“That’ll learn ya,” said the father to the boy who peed on the electric fence.
Well, the Vikings are the boy and the Dallas Cowboys are their daddy after Sunday’s 40-3 learning lesson at U.S. Bank Stadium. But hey, you can’t learn to success without first learning how to fail, so getting massacred by 37 points at home is a good thing, right? Let’s just go with it…
“A loss like that may be a good thing for us,” said Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, who was on the phone with KFAN radio in the Twin Cities less than 24 hours after being embarrassed on national TV.
“Something that kind of woke us up a bit to say, ‘Hey, we can’t go into these games just expecting to win just by showing up.’ You have to put in the work… it’s a good wake-up call.”
The Vikings were held to 183 yards while the Cowboys piled up 458, running and throwing at will while punishing quarterback Kirk Cousins with seven sacks. Cousins had blood on his white pants from a gnarly scrape on his after Micah Parson ran him down for a strip sack on the third play of the game.
But the blood will wash away and the cut will heal. So long as Thielen is right and that version of the Vikings wasn’t who they really are, all can be corrected when they step on the same field Thanksgiving night against the New England Patriots.
“After a frustrating loss, honestly, getting your butts kicked in, embarrassing at home, all you want to do is get back out there, in front of your fans, and get back and show who we truly are,” said Thielen. “That wasn’t us.”
“If you don’t have your best on Sunday, there’s a good chance that you’ll lose,” continued Thielen. “It could be a good thing for us. If we learn from it.”
Related: Here are the PFF grades from Vikings’ 40-3 debacle
Related: Is a quick turnaround good for the Vikings?
