In a big game at home coming off their bye week, the Minnesota Vikings played host to the defending Super Bowl champions in the Philadelphia Eagles, who had lost two straight games prior to this one. The Vikings were playing their first game stateside following their two international games in Dublin, Ireland and London, England. One of those games was a close loss and another was a tight win, determined by a game-winning drive led by Carson Wentz, who had also suffered a sprained left shoulder that he wore a protective sleeve over. The question of who the starting quarterback in this game for the Vikings would be was in question, as J.J McCarthy was getting closer to coming back from his ankle injury that he suffered in a Week 2 loss at U.S Bank Stadium. After seeing both QBs participate in practice for the week leading up to the Eagles game, Kevin O’Connell decided to give Wentz at least one more start and to have McCarthy serve as the emergency third QB(a rule that exists thanks in part to the Philadelphia defense knocking out two QBs in an NFC Championship Game from a few seasons ago).

So, Wentz would be facing off against the team who drafted him for the second time in his career(the first was a loss in 2022 as the starting QB for the Washington Commanders). He would have a more healthy offensive line to work around, as Donovan Jackson and Brian O’Neill were back in their spots at left guard and right tackle. The only major inactive on the offensive side was Aaron Jones, who has yet to be reactivated off of injured reserve. On the defensive side, Minnesota was gaining a couple of reinforcements as Blake Cashman had been activated off IR along with defensive edge rusher Tyler Batty. With Cashman’s return came a more healthy linebackers corps, but Andrew Van Ginkel was still out for the third straight game with a neck injury. This Vikings defense had to do everything in their power to stop the dangerous Philly offense, which has taken advantage of a rule that was nearly banned with a three-fourths vote required to forbid it by the NFL owners. The “tush push” has been something that the Eagles have done with Jalen Hurts at QB, where three offensive players line up behind him to push him across the line of scrimmage where there are seven offensive line blockers to fend off the defenders on the line of scrimmage in short-yardage situations. Other than that gimmick, all Philly has offensively is Saquon Barkley, Devonta Smith, A.J Brown, Dallas Goedert and some other good skills players. The defense for the Eagles is loaded with big fellas such as defensive linemen Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, who are a duo of mass hard for any interior offensive linemen to hold off for long. But their linebacker corps returned little of its core of their members from their SB59 winning squad with Zach Baum and Nakobe Dean being the only active ones. Rookie stud Jihaad Campbell is a part of the LB group along with veterans such as Joshua Uche and Azeez Ojulari. The Philly secondary is filled with clutch defenders such as Cooper DeJean, Reed Blankenship and Quinyon Mitchell.

For Wentz, he could have cared less about the Eagles roster, as the only two guys left from his time on the roster(besides Hurts, who usurped him in 2020) are right tackle Lane Johnson and kicker Jake Elliott. Wentz was focused on leading the Vikings to victory against the defending champions this week and he was looking to continue improving his passer rating, which is low in spite of the high amount of yards he has thrown for. The Vikings won possession and elected to differ, with Philadelphia receiving possession to start this game. The first four plays from scrimmage were handoffs to Barkley, who got a first down and then was stuffed before a third down play that had Devonta Smith catch a ball one yard short of the line to gain. Most teams would punt in this situation, but not the Eagles with their tush push strategy. This was actually the only time the Philly offense under the play calling of Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo ran this absurd play in the game, with Hurts being pushed into a mosh pit of bodies and being awarded the first down. Something that referees have been told to look out for are potential false starts by the offensive linemen up front before the ball is tightly snapped to the quarterback looking to do the “push sneak”. On this play, it appeared one of the linemen for the Eagles left early and a flag for a false start should have been thrown. But there was no such flag, making the point of enforcing such a penalty moot in a play that should not exist in football. After that successful push, Hurts got split sacked for no gain, but then a handoff to backup running back Tank Bigsby gave Philly a first down in Vikings territory. A coverage sack by Harrison Smith occurred and a good tackle by Joshua Metellus on a second down pass to Barkley made this a third and long. Barkley ran for nine yards and the Eagles stayed on the field for fourth down. From the 37-yard line, it could have been a field goal attempt by Elliott, but instead Hurts stepped back to pass and found A.J Brown open down the sideline to his left. Brown caught the pass and ran into the end zone for a big touchdown play. The PAT by Elliott was good as an opening drive TD set the tone in this game eight minutes in.

