So how pathetic was the Vikings’ two-minute defense in 2021?

And why is it still Kirk Cousins’ fault?

As we’re probably well aware by now, the Minnesota Vikings’ two-minute defense in 2021 was absolutely horrific. But we can now get a grasp of how terrible it was thanks to a pretty surprising tweet.

Warren Sharp of Sharp Football dropped this bit of knowledge on Twitter on Saturday to really put things into perspective. It can be broken down into two parts, both of which are pretty horrific.

For starters, the Vikings allowed touchdowns on nearly one-third of opposing drives in the four minutes before halftime or the end of the game. The average around the National Football League was 12% of the time. The second-worst team in the NFL this past season allowed touchdowns in just over 20% of those same situations, so the Vikings were the absolute worst in the NFL by some distance in that category.

But it wasn’t enough for the Vikings to be the worst in the NFL in this category this year. . .no, they had to go the extra mile on this one. Of the 686 NFL teams that have been measured in this category since the 2000 NFL season, the 2021 Vikings were ranked. . .686th. The absolute worst two-minute defense of any team in the National Football League over nearly a quarter of a century.

I haven’t sat down to crunch the numbers to figure out how many more victories this would have translated into for the 2021 Vikings if they could have just strived to be the second-worst team in the NFL in this category, never mind if they could have aspired for as lofty a perch as being somewhere around the league average. But you’d have to think that it could have gotten the Vikings at least another win or two.

I’m not sure if it can get any worse than this in 2022, but when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings we should already know that we can never just automatically expect things to get better. But if the Vikings can simply not be the most abysmal two-minute defense in the National Football League in nearly a quarter of a century this next season, you’d have to think they could be a playoff contender for sure, and possibly something significantly more.