2020 Vikings Season Review

Well this is that season review I have spoken about. 
Lets start with what my expectations were for the Vikings this year and how they did or did not live up to expectations.
My high expectation for the Vikings this year was 13-3 or 12-4 based on strength of schedule. This was based on a 4-2 division record, 4-0 AFC record, and a 4-2 NFC non-division record. My low expectation was a 9-7 record that would make the playoffs as well.
Obviously they did not meet these expectations if I am writing this in early January. But surprisingly they did actually achieve the 4-2 division record. However every other record looks a whole lot worse. Minnesota finished with a 2-2 out of conference record, and a 1-3 inter-conference record. These were a far cry from what I had predicted back in August. But what I didn't know in August was how inexperience and how depleted the defense would be all season long.

Story of the Season
The Vikings kicked off the year with a high scoring loss to Green Bay at home, not something I had predicted would happen. But this showed off the bat how bad our defense played. We had so much youth on that side of the ball and hardly any experience with injuries and opt-outs. They continued to lose towards the bye week in Week 7. Before the bye the Vikings were 1-5 and looking like maybe they should try to see how great of a draft pick they can get. 
But they exited the bye and came to play, going 5-1 in the next 6 games which I have to admit really made me smile and excited for this team going forward. They were an uplifting 5-6 team about to head into the last difficult stretch of the season. The defense had surprisingly come alive in these 6 games and showed the league that maybe they aren't so bad. Except that that they faced 4 teams in those 6 games that would not even sniff the playoffs. So maybe that is why they played well? Who knows.
It was at this point things fell apart for this team. They went into Tampa Bay and lost a game that they could have had in reach if not for kicking struggles. Bailey did not make a single kick that game and many were calling for him to be fired. Minnesota came home to face Chicago and lost another close game. Then they went to New Orleans to be absolutely curb-stomped. This also eliminated them from the playoffs. In this game, the defense showed their true face in that they could not defend against any decent teams in the league and tied a franchise most points allowed and set a franchise record for yards allowed. The final week of the year the Vikings finally ended up back in the win column for the first time in a month.

What Went Wrong
I think the Vikings front office really thought they would be able to replace the stout defense of the last half decade with this team. Granted, Danielle Hunter never played a down this season and Michael Pierce opted out before the year began. Eric Kendricks ended up being absent the last half of the season. I don't really know if they would have made too much of a difference in some of these games. I know the New Orleans game would have been much closer and lower scoring. But when your defense is pulling cornerbacks off the street mid-way through the year you know you are in trouble. Hopefully this year can be a year of experience for our young guys and that they can come back next year stronger.

Bright Spots
There are still a fair amount of bright spots on this team despite the disappointing year. 2020 1st round pick WR Justin Jefferson made a huge splash in the NFL this year! He broke not only the Vikings franchise record for rookie receiving yards (Randy Moss-1996) but also the NFL record as well (Anquan Boldin-2003)! The future is bright for the Vikings rookie! And to think all fans were scared at the loss of the Diggs this year, when we replaced him with an outstanding rookie. This does not happen very often. Jefferson ended the year with 1400 receiving yards. This is 4th all time in Vikings franchise records for a single season, only trailing Randy Moss' 3 most outstanding seasons. Also Jefferson is my most obvious pick for rookie of the year, even though Justin Herbert played well as well.
Another huge bright spot is that running back Dalvin Cook had another huge year! He tied career highs in multiple categories this year and clearly had another breakout year. If Derrick Henry had not have had some really great games my betting money would be on Cook to receive offensive player of the year honors. Cook finished with 1557 rushing yards on the year, the most in his career in and 3rd to only Adrian Peterson's 2 best seasons as a Viking in franchise records.
Another somewhat bright spot is surprisingly Kirk Cousins. Cousins posted another great single season passing season. In passing yards he posted the 3rd best season by a Vikings passer trailing only his 2018 season and Daunte Culpepper's 2004 season. Cousins also posted the 2nd best season in passing touchdowns (35) trailing only Daunte Culpepper's 39 back in 2004. As far as where Cousins stands on the career scale for the Vikings, he statistically is the 4th best quarterback to ever play for the Vikings. He stands at 4th in career passing yards (12,166) trailing Culpepper (20,162), Tommy Kramer (24,775), and Fran Tarkenton (33,098).

Future Aspirations
Even though this year was a rough one for this team, I have every reason to believe that next year will be a much better year. In theory they will have fans next season which brings the competitive advantage back. Hopefully the defense can stay healthy next season and bring things close to normal. The future is very bright for the offense.
My opinion on keeping Cousins is this: if Zimmer and Spielman seem to think we can keep him then they need to invest in the offensive line big time this offseason. 
If they do not want to invest in the line they need to move on from Cousins because until he has a top 10 line in front of him he will continue to struggle. 
But there can be a bright future with Cousins as long as he isn't viewed as the centerpiece of the offense.

Well this was a disappointing season, but also a disappointing year in general. Here is to hoping next year is different!

Until next season Vikings fans,
​#SKOL