For the Vikings’ opening drive, Wentz completed an early third down pass to Adam Thielen and then hurled a deep pass that was caught by Jordan Addison for a good gain of 34 yards. Just like that, the offense was in Philly territory and Wentz found Addison again for six yards. Jordan Mason ran the ball a couple of times to get a first down in the red zone. On the next play, Wentz aimed the ball towards Addison, but it came up well short and was incomplete. After another incomplete pass to Addison, on third down Wentz had a surprise coming his way as starting center Blake Brandel snapped the ball way high above his head and Wentz had to run to get the ball before an Eagles defender potentially picked it up and ran it back. Wentz got the ball and slid down way back at the Philly 41-yard line. It was a complete disaster at this point. From being within twenty yards of scoring a TD to now barely being in field goal range, this set of downs was an abomination. Thankfully, Will Reichard managed to make the long 59-yard field goal attempt to get the team on the board. The high snap mishap unfortunately proved to be a sign of things to come in this game.

The Eagles offense went three and out following a false start penalty on a failed tush push attempt on third and short and Braden Mann booted the ball 46 yards inside the Vikings’ 20-yard line. The first quarter concluded on a high note as Wentz found Justin Jefferson for a good 18-yard gain. On the next two plays to start the second quarter, Mason ran the ball for a combined five yards. On third down, Wentz stepped back to pass but had immediate pressure coming his way with Jalen Carter getting past Brandel and looking to get a sack. Wentz hurriedly threw the ball as he prepared to take the hit but the ball went up the middle and was intercepted by linebacker Jalyx Hunt, who ran back with the ball for 42 yards for a pick-6 touchdown. A horrid mistake made by Wentz, who threw his third interception of the season. This was a mistake also made by J.J McCarthy in his regular season debut and he bounced back from it to lead the team back. But now the Vikings were down 11 points after the made extra point in the second quarter. Sadly, Wentz made some more mistakes, including an ugly backwards pass following an offensive holding foul and he scrambled to throw a deep pass heading towards Addison, but the ball was picked off by rookie cornerback Andrew Mukuba. It was back-to-back interceptions thrown by Wentz, who was looking like a lost boy on the field against his “old” team. Thankfully, the Philadelphia offense could not do anything on the ensuing drive and Wentz had another chance for redemption right away. A completion to Jalen Nailor for 26 yards started the drive out well, then Wentz threw a short slant pass to Jefferson, who ran down the sidelines in bounds for a massive gain of 40 yards, meaning the Vikings were back in the red zone. On the first play back in the golden range, Wentz threw the ball to Josh Oliver, who gained nine yards on the play before being barely pushed out of bounds. Only needing one yard for a first down, Wentz aimed for the end zone as Jefferson got his hands around the ball and it was almost a touchdown. But the ball would be batted out of Jefferson’s hands by Cooper DeJean, who made a great clutch defensive play to deny the best wideout in the game his second TD catch of the season. That proved to be a big play from the young defensive back posing as a cornerback and safety, as the next play by Wentz was an incomplete pass that sailed over the head of Nailor. On fourth and short, O’Connell decided to keep the offense on the field to go for the TD, with Wentz throwing the ball to the right side of the end zone and Nailor caught the ball for the touchdown. But the TD was negated because there was a flag on the field for offensive holding on Brandel, who apparently knocked down the defender he was blocking off. The foul would back the Vikings up ten yards and the field goal unit came on to salvage another missed opportunity. Reichard made the 34-yard field goal, but that drive had two instances where a touchdown could have been scored and both were no good. Another empty red zone trip for the Minnesota offense, something that can’t be done against an elite team like the Eagles.

Down 14-6, the Vikings defense forced another three and out by the Philly offense, with the possession going back the other way on the punt. Unfortunately, the Wentz offense could not do much after a couple of first down completions to T.J Hockenson and Jefferson, with a deep incomplete pass on third down at midfield leading to the first punt of the game for Ryan Wright, who booted the ball out of bounds with around one minute left in the first half. With the Vikings set to receive possession to start the second half, the Eagles tried to be aggressive offensively in unfavorable field position. After a couple of Hurts completions to Smith, Sirianni called his team’s first timeout of the half. On the next play, Hurts threw an incomplete pass towards A.J Brown that was defended well by Harrison Smith. On second down, Hurts would get split sacked as Dallas Turner and Jonathan Allen got in to hound him to the ground. With 20 seconds left, Sirianni decided to let the clock tick to the end of the half and the score being 14-6 in his favor. This game was filled with quite a few mishaps by the Vikings’ offense so far, such as the two missed red zone opportunities that translated to field goals instead of TDs. Wentz’s two interceptions, including the one returned for a touchdown, were bad as well, but he was starting to spread the wealth to receivers such as Jefferson, Hockenson and Nailor after relying on Addison pretty early on. With another half of football left and only one scoring drive by Philly, the game was still very much up for grabs and the Vikings could take control as long as the defense kept holding down the fort and the offense started making progress. No more missed opportunities in the red zone could be afforded against a team as tough and resilient as the Eagles.

