Nick Mullens took a deep breath before responding to a question on Sunday, weighed down by the emotions of a disappointing season.
The Minnesota Vikings, led by Mullens, had just finished a 7-10 season and were out of the playoffs after losing 30-20 to the Detroit Lions. As the Vikings attempted and failed to find a replacement for Kirk Cousins, who sustained a torn Achilles tendon during a win at Green Bay on October 29, it was his third defeat in as many starts.
With that victory, the Vikings improved to 4-4. Mullens, Jaren Hall (1-0), and Joshua Dobbs (2-2 as a starter) were unable to help the reigning NFC North champs return to the postseason.
Coach Kevin O’Connell of the Vikings stated, “We can’t just sit back and say, ‘Well, we didn’t have Kirk, so this is what happens.'” We need to examine closely what occurs in the event that our starting quarterback is sidelined. We must improve our adaptability and play a little more complementary football.
All three of the backups, according to Mullens, felt like they could have done more.
He stated, “We hope to go back there and lead the team to the playoffs when the starter goes down.” We failed to complete it, and that is a painful thing. We didn’t get the Vikings there, even though we adore them.
Any hopes of a late comeback against Detroit were dashed by two interceptions by Mullens, who completed 30 of 44 passes for 396 yards and two touchdowns.
“I felt like I accomplished a lot of good things today, but I also made some bad decisions,” he remarked. “In a football game, there are several plays, and the objective is to have as many successful plays as you can.
While Mullens completed 52 of 80 passes for 806 yards and four touchdowns versus the Lions in Weeks 16 and 18, he was heavily involved in both the 10-point loss in Detroit and the 30-24 home loss due to his six interceptions and eight sacks.
Mullens demonstrated his strong arm in five games, averaging 13.1 yards per completion while tossing seven touchdown passes in just 148 attempts. Nevertheless, he was sacked 12 times and threw eight interceptions.
“How went my season? “There are many different ways to answer that question,” he stated. “You have to get the job eventually, even though I did a lot of really good things and we were competitive in every ballgame.”
