Five years after the Minneapolis Miracle, the 2022 Vikings proved they were the Minnesota Mirage.
On Sunday at US Bank Stadium, they were shredded by the previously mediocre offense of the New York Giants, who lost 31-24 in the first round of the playoffs.
Ludacris performed at halftime. Ludicrous described Viking defenses before and after.
The Vikings became the second team this season to concede 30 points to the Giants. The other: the sad Colts.
That aging, sluggish Vikings defense allowed Giants quarterback Daniel Jones to rush for 379 yards, his second-highest total this season. Only the Lions, the only team to finish behind Minnesota in total defense, allowed him to produce more.
Once the Vikings’ new brain trust congratulates themselves on an impressive debut season and has a few back pats, they’ll have to fire defensive coordinator Ed Donatell.
Two names on their replacement list should be Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley if he is fired, and Wade Phillips, father of Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and current XFL head coach.
Staley put in a terrible performance in Jacksonville in the Chargers’ playoff loss, but he is close to Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. He’s also young and bright and would fit into what the Vikings are trying to build.
Wade Phillips is 75 years old and typically has a three-year shelf life wherever he trains. He’s also a Hall of Fame caliber defensive coordinator and could get the Vikings defense on track in a year or two.
The Vikings could hand defense to assistant head coach Mike Pettine or inside linebackers coach Greg Manusky, both former NFL defense coordinators. Or they could turn to Broncos defense coordinator Ejiro Evero, who worked with O’Connell and Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
As poor as Donatell’s performance was, this defense didn’t just fail because of subpar coaching.
It was Donatell’s fault that this defense was predictable and passive.
It wasn’t his fault that defense can’t cover ground or receivers.
This group is old and slow in too many positions and the only way to fix that is to jettison a number of very popular and formerly prolific players.
That means the Vikings will struggle to defend their NFC North title next season in an improved division with offensive playmakers.
“I just didn’t do enough to win the football game,” O’Connell said. “We need to look at that closely – every aspect of what we’re doing – to make sure we put ourselves in a position to keep striving to compete at the championship level, and we’re going to work on that right away.”
O’Connell indicated that he was unhappy with Donatell’s defense in December. Though he chose not to go into details Sunday night, he did nothing to quash the notion that he may be hiring a new defense coordinator anytime soon.
Not only did he mention the Giants’ “explosive” plays, he also noted that his offense wasn’t performing to its full potential as New York dominated possession times (33:36 to 26:24).
O’Connell also noted that Jones’ running would certainly be a key to the Giants’ game plan. “We wanted to try to keep him in the bag,” O’Connell said. “We wanted to try and get a rush to change the game with some of our playmakers up there but not let him come out and have an impact.”
Jones had his fourth-best rushing total of the season at 78 yards.
O’Connell hired Wes Phillips as his offensive coordinator after the two worked on the Rams’ staff during last year’s Super Bowl run. That made sense.
Donatell always felt like a generic private label defensive coordinator, hired because O’Connell didn’t have better options.
Donatell is mocked for saying the playoffs are his defense’s “time to shine” and that fans “like” what they see.
If he had assigned Jones a linebacker or a security guard, maybe those words wouldn’t sound so silly today.