The second half began with a great kick return by Myles Price, who ran along the edge of the sideline for a return of 38 yards to around midfield. This made the need to score a touchdown even more paramount on this drive. The drive started with a couple of good runs by Mason into field goal range, then Wentz completed a short pass to C.J Ham for five yards. The next play was a Wentz completion to Jefferson, who was pushed out of bounds for a gain of four yards. On third and short, Mason ran for a first down and then went into the red zone for an 11-yard gain for another chain-moving play. After a short gain of two yards by Mason, on second down Wentz looked to pass, but he made a big mistake as pressure converged on him by the Eagles pass rushers. Wentz flicked the ball towards the middle of the field and no eligible receivers were available. Referee Bill Vinovich threw the flag for intentional grounding on Wentz, who committed yet another crucial error. On third and long, Wentz threw the ball towards Hockenson, who made the catch but only picked up nine yards and on fourth down the field goal unit came back on to have Reichard kick a 28-yard field goal, which he made to lower the deficit to five points. But this was another missed chance for the Vikings offense to score a touchdown in the red zone, with it being three red zone possessions in a row having to settle for three points.

Surely enough, the Philly offense was deadset on making the Vikings pay for not converting in the red zone offensively and they did just that as Hurts threw a deep pass downfield and the speedy Devonta Smith caught the ball while being covered by Isaiah Rodgers. Smith would run past Rodgers and into the end zone for a massive score. The Eagles took a 21-9 lead in finally scoring and re-upping the lead to 12 points. The Minnesota offense needed to respond with a drive that ended with a touchdown. They were aided by a kick by Elliott that landed short of the landing zone area, pushing the ball out to the 40-yard line. Another penalty occurred on the first play when the guy who had the pick-6 touchdown against Wentz was called for pass interference. After a run for negative yards by Zavier Scott, Wentz found Hockenson for a 10-yard gain and then on third down Wentz passed the ball to Nailor for a good gain of 11 yards for a first down. On the next play, Wentz completed another pass to Hockenson for a first down where a massive concussion injury occurred with cornerback Adoree’ Jackson. The game stopped for a few minutes as Jackson was helped off the field, with the drive resuming as a good run by Zavier Scott for five yards and a Wentz pass to Addison getting the Vikings into a goal-to-go situation. On 1st & goal, Scott nearly ran the ball into the end zone and was tackled just one yard short of the goal line. On 2nd & goal, the offense got into a Wildcat formation with Wentz going off to the side and getting into a legal receiver formation(unlike some QB from Detroit). The snap went to Jordan Mason, who ran to the left and tried to have the ball break the plane for a TD. Initially, he was ruled short of the goal line, but after replay assist jumped in, the ruling on the field was a touchdown. Mason had his fourth rushing TD of the season and the extra point by Reichard was good, with the Vikings down 21-16 now.

The ensuing drive for Philly had a couple of big pass plays by Hurts to Devonta Smith for big gains of 28 yards and 19 yards to get into position for a potential field goal for Elliott. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Eagles faced a 3rd and 5 and they had a weak run play drawn up for Barkley, who was tackled by Jalen Redmond for no gain. It was not a good day for running by one of the best running backs in the game in continuing a slow start to the season. Instead of going for it on fourth down, Philly elected to have their field goal unit on the field to have Elliott attempt a 42-yard kick. But the ball sailed wide right of the uprights and was no good. The Vikings now had a chance to take the lead if they got a touchdown on their next possession. Starting from the 32-yard line, the drive began with a good eight-yard run by Mason and then Wentz threw the ball to Addison again for a big gain of 25 yards into Eagles’ territory. On the next play, Wentz went to Addison again for a good gain of 20 yards to put the offense back into the red zone. Now being one for four in scoring TDs, the Vikings were looking to get lucky again. A run for negative yards for Mason occurred and then Wentz threw the ball up the middle to Jefferson, who caught it for a gain of seven yards. On third down, Wentz would get sacked for a loss of seven yards by defensive lineman Moro Ojomo. Yet again, the Vikings settled for a field goal for 35 yards made by Reichard and were now down 21-19. But another missed chance in the red zone had the possibility to come back to sting them in this late-game sequence.

