Vikings @ Chargers

This is pretty morbid...Honestly? I think we win tonight, just a dumb gut feels...But my gut was right vs Philly!

I'll see soon enough how this post ages.

I think we see Brosmer tonight. Wentz is already banged up. To be clear, I'm not hoping Wentz gets hurt, just reading the tea leaves. JJ is listed as the emergency QB tonight.

Zanary wrote:
This thread should never be seen by a Vikings fan considering self-harm. Holy SH*T, it's morbid in here!

"Wince" is maddening, but he can be equally maddening for opponents. He still has a full larder of skill players to work with, and it's not like the Chargers are any kind of juggernaut right now.

The defense definitely needs to get its turnover mojo back, and Herbert is almost Wentz-like in being specifically terrible at terrible times. I'm hoping Flores makes his life hellish, tonight.

This game can regather some momentum. Trust me, I feel the chaotic, whacko vibes around the team right now. I think the continual issues with JJM are having huge mental and emotional effects on team and fans alike. That said, we still have the pieces to make any opposing team worried. Tonight, I'm hoping the Chargers spend 4 quarters in all-out panic, with their fans snarling about Herbert's pay at least as loudly as anyone ever did about Kirk's...!

Oh, and Jettas gets that 8000 yard mark, tonight.

With Darrisaw now struggling with soreness and a questionable tag, you can only laugh. The injuries are now at a comical level. 

But I get the whacko vibes. I feel them too. KOC feels them. You can see it in his face. I'm sure this spring he thought "Hey, what's the worst that could happen?" Well, that would be McCarthy struggling or getting hurt again...no wait, maybe BOTH, while Darnold and Jones go on to be raving successes on their new teams. Oh and you know those injuries that just never seem to heal? Yeah, you'll have three of those this year with Darrisaw, Gink and McCarthy. Your opponent's star tackle, Joe Alt, with the same high ankle sprain as your young QB, will be ready to go after missing only three games, your guy will need 6 weeks...and counting. Oh and you know that terrific free agent class last year? Yeah, hope you savored that one. Oh...and funny thing about Ed Ingram....

I think a lot of what’s going on with the fans has been due to KOC’s wishy washy communication style regarding JJM and part of it is just having such a small amount of game tape before JJM got injured, so we don’t really have a baseline on what to expect out of JJM. I get that it’s more drama for the other team if they have to prepare for both QBs, but it’s more drama for our fans as well, and it gives the media/social media a field day on enhancing that drama.

Not 100%, but if we were the Bengals or us back when Kirk got injured, we would just settle into the fate of “Well this maybe isn’t our year”. You know every game will be a struggle, and wins feel like bonus goodness. We’ve been fed constant drips of “The team is a Ferrari, and JJM just needs to drive it.” And “JJM is so good, we don’t need the veteran QBs” so dropping down to the level we’re at is a challenge as we should be seeing the team carrying our QBs. We also have this mindset that KOC just takes random QB castoffs and turns them into studs, but … is that really true? I’m not sure it’s true for every QB, and I’m skeptical that you can drop random veteran QBs on this team and have them take off running with a week of practice.

This is easily the least excited I've been for a Viking game in a LONG time. Can we just get on with the JJM era? We need to figure out if he is or isn't the guy going forward. Trotting out Wince isn't doing us anything.

I’m pretty turned off on this game. The intellectual part of my brain says we have as good a chance of winning as we do of losing. If we win the turnover battle, we’re probably going to win. If we just have a bad Wentz day, well that’s a tough hill to overcome. My emotional side, however, isn’t ready to put much faith in the Vikings winning. I’d rather be pessimistic and relieved if we win. There’s just so many things that are going wrong right now. Like, how many starting caliber Olinemen will there be on the field? If Darrisaw and Oniell are both out, well …

I mostly don’t care about winning right now. I just want to see JJM play 4+ games in a row and see what that looks like.

medaille wrote:
I think a lot of what’s going on with the fans has been due to KOC’s wishy washy communication style regarding JJM and part of it is just having such a small amount of game tape before JJM got injured, so we don’t really have a baseline on what to expect out of JJM.  I get that it’s more drama for the other team if they have to prepare for both QBs, but it’s more drama for our fans as well, and it gives the media/social media a field day on enhancing that drama.

