After the loss to the Rams, Vikings LB Anthony Barr took issue with the lack of crowd noise in the stadium.
“It felt like it was a little dead inside of here today,” Barr said, per Jeff Wald of Fox 9. “Usually we’ve got a nice buzz and for whatever reason, it was not there. Christmas hangover, I don’t know. I don’t what y’all did last night, too much fun I guess.”
Maybe Barr is right. The Vikings crowd noise might have had an effect. But here’s the thing: Minnesota did not have a good enough performance to warrant a deafening arena.
The Vikings are 7-8 now. This team lost to the Lions earlier in the year. They went 7-9 last season. They started off 0-2 in a year where expectations ran extremely high. This is not a Minnesota team that has built up good faith.
Like Barr, Vikings WR Justin Jefferson is not the problem. Jefferson might arguably be the best player on Minnesota. He’s made the Pro Bowl in his first two seasons. He has 1,451 receiving yards and nine touchdown receptions in 2021.
Jefferson blamed the lack of offensive aggressiveness after the game:
“I think we should be more aggressive when we get down there, as soon as we get down there,” Jefferson said, per ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “But, I’m not the one calling the plays. I’m just here to do my job and do what’s told to me. But, we can’t get down in the red zone that many.”
Overall, the Vikings are an unaggressive team because that is how the roster is constructed. Vikings RB Dalvin Cook is one of the best running backs in the NFL and is paid like it. Minnesota splashed cash in free agency on a defensive tackle in two consecutive offseasons. The Vikings offensive line is mostly made up of players who are better at run blocking than pass blocking, especially on the interior.
That said, the team should, of course, be more aggressive. Not only is it the optimal way to play, but the Vikings have a highly paid quarterback.
When you allocate so much salary cap space to a quarterback like Kirk Cousins, you expect him to be in the top echelon of passers in the league. That is often not the case. Let me be clear: Cousins is a great quarterback. At times, he’s one of the best in the league. But is he consistently cracking the top five at his position, year over year? I think even his most staunch defenders will tell you otherwise.
I think Barr and Jefferson have some points. The Vikings were not aggressive enough. The crowd might have been dead. But the issues run deeper than that. This is not a Minnesota team primed for Super Bowl contention. And it showed on Sunday.