel prevented a functional offense from being a potentially good offense, while the defense was constantly torched, particularly in the passing game. That added up to some frustrating losses, many of them by narrow margins. Once the QB play stabilized somewhat in the second half of the season, the Vikings actually went 4-3-1 in the final eight games.