The ensuing kickoff brought the ball to the 30-yard line, with the first play being a run for a loss of three yards by Barkley. Hurts threw an incomplete pass on second down, then on third down he scrambled out of trouble in having a couple of Vikings defenders within range of sacking him. But he went outside the pocket and threw a dart of a pass to A.J Brown, who made a big catch along the sidelines that was right at the first down marker. A major clutch play there by the Super Bowl MVP from last year. The next two plays were strong runs by Barkley that picked up a first down, but he got hurt on the second run. Hurts then found Devonta Smith for a big pass of 21 yards where he got hit by Harrison Smith, with a flag being thrown on the field for unnecessary roughness but the flag was picked up and there was no penalty. That didn’t matter, as on the next play Hurts found Brown on a slant route for a 26-yard TD pass. A huge score there for Philly and Elliott made the crucial PAT to have this be a nine-point deficit. Another huge drive had been led by the clutch passing of Jalen Hurts, who was carving up the secondary of the Vikings like a pumpkin carver. Now, there was no margin for error. The offense needed to come up with a touchdown on this next drive or it would be essentially game over.

After a kick return by Price to the 28-yard line, Wentz started the drive by throwing a couple of passes to Addison for gains of seven and 14 yards for a first down near midfield. After a couple of incomplete passes, on third down Wentz turned back the clock to his younger years as the QB in midnight green and white by scrambling out of the pocket and running for a gain of 16 yards, where he had to duck in between two Eagles defenders who collided with each other for a first down. A massive North Dakota Tough play there by Carson. Following a timeout to help one of those defenders off the field, the drive resumed with a deep pass to Jefferson that was incomplete. Then, Wentz missed Hockenson on a short pass to the left, then on 3rd down Wentz used his legs again to pick up just enough yardage for a first down near the red zone. Wentz then threw another pass towards Jefferson that sailed wide of him, then he threw the ball to Addison for a gain of eight yards. On third down, Wentz threw a pass to the back of the end zone and T.J Hockenson was there, with him catching the ball in a diving fashion and going down in bounds for a massive touchdown. This was a huge score with only three minutes left as the Vikings could now potentially have a chance to win the game if they could stop the Eagles offense from milking clock on their next drive. However, as is the standard for all scoring plays, the call on the field was reviewed and the result from the league replay office in New York was an absolute disgrace.

After the replay review, Bill Vinovich announced that the ruling on the field had been changed and it was an incomplete pass. Hockenson could not believe it, the fans in attendance couldn’t either. But this ruling occurred due to the improved replay cameras that showed Hockenson losing possession of the ball for just a single moment as he came down with it on the ground. Apparently you have to “survive the ground” still along with getting both feet(or the equivalent of) in bounds. But here’s the thing, after losing grasp of the ball, T.J immediately regained it and stayed in bounds. The ball never hit the ground without Hockenson’s hands on it. This was a controversial and huge reversal. Instead of the time being at 3 minutes and the Vikings being down two points, it was now fourth down and instead of kicking the field goal for an immediate score, O’Connell decided to have the offense stay on to go for it. Thankfully, Wentz completed a pass to Addison for enough yardage for a first down. Addison went out of bounds to stop the clock and it was now first and goal. But Wentz got sacked on the next play by Joshua Uche and the clock was now running. With time ticking below two and a half minutes, Wentz completed his next pass to Hockenson from the 18-yard line for a gain of seven yards. T.J was taken down in bounds and the offense had to quickly run this next play before the two minute warning. On 3rd and goal, Wentz threw a high pass that sailed over the head of Jalen Nailor and incomplete. The clock was right at the two-minute warning and after the break, the field goal unit was on for the fifth time in this game and Reichard hooked in an easy money 29-yard kick to lower the deficit to six points. But this was desperation time now. The Vikings needed to stop the Eagles and take their timeouts to leave enough time on the clock to have one last shot at winning the game.

