Though one quarter of the regular season remains for the Minnesota Vikings to finish strong

EAGAN Chuck Foreman Jersey , Minn. (AP) —, none of their biggest tests have so far revealed a team playing like the championship contender it was built to be.The Vikings still have a better-than-average chance of returning to the playoffs, but for all the individual standouts on this roster there has not been enough collective evidence in 2018 that this is more than simply a better-than-average squad.“Right now, we’re kind of an up-and-down-team a little bit,” coach Mike Zimmer said, “and that’s the thing that frustrates me the most. We need to develop more consistency.”The latest illustration of this second-tier status came on Sunday afternoon at New England, where the Patriots maintained their December mastery under coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady with a 24-10 victory .There’s no shame in losing on the road to the five-time champion Patriots, particularly when the score is tied at 10 in the final minute of the third quarter, but at some point to have legitimate Super Bowl hope a team has to beat a superior opponent in a challenging setting.The Vikings (6-5-1) have lost to four of the eight current division leaders this year, teams with a combined 38-10 record. The cumulative standing of their opponents in games they’ve won is 21-49-1 entering Philadelphia’s game on Monday night. The Eagles are the only one with a shot at the postseason.Up next is a trip to Seattle, where the Seahawks (7-5) have won three straight games to take control of the first wild-card spot in the NFC.“It’s not over. We still have everything out there in front of us right now, but there definitely needs to be a sense of urgency on getting that done,” running back Latavius Murray said.In five seasons under Zimmer, the Vikings are 2-9 on the road against teams that made the playoffs. Though the Eagles could add another win this year to the tally, Chicago and New England are likely to push that loss total to 11.These Vikings are well past the point of a still-developing team trying to find its way and learn how to succeed under the bright lights, and there’s been no shortage of praise expressed by players about the chemistry in the locker room. Zimmer even said on Monday that he thought the practices last week were as sharp as ever.So while some of the moves made or not made by general manager Rick Spielman during the offseason could be fairly criticized, at least pertaining to the offensive line and the special teams, several questions have been raised in recent weeks about the in-game strategic approach by the coaching staff.Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer has taken plenty of heat. Zimmer’s long-dominant defense has displayed some uncharacteristic breakdowns in crucial spots. The most scrutiny http://www.thevikingslockerroom.com/authentic-fran-tarkenton-jersey , though, has fallen on first-year offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.The Vikings have been held to under 300 total yards in three of their past four games, and against a Patriots defense that has allowed 30-plus points four times this season they were frequently stymied again.Balance has become a significant issue. The Vikings have the fourth-fewest rushing attempts and the third-most passing attempts in the NFL.Specific game scenarios have dictated some of this discrepancy. Three holding calls, for example, against the Patriots produced these undesirable situations: second-and-17, first-and-18, second-and-20. Many times, the holes in the middle of the line simply have not been there.Dalvin Cook, though, had a season-high 84 rushing yards at New England — on only nine carries. Zimmer has not been shy, either, about publicly expressing concern about the play calling.“If I get five, I get 10, two, whatever, I’m just trying to make a play to help my team win,” Cook said. “I wasn’t surprised by anything that happened in the game. Coach Flip has been calling great calls all year.”Zimmer said he felt the offense “might have panicked a little bit” after the Patriots took a 17-10 lead. On the first play, Kirk Cousins went deep for Aldrick Robinson Womens Paul Krause Jersey , a throw that fell incomplete. After a 5-yard run by Murray, Cousins was sacked for a 10-yard loss.Despite his recent airing of discontent, though, Zimmer offered at least a measured compliment for DeFilippo.“I think he’s doing a good job,” Zimmer said. “We talk all the time. We talk about things, what I think are important, and I think he tries to do those.” Going into the offseason, the Minnesota Vikings had three quarterbacks on their roster that many considered to be, at the very least, solid options. They had Case Keenum, who was coming off of the best season of his career in leading the Vikings to the 2017 NFC Championship Game. They had Sam Bradford, who looked amazing in the 2017 opener before getting injured and giving way to Keenum. And they had Teddy Bridgewater, who fought back from a gruesome knee injury to get back on the field and had endeared himself to many of the Vikings’ faithful despite not putting up huge statistical numbers.Yet, when the time came to give out a big quarterback contract in March of 2018, Vikings’ GM Rick Spielman, head coach Mike Zimmer, and offensive coordinator John DeFilippo decided that the answer to that question was “none of the above.” Instead, they wined John Randle Jersey , dined, and eventually gave the first fully-guaranteed contract in the NFL’s free agency era to Kirk Cousins. Cousins had bided his time in Washington, playing under the franchise tag for two consecutive years, but was never really embraced by the coaching staff in the nation’s capital. . .or the majority of the fan base, for that matter.It’s still early in the season, but to this point it appears that the people that run the Vikings might kind of sort of have an idea about what they’re doing.We’ll skip Bridgewater, who hasn’t seen the field in 2018 because he’s backing up Drew Brees in New Orleans.In Arizona, Bradford started the first three games of the season for the Cardinals (who the Vikings will see this coming Sunday). In those three games, he threw for a total of 400 yards, including a 90-yard performance in a shutout loss against the Rams. He was pulled late in the team’s Week 3 loss to Chicago in favor of rookie Josh Rosen. In each of the last two games, not only has Bradford not played, he hasn’t even been active. That means that not only was he behind Rosen on the depth chart, he’s now behind Mike Glennon.Yes, Mike Glennon. But at least he’s getting about $20 million this year to not dress on game day.In Denver, things haven’t been much better for Keenum. He got off to a decent enough start, throwing three touchdown passes (and three interceptions) in a season-opening victory over Seattle. Then, he had no touchdown passes in Week 2.Or Week 3.Or Week 4.He finally got back on track against the Jets on Sunday with two more scoring throws, but the Broncos are now riding a three-game losing streak after winning their first two games.Cousins http://www.thevikingslockerroom.com/authentic-cris-carter-jersey , on the other hand, has been pretty good.With Brees yet to play in Week 5 action, Cousins is currently second in the NFL in passing yardage (behind Jared Goff), and is currently completing over 71% of his passes, despite being one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the National Football League so far this season. He’s thrown 11 touchdown passes through the team’s first five games, and has thrown only two interceptions, both of which came on passes that really should have been caught by their intended receiver. He’s on pace to shatter just about every Vikings’ single-season passing record.I understand that Cousins gets the benefit of an incredibly talented supporting case, with Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs comprising the best receiving duo in the NFL and Kyle Rudolph continuing to do his thing as well. Keenum and Bradford undoubtedly benefited from having those players to work with as well. However, Cousins was good before he got the opportunity to work with this group of skill position players. The Vikings knew that Cousins’ skills would be even more enhanced by getting to work with those guys. Keenum and Bradford, on the other hand, got the benefit of playing with those players as well but couldn’t get the Vikings to the promised land.I can’t imagine that there are a lot of holdouts left in the pro-Keenum or pro-Bradford or pro-Bridgewater camps after the first five weeks of this season. However, at this early juncture, it sure does look like the Vikings have made the right decision.