Chargers @ Vikings 10/23/25

[Musk21]

Wentz is having surgery on his non-throwing shoulder and going on season-ending IR,

[Vanimal46]

1 minute ago, Musk21 said:

Wentz is having surgery on his non-throwing shoulder and going on season-ending IR,

A true blemish on KOC’s resume. I have no idea why he hasn’t been pushed to talk about keeping Wentz in the game when he was clearly injured 

[Aggies7]

18 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

A true blemish on KOC’s resume. I have no idea why he hasn’t been pushed to talk about keeping Wentz in the game when he was clearly injured 

And also F Kirk herbstreit for saying he needed to be a better leader by not showing emotion on Thursday night when he was in obvious pain. Isn’t he the dude that needs his dog around all the time? Not picking on anyone who does that but kind of odd behavior to call out someone else’s perceived lack of toughness when you have to bring your pup to work 

[nicksaviking]

12 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

And also F Kirk herbstreit for saying he needed to be a better leader by not showing emotion on Thursday night when he was in obvious pain. Isn’t he the dude that needs his dog around all the time? Not picking on anyone who does that but kind of odd behavior to call out someone else’s perceived lack of toughness when you have to bring your pup to work 

Yeah, it was classless by Herbstreit. Since Wentz is no Randy Moss, it won't be remembered like Joe Buck's self righteous indignation from 20 years ago, but it was just as sanctimonious.

[Vanimal46]

As we know KOC needs his veteran QB in the room. So where is Nick Mullens playing these days? I’m guessing Kwesi is sending the text to get him back for a 7th round pick swap 3 years from now 

[Vanimal46]

Respect to Wentz. Wow that’s gotta hurt 

[Aggies7]

5 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

As we know KOC needs his veteran QB in the room. So where is Nick Mullens playing these days? I’m guessing Kwesi is sending the text to get him back for a 7th round pick swap 3 years from now 

I loved me some Mullens. I think he’s in Jacksonville 

[Aggies7]

3 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Respect to Wentz. Wow that’s gotta hurt 

Wow. I won’t be speaking bad of him anymore.

[Musk21]

I would imagine that they resign Desmond Ridder to be the backup/3rd stringer,

[Aggies7]

19 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, it was classless by Herbstreit. Since Wentz is no Randy Moss, it won't be remembered like Joe Buck's self righteous indignation from 20 years ago, but it was just as sanctimonious.

The Thursday crew gets a lot of hate but I never had a problem with either of them until that bizarre rant. I feel like he was trying to say something poignant and ended up putting his foot in his mouth 

[Danchat]

25 minutes ago, Musk21 said:

I would imagine that they resign Desmond Ridder to be the backup/3rd stringer,

My quick list for QBs: (in parenthesis is the year they last played for us if they did)

Desmond Ridder (2025)
Taylor Heinicke (2017)
CJ Beathard (Lions PS)
Easton Stick (Falcons PS)
Brett Rypien (2025, Colts PS)
Trevor Siemian (2018, Titans PS)

I'd claim Beathard off the Lions PS just to get some knowledge of their playbook and what they might throw at us this weekend.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

A true blemish on KOC’s resume. I have no idea why he hasn’t been pushed to talk about keeping Wentz in the game when he was clearly injured 

Because we have no press in this country. 

[nicksaviking]

32 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

The Thursday crew gets a lot of hate but I never had a problem with either of them until that bizarre rant. I feel like he was trying to say something poignant and ended up putting his foot in his mouth 

Same. I also previously thought they were fine. 

[Aggies7]

33 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Same. I also previously thought they were fine. 

It’s actually funny that they have Al Michaels on the Thursday night games, which are usually not great or compelling. And you can tell he doesn’t really love it. 

[Aggies7]

Would/could there be a grievance filed against KOC for leaving him in the game as he did? The again, if you asked Wentz he probably would say he was fine with it.

[TheLeviathan]

5 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Respect to Wentz. Wow that’s gotta hurt 

Geez.....talk about guts.

[Danchat]

6 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Because we have no press in this country. 

There are some sports markets where he'd be getting scrutinized over it, but Minnesota is not the state that's doing to do that. 

[gunnarthor]

11 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

 The again, if you asked Wentz he probably would say he was fine with it.

This.

In the post-game interviews, KOC did talk about keeping him in, saying that Wentz didn't want to come out and the trainer didn't overrule him. 

As for why he was kept in, my guess is that KOC knew that this was it for Wentz and McCarthy would be starting against the Lions and that Wentz would need surgery. Wentz threw a horrible interception and he didn't want that to be his last pass for the Vikings so he let him go one more series where he called quick short plays where Wentz wasn't hit by the defense. I don't think any coach in the NFL would have done this differently. 

[nicksaviking]

Ouch. Wentz clearly wants to stick around in the league. Playing through that probably will make him a more coveted backup than throwing for 300 yards.

Honestly, I didn't care much for Wentz, and I'm an NDSU fan. In the past every interview he gave was full of so much Bible thumping and phony humility I couldn't take it. But since he's been starting, I didn't hear any of either of those things. And he played through a broken and torn up shoulder? I guess he's matured a bit. Kudos.

[Aggies7]

52 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Ouch. Wentz clearly wants to stick around in the league. Playing through that probably will make him a more coveted backup than throwing for 300 yards.

Honestly, I didn't care much for Wentz, and I'm an NDSU fan. In the past every interview he gave was full of so much Bible thumping and phony humility I couldn't take it. But since he's been starting, I didn't hear any of either of those things. And he played through a broken and torn up shoulder? I guess he's matured a bit. Kudos.

With so many bad qbs still kicking around the league, he almost certainly hasn’t thrown his last pass. Would you take him as a backup next year here?

