Don’t blame the referees

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September 11, 2017; Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States; Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook (33) turns fans up in the fourth quarter against the New Orleans Saints at US Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Blaming referees – except in the most egregious circumstances – is lame. Sure, they didn’t do us a favor, but that’s not the reason we lost.

The Justin Jefferson TD (or, rather, non-TD) seemed pretty clear to yours truly. His back and knees were no longer touching the ground when the ball crossed the goal line. We ended up losing this challenge. I’m thankful that we’ve always found our way to OT, but it’s fair to wonder if the extra downtime might have helped in the end.

Even worse, perhaps, was Dalvin Cook’s fumble in OT. Granted, the camera angles weren’t very clear. Much of the problem, of course, was that these blurry images were associated with the NFL’s demand for clear and definitive evidence to quash the appeal on the field. The referees said it was a Cook fumble with a recovery from the Bengals. Apparently, official NFL bosses couldn’t see enough to contradict their field counterparts

So here’s where the rubber meets the road. Do I think the refs messed up those calls? Certainly yes. Do I think the referees are responsible for our loss of the match? Never. For good reason, we were the favorites.

Look, there’s just no way Minnesota has allowed umpires to have so much power. If we were just minding the business we would have easily beaten the Bengals. They are a much inferior team, and yet they had the advantage throughout the game. The irony, in a way, is that we were defeated in part because of a questionable call in a game we didn’t have to win.

When you commit 12 penalties, you deserve to lose. The Vikings lost 116 yards on penalties, which resulted in them being consistently behind the sticks. Worse yet, our own mistakes forced us to give up our offensive identity. It’s hard to have a run / pass balance when you regularly face 2nd and 20th. At the end of the game, Minnesota had 50 attempted passes (including one from Justin Jefferson). Dalvin Cook had 20 litters; Ameer Abdullah and Alexander Mattison each had one. Mike Zimmer doesn’t want a 2-1 pass-to-run ratio, but there really was no choice. We had to spend a lot more than running because of our self-inflicted injuries.

Our penalties have doomed us. Each of our offensive linemen had a penalty. Several had several. CJ Ham, Tyler Conklin and KJ Osborn all suffered false start penalties.

This is what Adam Thielen had to say: “But when you start driving first and -20, second and -20, I think we averaged third and -20 in the first half or something like That, you can’t win in football games that do that. Mike Zimmer agrees: “Too many penalties. We shot each other in the foot, especially in the first half, way too many times. effect.

As they head to Arizona in Week 2, Minnesota will need to make sure they are considerably sharper. Chandler Jones had 5 (!) Bags yesterday. Kyler Murray will present all kinds of issues with his ability to pass and run. I imagine they’ll be looking for ways to get DeAndre Hopkins on Bashaud Breeland until our CB2 shows he can stop Arizona’s WR1. In other words, Minnesota has a lot to worry about other than the umpires.

There is a lot to be blamed for yesterday’s embarrassing loss. We can start at the top with Mike Zimmer, replacing Klint Kubiak for the offensive struggles. We can also put a lot of blame on individual players, especially those who committed the myriad of penalties. It would all be fair, but don’t pin that loss on the umpires.

Read also: – Some positives for the Vikings moving forward – The Vikings lose the opening of the sloppy season – 2021 will be a historic NFL season – Did Ja’Marr Chase guarantee the Bengals victory? – The Minnesota captains list includes some surprises

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