The Vikings drop their 4th consecutive game and things might not get any better

The Minnesota Vikings went into Washington on Sunday afternoon hoping to avoid a fourth consecutive loss on the year. Unfortunately for them, that didn’t happen, and the future isn’t looking great.

Washington got off to a quick start, with Kirk Cousins finding Jamison Crowder for a 4-yard touchdown pass in the first six minutes of the game. They would also finish off a 91-yard drive in the first minute of the second quarter, when Vernon Davis came down with a 38-yard touchdown reception.

The Vikings offense would wake up in the second quarter. The Vikings got on the board after Matt Asiata punched it in from the 1-yard line. After that, Sam Bradford was able to throw a pair of touchdown passes in under a minute to make it a 20-14 lead going into the half.

The second half belonged to Washington, though — particularly to kicker Dustin Hopkins, who had kicks of 30, 37, 50, and 28 yards to give his team a 26-20 lead.

The Vikings and Bradford made one final push, but came up short and Washington prevailed.

Bradford completed 31 of 39 pass attempts, accumulating 307 yards and two touchdowns against one interception. The running game was still dormant for the Vikings, but it was an improved offensive showing from Bradford just two weeks removed from Norv Turner’s exit.

Turner told NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport last week that he left because he believed that he was “holding [the Vikings offense] back from things all getting on the same page. I don’t want anyone to think I was bailing. It just wasn’t working.”

Jerick McKinnon was the Vikings’ leading rusher with 16 yards on six carries. Asiata had nine carries and a total of 13 yards. In total, the Vikings had 47 yards on the afternoon against a Washington defense that came into Sunday’s game ranking 26th in the league in run defense.

On top of this, Blair Walsh missed yet another extra point, leading many to speculate that he might have played his last game for the Vikings. He’s missed more kicks than any other kicker in football with a combined eight field goals and PATs.

Only three teams in history started off 5-0 and had a four-game losing streak. That’s certainly not company the Vikings envisioned themselves joining after looking strong in their five previous victories, but a string of injuries and bad play have put the Vikings in a spot where they’re now competing with the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for the NFC North.

The bad news for the Vikings is that it appears things aren’t going to get better anytime soon. Their next three games will come against the Arizona Cardinals, Lions, and Dallas Cowboys. Their star cornerback, Xavier Rhodes, is being evaluated for a concussion, and they lost another offensive lineman in Jake Long, just adding to the already long list of injuries the team has suffered this season.

The Vikings will have to find answers sooner rather than later, but luckily for them, nobody in the division is looking dominant.