Instant Takeaways from the Minnesota Vikings' 28-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles

The clock is ticking to get J.J. McCarthy back

Through three games, Carson Wentz operated the Vikings’ offense efficiently. He completed 69% of his passes with five touchdowns and only two interceptions. There was speculation that the Vikings could stick with Wentz long-term, as he could be trusted with the offense better than second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

But Sunday’s loss showed that experience doesn’t always equate to trustworthiness. Wentz completed 26-of-42 passes for 313 yards, but his mistakes were catastrophic.

He threw interceptions on back-to-back drives. The first was returned 42 yards for a touchdown when he threw the ball right to Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt. On the next drive, Wentz heaved a pass downfield that hung in the air long enough for Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba to pick off. That came one play after Wentz inexplicably threw a screen pass three yards backward, leading to a fumble that lost eight yards.

One of the red zone drives had the Vikings facing 2nd-and-8 at the Eagles’ 9-yard line. The Vikings trailed 14-6. Wentz faked a handoff but decided not to throw to C.J. Ham, who was wide-open in the flat and appeared to be Wentz’s first read. Instead, Wentz threw the ball into the ground, resulting in an intentional grounding. The Vikings faced 3rd-and-18 after that, threw a check-down, and settled for a field goal.

Sunday showed that Wentz doesn’t have a stranglehold on the starting spot anymore. McCarthy was limited in practice all week and will need to be a full participant before Kevin O’Connell re-inserts him into the starting lineup. But with the issues that Wentz (and the team) has, turning back to the young quarterback feels inevitable.

Red zone failures feel familiar

The Vikings’ failures in the red zone felt like a repeat of their Week 18 loss to the Lions last year. In that game, the Vikings didn’t score a touchdown on any of their four red zone drives, settling for two field goals. On Sunday, the Vikings only got one touchdown and five field goals.

That loss to the Lions was supposed to be the catalyst to fix a unit that couldn’t punch the ball in on the ground when needed. A second-quarter drive stalled when the Vikings faced 2nd-and-1 at the Eagles’ 6-yard line. Wentz threw two incompletions and a touchdown pass to Jalen Nailor, which was called back by a holding penalty, and the Vikings settled for a field goal instead.

Perhaps O’Connell wanted to avoid running right into the teeth of the Philadelphia defense that featured Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter in the middle of the defensive line. But it felt like O’Connell may have overthought the sequence. If the Vikings want to be stronger than last year, they have to be able to pick up one yard in three opportunities.

The defense is frustratingly inconsistent

Through their first five games, the Vikings struggled against the run but played well against the pass. They ranked 24th against the run and 2nd against the pass.

But the script flipped on Sunday. The Vikings held the Eagles to only 45 rushing yards on 23 attempts. However, they struggled to stop the pass. Jalen Hurts completed 19-of-23 passes for 326 yards and three touchdowns, finding A.J. Brown for two scores and a 45-yard pass on 3rd-and-9 late in the game to seal the Eagles’ win.

Jalen Hurts completed all five deep passes for a career-high 215 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Vikings. The Vikings defense had allowed only three deep completions all season entering Week 7.

Hurts finished the day with a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 19, 2025

Most frustrating of all was that the Vikings did hold the Eagles to only 3-of-10 on third down. But they let the Eagles convert 2-of-3 on fourth down, with the lone failure coming as the clock ran out on a kneel down to end the game. And the three third-down conversions came on 3rd-and-15, 3rd-and-13, and 3rd-and-9, the last of which was a 45-yard completion that essentially ended the game.