Not 100%, but if we were the Bengals or us back when Kirk got injured, we would just settle into the fate of “Well this maybe isn’t our year”.  You know every game will be a struggle, and wins feel like bonus goodness.  We’ve been fed constant drips of “The team is a Ferrari, and JJM just needs to drive it.”  And “JJM is so good, we don’t need the veteran QBs” so dropping down to the level we’re at is a challenge as we should be seeing the team carrying our QBs.  We also have this mindset that KOC just takes random QB castoffs and turns them into studs, but … is that really true?  I’m not sure it’s true for every QB, and I’m skeptical that you can drop random veteran QBs on this team and have them take off running with a week of practice.

The success or failure of that decision is yet to be determined. But I agree about KOC. In retrospect, saying that JJ might be able to do some limited work way back in London was probably a mistake, and gave people the wrong impression about the recovery time for a high ankle sprain.

medaille wrote:
I’m pretty turned off on this game.  The intellectual part of my brain says we have as good a chance of winning as we do of losing.  If we win the turnover battle, we’re probably going to win.  If we just have a bad Wentz day, well that’s a tough hill to overcome.  My emotional side, however, isn’t ready to put much faith in the Vikings winning.  I’d rather be pessimistic and relieved if we win.  There’s just so many things that are going wrong right now.  Like, how many starting caliber Olinemen will there be on the field?  If Darrisaw and Oniell are both out, well …

I mostly don’t care about winning right now.  I just want to see JJM play 4+ games in a row and see what that looks like.

I think the defense has been more disappointing than the offense.  With the injuries to the o-line, QB and such, I get the struggles.  But the D has not played well except for the Cinci game.

greediron wrote:

I think the defense has been more disappointing than the offense.  With the injuries to the o-line, QB and such, I get the struggles.  But the D has not played well except for the Cinci game.

IDK … Smith, Cashman, Van Ginkel are some pretty big losses to our defense.  Plus they’ve been playing from behind the whole time.  It’s tough when you build a defense to defend the pass and then the other team can beat you just by running the ball and 3-5 well timed pass plays because the offense isn’t doing anything until mid 4th quarter.

I think our defense would look a whole lot better if our offense was putting points on the board, gifting the other team points, and was sustaining drives.

Our offense has had 8 turnovers on the other teams side of the 50 (asked AI, didn’t verify though).

That said, not the shutout D we'd all prefer to see.

While we’re bitching. FK Thursday night games. I absolutely hate them.

medaille wrote:

IDK … Smith, Cashman, Van Ginkel are some pretty big losses to our defense.  Plus they’ve been playing from behind the whole time.  It’s tough when you build a defense to defend the pass and then the other team can beat you just by running the ball and 3-5 well timed pass plays because the offense isn’t doing anything until mid 4th quarter.

I think our defense would look a whole lot better if our offense was putting points on the board, gifting the other team points, and was sustaining drives.

Our offense has had 8 turnovers on the other teams side of the 50 (asked AI, didn’t verify though).

That said, not the shutout D we'd all prefer to see.

Good points.  I rescind my comment.  Van Ginkel is obviously much more important than we imagined.

I think I'd just as soon sit Darrisaw and O'Neill and take the loss that likely comes with it, than having those guys remain sore and questionable when JJ McCarthy returns.

MaroonBells wrote:
I think I'd just as soon sit Darrisaw and O'Neill and take the loss that likely comes with it, than having those guys remain sore and questionable when JJ McCarthy returns.

Funny guy. You think JJ is coming back. We’re stuck in QB purgatory.

AGRforever wrote:

Funny guy. You think JJ is coming back. We’re stuck in QB purgatory.

You don't think JJ's coming back?

MaroonBells wrote:

You don't think JJ's coming back?

Honestly, at this point?  Who fricken knows.  KOC has gotten fantastic at coach speak.

Christian Darrisaw is active for the #Vikings tonight. Brian O’Neill is out.

Vikings inactives vs. Chargers:

Brian O’Neill
Chaz Chambliss
Elijah Williams
C.J. Ham
Andrew Van Ginkel
J.J. McCarthy (emergency 3rd QB)

— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) October 23, 2025

#Chargers LT Joe Alt (ankle) will return for tonight’s game against the #Vikings.

Alt has missed the last 3 games with a high ankle sprain. pic.twitter.com/wHSEnMb2dt

— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) October 23, 2025

Now O'Neill. Can we just get a healthy o-Line?

Another ST penalty. JFC. This unit lives to shoot itself in the foot.

Why not Mason on 3rd & 1?

What does a player need to do to actually catch a ball anymore? The NFL is ridiculous

I’m done, fuck the NFL

Jesus Christ, it never fails.

They don’t want the Vikings to win