With under two minutes left, Reichard kicked the ball off and kick returner Xavier Gipson ran for a good return to the 43-yard line of Philly. So, that was a good play for the Eagles offense before this drive started. The first play from scrimmage was a Barkley run for only one yard that had O’Connell call the Vikings’ first charged timeout. On second down, a bold decision was made to have Hurts throw the ball to A.J Brown, but the pass was incomplete. The Vikings now had a chance to end the drive and still have one timeout available. On third down, though, Philly tried to pass again and Hurts aimed it deep to the left and it was caught by Brown, who was taken down deep in Minnesota territory for a massive gain of 45 yards. It was a game-sealing play as the Vikings were not able to get the ball back as the clock math wasn’t in their favor. Even if it was, the Eagles could have opted for a field goal to increase the lead back to two possessions. It was game over after a couple of kneel downs by Hurts and the Vikings had lost this Week 7 home game at U.S Bank Stadium by a final score of 28-22. A tough defeat predicated by mistakes on the offensive end in the red zone and the inability of the defense to guard against the clutch passing of Hurts. Overall, a tough defeat in spite of a good effort by Carson Wentz to right the ship. Unfortunately, the Vikings were robbed of touchdowns on three different plays, one of them due to great defense by Cooper DeJean on Jefferson, the other two due to the refs and the big one being the incomplete pass replay reversal on Hockenson’s TD catch. T.J was not happy about that and he made his opinion known in the postgame press conference, when he said that “there was nothing to overturn it”. An NFL replay center spokesman said otherwise, saying that the ball “hit the ground” and Hockenson “regained control of the ball”. But that should be grounds for upholding the call on the field and not for reversing it. I know that this is one separate occasion, but there have been massive moments where plays that looked like a catch and would have been ruled as such in the times before replay reviews became mainstream in the NFL have been reversed and that has cost a few teams a chance at victory(i.e the Dallas Cowboys in the 2014 NFC Divisional Round with Dez Bryant’s infamous bobble forced by the field while trying to break the plane for a touchdown at Lambeau Field). The competition committee should consider overlooking this outdated rule at some point and change the criteria ever so slightly as to not have the turf be an extra defender for the defense. Because in the end, it’s 11-versus-11, not 11-versus-12. That’s just my take on the absurd reversal of Hockenson’s stolen TD, and who knows if the score had been upheld the Vikings would have won. They would have had one extra minute of time and the two-minute warning to use along with their three timeouts and all they would have needed was a Reichard field goal to win it. But this is the second time that the Vikings have fallen short in a comeback attempt due to time simply running out, the first being against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin with Jordan Addison’s inability to score on a long-pass play due to being tackled one yard short of the end zone.

As for Carson Wentz, he made some unfortunate errors, especially in the second quarter with the pick-6 and another interception. But he managed to still throw for 313 yards but with no TD passes. Tough luck due to the red zone woes that the offense faced. Addison, Jefferson and Hockenson all served as “Sons of Anarchy” with big reception and receiving yards numbers. The Brian Flores defense had another game with no turnovers, but they contained the Philly offense other than for those three drives where Hurts found his top two targets in Devonta Smith and A.J Brown for big scores. This game might have been lost by the red zone offense of Minnesota, but it was won by the big play ability of the Eagles offensive group. Also helps to have a defensive TD. Moving on from this defeat won’t be easy, but it must happen fast as for the second straight season the Vikings will play on short week for Week 8 and in the same location. SoFi Stadium will play host to a duel between the Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers, who suffered a tough loss to the Indianapolis Colts by the score of 38-24. Looking to do better on both aspects of the game, the Chargers will look to stay at pace with the Denver Broncos in the AFC West. As for the Vikings, the big question is who will be starting the game on Thursday night. Wentz has done well filling in for J.J McCarthy, but a couple of tough defeats to the Steelers and Eagles might give credence to the team to go back to McCarthy and have him return from his ankle injury. J.J is clearly ready with him being active for the game against the Eagles. Going up against his college head coach in Jim Harbaugh in primetime might be the perfect stage to let him return in. A tough offensive performance at home occurred the last time McCarthy played, with the Atlanta Falcons swarming him and forcing a few turnovers on his end. But now the offensive line for the Vikings is more healthy and Jordan Addison is available for McCarthy to use. So, this could be a good time to let the potential long-term QB this franchise has been looking for so long to have to return. If not McCarthy, then Wentz will be making this start in showcasing that he still has some of his escapability and resilience to rebound from mistakes committed earlier in the game. Now in last place in the strong NFC North at 3-3, the Vikings will seek a win against their 17th game opponent for the season and take on another good QB from the draft class of 2020 in Justin Herbert, who has had a solid season so far in utilizing his receivers in a very good way. November is almost upon this Vikings team and nearing the halfway mark of the season, they must find out how good they can actually be and execute better in real game situations. A lack of good execution in the red zone was why they lost this game to the defending champions.