[Aggies7]

2 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

This.

In the post-game interviews, KOC did talk about keeping him in, saying that Wentz didn't want to come out and the trainer didn't overrule him. 

As for why he was kept in, my guess is that KOC knew that this was it for Wentz and McCarthy would be starting against the Lions and that Wentz would need surgery. Wentz threw a horrible interception and he didn't want that to be his last pass for the Vikings so he let him go one more series where he called quick short plays where Wentz wasn't hit by the defense. I don't think any coach in the NFL would have done this differently. 

I think some times coaches need to protect players from themselves sometimes though. Especially in a game that is long lost. But I guess if the player is ok with it, what else can you do. Better than the player asking to come out 

[nicksaviking]

8 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

With so many bad qbs still kicking around the league, he almost certainly hasn’t thrown his last pass. Would you take him as a backup next year here?

I mean ideally you'd get a backup that would also be a coveted starter, but that tends to only happen with the reclamation projects. Not sure there are any Darnold/Jones/Jones types floating around next year. If Zach Wilson already got passed by Quinn Ewers on the depth chart, I'm guessing he's just really, really, really bad.

If we're talking Wentz vs Cooper Rush, Gardner Minshew or Tyrod Taylor, I'm past the point of having a strong opinion on the matter.

[nicksaviking]

4 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I think some times coaches need to protect players from themselves sometimes though. Especially in a game that is long lost. But I guess if the player is ok with it, what else can you do. Better than the player asking to come out 

Right, a backup QB ASKING to come out? I don't care if they have blue tents on the sidelines and take players out for suspected concussions now; asking out when you're a fringe player still is the fastest way to being blackballed and unemployed.

[gunnarthor]

12 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I think some times coaches need to protect players from themselves sometimes though. Especially in a game that is long lost. But I guess if the player is ok with it, what else can you do. Better than the player asking to come out 

I don't disagree with you but that's just not the NFL. Should be but isn't. 

As to Wentz, I think he is a perfectly serviceable back-up. If McCarthy is what I think he'll be, yeah, I'd be fine with him as the back-up next year. He has happy feet but he went 2-3 on a pretty brutal schedule and with a pretty bad line in front of him. That's not bad for a backup, really. 

[TheLeviathan]

I'd be fine with Wentz back.

Honestly?  It isn't even the QB/offense situation that bothers me most.  What in the blue hell happened to our defense?

[nicksaviking]

11 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I'd be fine with Wentz back.

Honestly?  It isn't even the QB/offense situation that bothers me most.  What in the blue hell happened to our defense?

So looking at the last two games I think it was predictable what the Eagles and Chargers were going to do, then they did the complete opposite. The Vikings prepared to stop the run and spy Hurts all game. And Hurts had -10 yards rushing somehow, so, mission accomplished? Aside from the Eagles deciding that was the game they'd air it out.

Then the Chargers game; a depleted and bad run blocking OL and the third string RB is starting. The most dangerous thing about the Chargers is Herbert's arm. So of course he only throws for 227 yards while running for 62 since the Vikings had everyone back in coverage and there were holes up the middle. And the backup RB has a field day.

So what happened to the defense? I'd say the other teams anticipated what the Vikings were going to try to do and out-schemed them.

[The Great Hambino]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

I think some times coaches need to protect players from themselves sometimes though. Especially in a game that is long lost. But I guess if the player is ok with it, what else can you do. Better than the player asking to come out 

With everything a head coach has going on during a game, I think they're deferring to the trainer as much as the player when deciding how hurt is too hurt to play.  I'm not going to assume any malfeasance on KOC's part unless something comes out about him overruling or pressuring the trainer to give Wentz the green light.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

So looking at the last two games I think it was predictable what the Eagles and Chargers were going to do, then they did the complete opposite. The Vikings prepared to stop the run and spy Hurts all game. And Hurts had -10 yards rushing somehow, so, mission accomplished? Aside from the Eagles deciding that was the game they'd air it out.

Then the Chargers game; a depleted and bad run blocking OL and the third string RB is starting. The most dangerous thing about the Chargers is Herbert's arm. So of course he only throws for 227 yards while running for 62 since the Vikings had everyone back in coverage and there were holes up the middle. And the backup RB has a field day.

So what happened to the defense? I'd say the other teams anticipated what the Vikings were going to try to do and out-schemed them.

I think that sounds good on the surface but it doesn't quite add up for me.  I actually thought the defense played well against Philly.  Big plays aside.

Herbert only threw for 227 yards because the game was over in the second quarter and they were ripping off 7 yards a carry.  

Rodgers and the Steelers moved at will.  

Cleveland even looked competent with the ball.  

Falcons looked unstoppable.  

I think Scoggins said it best....what does this team do well?  On defense?  I can't think of a damn thing.  So I disagree that they chose the thing the Vikings weren't expecting.  I think you can pick what you want to do against the Vikings D and do it at will right now.

[Vanimal46]

2 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

What in the blue hell happened to our defense?

We have been playing all year with basically 2 usable CBs. Jeff Okudah per PFF is the worst graded CB in the NFL, so that's a major downgrade from Gilmore and Griffin last year. As a result, we are forced to play Metellus out of position as nickel CB. 

Dallas Turner is a major downgrade from Van Ginkel... He's lucked into a couple of coverage sacks and that's it. 

Not having a quality MLB 2 on roster... We have felt the pain of not having Cashman out there and watching Pace whiff on tackles multiple times per game. 

We spent all of this money to beef up interior pass rush, and neither Allen or Hargrave have performed better than our existing guy Redmond. 

Harry the Hitman is a shell of his former self and playing way too often for a guy at his career stage. 

[Vanimal46]