There’s no sugarcoating it: The Minnesota Vikings are desperate. Sitting at 6-2 shouldn’t feel like a crisis, but Monday night’s 23-6 loss to the Buffalo Bills exposed a quarterback problem the organization can no longer try to mitigate.

Quarterback Carson Wentz turned in one of the worst performances the franchise has ever seen. It was worse than the Josh Freeman game and worse than anything from the Christian Ponder years. Wentz didn’t look like a quarterback at any level. He looked like a gym teacher who specialized in basketball trying to throw passes in a live football game.

Carson Wentz’s night was historically bad

The film was ugly from start to finish. Wentz misread the field and threw directly to Bills’ defenders multiple times. When he did find open receivers, he sprayed the football.

The low point came on a screen pass to wide receiver Justin Jefferson. Wentz threw it backward and high; Jefferson couldn’t haul it in, and Bills edge rusher Greg Rousseau fell on the loose ball. Running back Jordan Mason was open in the right flat, and Wentz bounced it into the dirt. Receivers down the field weren’t hit in stride. Even a fourth-down angle route to Jefferson sailed well off the mark.

The numbers back up what the tape showed. Arif Hasan of Wide Left (wideleft.football) compiled every Vikings quarterback game going back to 1999, and Wentz’s outing sits at the bottom. Wentz hit just 8-of-24 passes, and posted a CPOE of -30.7, the worst performance by a Vikings quarterback in that dataset. His EPA/play at -0.849 was only the third-worst.

To put that CPOE in context, the late Tarvaris Jackson owns three of the top five spots. His worst games came in Week 7 against the Dallas Cowboys (-22.6) and in a wild card loss to the Philadelphia Eagles (-22.4). Wentz beat both of those by more than eight points.

All Minnesota needs is a competent quarterback. A 20th-ranked offense is plenty good enough for this defense, and the Vikings couldn’t even get the 31st-ranked offfense.

Kevin O’Connell has to look inward

That leads to the bigger question. Is Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell the right person to lead this team?

After failing to retain Sam Darnold or Daniel Jones, and with J.J. McCarthy not working out, Minnesota trusted O’Connell to pick the quarterback. His desired room this season was Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz. Neither has panned out.

O’Connell has had plenty of chances to take this offense to another level. Even with the success in 2022 and 2024, his play calling hasn’t been exceptional. Keeping offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and Josh McCown on staff after last season, instead of bringing in new voices to challenge him, looks like a mistake. It didn’t work for McCarthy, it isn’t working for Murray, and it certainly didn’t work for Wentz, although he had his own problems that are much deeper.

Some fans already want O’Connell fired. It isn’t going to happen with how the Wilf’s run their organization. The Vikings have never fired a coach midseason outside of Brad Childress, and that was due to insubordination. The organizational structure matters here. Nolan Teasley can’t make that call on his own; it comes from the Wilf’s. Unless absolute disaster strikes, I expect O’Connell to be back next year.

Brian Flores’ defense deserves better

The frustrating part is how good the defense was. After last week’s loss to the Detroit Lions, the run defense was a major concern. The Lions pulverized Minnesota on the ground, and the Vikings missed tackles left and right, with 18 of them per Pro Football Focus.

Defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ unit fixed that against Buffalo, despite being on the field for 79 plays and 42 minutes and 32 seconds. They only allowed 339 yards at a whopping 4.3 yards per play, including only 134 yards on the ground at 3.0 yards per carry

The pass rush made Josh Allen miserable with four sacks and rushed his process. We got to see more from Ivan Pace Jr. and Dallas Turner, which made a major impact.

You can’t look this team in the eye and decide to waste a historic defense. Jefferson isn’t the type to complain publicly, but his patience has to be wearing thin. The Vikings need to sell him and the locker room on something.

The best option is a quarterback, whether it’s Kirk Cousins or Geno Smith. Daniel Jones shouldn’t be on the list, since he’s been worse than Murray this year. If a quarterback isn’t available, a high-end running back would at least give Minnesota a pitch: things will get better with Murray, the running game is improved, and now it’s time to chase a title.

Standing pat is untenable. If the Vikings do nothing, they risk losing both the locker room and the fan base, and heads will eventually roll.