Nick Mullens did enough vs. Bengals to earn another start as Vikings' QB

The 2023 debut of the Nick Mullens experience looked a lot like the early days of the Josh Dobbs experience.

Mullens, who became the fourth quarterback to start a game for the Vikings this season, had a rollercoaster afternoon in Minnesota's 27-24 overtime loss against the Bengals. He proved capable of at least operating Kevin O'Connell's offense and getting his playmakers involved, going 26 of 33 for 303 yards and two wild touchdown passes to Jordan Addison. He also made several egregiously poor decisions with the football.

On the second play of the Vikings' third possession on Saturday afternoon, Mullens wasn't on the same page with Justin Jefferson and threw what probably should've been a Dax Hill pick-six. Later that drive, with the Vikings in the red zone, he was picked off by Mike Hilton at the goal line while again targeting Jefferson.

"I just have to be careful, I have to be disciplined," Mullens said. "That’s a mistake that I’ll regret. You cannot turn the ball over in the red zone."

Later in the second quarter, with the Vikings again facing a third down in field goal range, Mullens tried to get rid of the ball while being sacked and wound up throwing a horrific interception to defensive tackle B.J. Hill. He also threw a pick-six on an attempted screen pass in the second half that was fortunately negated by an offsides penalty.

And yet, while those turnovers were costly — and could've been even worse — Mullens also did enough in Cincinnati to prove that he deserves another start next weekend. He got the ball to Addison, Jefferson, and T.J. Hockenson all game long, completing eight of his ten pass attempts that traveled at least ten yards past the line of scrimmage. Mullens' gunslinger style hurt the Vikings a few times, but it benefited them on the two Addison touchdowns.

"I think the biggest thing is Nick showed that he can execute our offense and really move the football team," O'Connell said afterwards. "I think what we've got to continue to work through are those plays where we don't try to do too much. ... Nick's out there for the second time this season, and there's a lot to work through. But as far as the yardage, we were able to generate a couple of big plays to help us score. I thought (he) played well enough to give us a chance to go to overtime on the road and win a game as a team. We just didn't do enough in the end."