The Takeaways, Week 14: Vikings blow out Washington

December 10, 2025

by Steve Thomas

Another week, another huge loss.  Ho hum . . . we’re getting used to this at this point.  The only mistake the fans made was to believe that last week’s quality performance against the Broncos actually meant something.  Some of us – me included – thought that the Denver game was the start of a return to 2024-level of play on both sides of the ball, particularly with the return of Jayden Daniels.  That thought was blown to smithereens by the Minnesota Vikings, who, at 4 – 9, absolutely dominated Washington in all phases of the game.  This was as depressing of a loss as any of recent memory, complete with new injuries.  I’m doing The Takeaways this week not because I want to, but because I need to in order to get some things out of my head.  The Takeaways start below.

Disaster game for Jayden Daniels

Daniels obviously got hurt again in this game.  Thankfully, it appears right now, right after the game ended, that it is probably minor.  The bigger issue is that he stunk as a quarterback, again, with 9 completions in 20 attempts, for 78 yards, and 1 interception, for a quarterback rating of 35.0.  In fact, off the top of my head without looking into it (because research isn’t what The Takeaways are about), I strongly suspect that this was his worst game as a pro.  And maybe going all the way back to college as well.  In my view, the point in letting him come back and play was to get him some more reps, but also to allow him the opportunity to get his 2024 mojo back now that he has a mostly full complement of receivers.  The opposite happened in Minnesota, and as a result, he’s now going to have fans questioning whether he’s actually a one-year wonder.  Until he proves that wrong, it’s a fair question to ask.  I think Washington should continue to play him so the season doesn’t end on a bottom of the barrel down note for him.  What do you think?

Coaching failures

So . . . the switch in defensive coordinators from Joe Whitt to Dan Quinn was supposed to result in better play calling and a more motivated group of defensive players.  That’s what appeared to happen last week, but this loss to the Vikings was the total opposite.  The defense look outclassed and outcoached by an offense that had struggled all season up until this week.  The offense was obviously no better – Washington was unable to get anything of note going, basically, except for their first drive of game that ended at the 2 yard line.  I’m not one who typically blames the coaches when the players are failing on the field, but I’m at the point in this season where I think it’s fair to question whether this coaching staff is doing an acceptable job.  When a team so completely falls apart over the course of a season – especially after last year’s playoff run – it’s hard to not blame the coaches.  I don’t really want Jayden Daniels to have to learn a new system after just two seasons, but in this case, it might be warranted.  Let’s see what happens in the final four games of the season before we start calling for mass firings.

Defensive failures

It’s hard to believe exactly how bad Washington’s defense has become.  I recognize that the offense turned the ball over twice, but this sort of performance is totally inexcusable.  They let J.J. McCarthy post the best quarterback rating of his career, at 129.2, and let Minnesota’s run defense average 4.6 yards per carry.  Washington has absolutely zero pass rush whatsoever.  That simply must be the #1 priority in the offseason.  The team needs to use their inevitably very high draft pick on the best edge rusher in the draft, and then find some linebackers in order to start the turnaround.

Turnovers

It isn’t that two interceptions are totally unprecedented.  It’s that, in this case, they seemed to completely ruin the game and demoralize the offense, particularly the Daniels interception.  I realize that in the rising tide of problems, this is only one of them, but looking at this logically, this could have been a 17 point turnaround.  The Vikings got 10 points off of Washington’s turnovers, and one of them came in Vikings territory.  This is a Takeaway not because it was the only problem, but because they stuck out in my head as one of the keys to a blowout loss.

What’s next for this team?

If it were me, I’d keep all of the healthy starters in the game and make them try to turn things around before the end of the season.  I realize that many fans disagree with me, but considering how far this team has fallen from last season’s NFC Championship game, I think they need to make every effort to show some progress before the season ends in disgrace.  Yes, they need to get playing time to the younger players, and since Zach Ertz appears to have a serious knee injury, that’s going to happen in the tight end group.  However, that doesn’t mean they need to lay down and die and tank for a higher draft pick.  Have some pride, turn things around, and finish strong.  That’s my vote.

That’s it for this week.  I’ll be back after Washington’s blowout loss to the division rival Giants next Sunday.