The 20-17 season-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a deflating start for the Minnesota Vikings, but attention has immediately turned to playing against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football.
“We’re going to have to,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said when asked about moving on to the Philly game. “This is tough times when you get this Week 2 short game. Whether we won or lost today this was going to be a heckuva challenge.”
The Eagles are the reigning NFC champs and will be hosting the Vikings for their home opener on national television. Both teams will be on short rest, but Minnesota has to go to one of the most unruly venues on the planet and win to avoid falling into an 0-2 hole.
What awaits after Philly is nothing short of a gauntlet with games against the Chargers, Panthers, Chiefs, Bears, 49ers and Packers. What looked like a 1-0 start was very likely has now devolved into a potential nightmare.
“This is the week to bounce back,” said wide receiver Justin Jefferson in the locker room following his 9-catch, 150-yard effort against Tampa. “Just coming off of a loss and now playing a team that just was in the Super Bowl … we gotta learn from this and then going into next week, a short week at that, ready to play and getting our bodies right.”
Related: 5 things that stood out in the Vikings’ loss to the Bucs
Two players whose bodies will be under the microscope are offensive linemen Christian Darrisaw and Garrett Bradbury. Darrisaw toughed out an ankle injury against Tampa but Bradbury’s lower-back injury knocked him out of the game in the first quarter.
“I would classify him as day-to-day,” O’Connell said of Bradbury. “It was a low back. He had some soreness there, something that just kind of popped up.”
O’Connell expects Darrisaw to be dealing with some soreness but said his star left tackle will be “fighting like crazy” to be on the field Thursday night. If Darrisaw can’t play, Oli Udoh, who took over for him briefly on Sunday, appears to be the backup. If Bradbury can’t go, it’ll be Austin Schlottmann starting at center.
"You definitely watch it, get together with the guys tomorrow and watch it. Got to move quickly because it is a short week. Obviously you got to do both, cover this game and then get ready for the Eagles as fast as possible." – QB Kirk Cousins on quick turn around. pic.twitter.com/Qn7b010Rr8
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 10, 2023
