Prior to Monday night, the chatter around Joshua Dobbs was whether he’d emerge as a hot free agent and a full-time starting quarterback next season.
After Monday’s performance against the Chicago Bears, it’s not certain that he’ll start the next game for the Minnesota Vikings. Dobbs threw four interceptions in the 12-10 loss and would have thrown a fifth had Jaylon Johnson not dropped a near certain pick-six before halftime.
After the game, head coach Kevin O’Connell declined to commit to Dobbs as Minnesota’s starting quarterback against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Vikings have a bye next week before facing Raiders in Week 14. O’Connell intends to spend part of that time evaluating Dobbs and Minnesota’s other options at quarterback amid the season-ending Achilles injury to starter Kirk Cousins.
Those other options are backup Nick Mullens and third-string rookie Jaren Hall.
The Vikings traded for Dobbs from the Arizona Cardinals at the trade deadline after Cousins’ injury, and Dobbs exceeded expectations prior to Monday. In three games against the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos, Dobbs completed 65.6% of his passes for 6.7 yards per attempt and 215.7 yards per game with four touchdowns and one interception. He added 131 yards and three more touchdowns on the ground. The Vikings beat the Saints and Falcons before last week’s 21-20 loss to the Broncos.
O’Connell praised Dobbs for his efforts in those games coming in cold to the offense from another team.
“I think what Josh Dobbs has done coming in here on short notice and going 2-2 in a stretch where a lot of people might have thought Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson being out, the deck’s stacked against us.”
Then came Monday. The Vikings were stagnant on offense. They tallied 78 yards and three points before halftime. They eventually scored a touchdown on a pass from Dobbs to T. J. Hockenson late in the fourth quarter. But given a chance to seize control of the game with a 10-9 lead and the ball near midfield after Justin Fields fumbled, the Vikings lost five yards while going three-and-out. They punted with 2:35 remaining and watched the Bears march for a game-winning field goal.
Dobbs completed 22 of 32 passes for 185 yards (5.8 yards per attempt) with one touchdown and four interceptions. Sixty-five of those yards arrived on the single touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter. O’Connell told reporters that prior to that drive it “started to get to the point” where he was considering replacing Dobbs with Mullens in game.
Despite the injuries to Cousins and All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson, the Vikings are 6-6 and would be in the playoffs if they started next week. The Vikings have something to play for, and Jefferson’s expected back soon. O’Connell wants to make the best decision for the Vikings to win now. He’s not clear if that decision is sticking with Dobbs or going with another option.
“We’re gonna evaluate what we’ve been able to do, things we need to get better at. We’ll take a look at what that looks like. Hopefully we’ll get Justin back. He was close tonight. … We’ll take a look at everything.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do during the bye.”
Former Michigan linebackers coach Chris Partridge said Monday in a social media post he had no knowledge of the alleged in-person scouting and sign-stealing scheme for which the NCAA is investigating the Wolverines and that he was fired for failing to abide by the school’s directive to avoid discussing the inquiry with “anyone associated with the program.”
Partridge posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he steered clear of making any public statements since he was fired 11 days earlier because he did not want to distract from the team’s goal of an unbeaten regular season.
Michigan beat Ohio State on Saturday 30-24 to clinch a third straight trip to the Big Ten championship game with its third consecutive victory against the Buckeyes. With a victory against No. 18 Iowa on Saturday in Indianapolis, No. 2 Michigan will secure a third consecutive College Football Playoff appearance.
Partridge said in his post that reporting on why he was let go has been inaccurate.
“Additionally, at no point did I destroy any evidence related to the ongoing investigation,” he said.
Partridge was fired the day before Michigan played Maryland, and the day after, the school dropped a lawsuit against the Big Ten that challenged the conference’s three-game suspension of head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh was not with the team for games against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State.
The former staffer at the center of the investigation, Connor Stalions, resigned two weeks ago. He is accused of purchasing tickets to scout future Michigan opponents and sending people to those games to digitally record teams signaling in their plays. In-person scouting is banned by the NCAA, which is trying to determine how organized the scheme was and who knew about it.
Partridge said a termination letter he received on Nov. 17 from athletic director Warde Manuel explained he was fired because he failed to abide by a university directive not to discuss an ongoing NCAA investigation with anyone associated with the Michigan Football Program.
“While I am extremely disappointed in the University’s decision to terminate my employment, their decision does not change my continued love and support of Coach Jim Harbaugh, the coaches, and the players of Team 144 as they continue their quest for a National Championship,” Partridge said.
This was Partridge’s first season of his second stint at Michigan.
He previously worked for Harbaugh from 2016 to 19 before leaving for Mississippi. He was initially hired to be the team’s director of player personnel before being promoted to assistant coach for four years during his first stint with the Wolverines.
The Chicago Bears won a wild and weird 12-10 decision over the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, but the victory came in unique fashion.
The Bears weren’t able to score a single touchdown against the Vikings, instead relying on a 4-for-5 performance by kicker Cairo Santos as field goals led them to victory.
According to Pro Football Reference’s Stathead tool, this marks the first time in the 2023 NFL season that a team has won without scoring a touchdown, and marks just the seventh time in the last four seasons that a team has won with only field goals.
It’s been even longer than that since the Bears won a game without finding the endzone. According to Stathead, the Bears had not won a game without scoring a touchdown since Oct. 3, 1993 when they beat the Atlanta Falcons 6-0.
The victory also marks the first time in the entire history of the Bears that they’ve managed to win a game after reaching double digits in points exclusively via field goals.
The win gives the Bears a 4-8 record heading into their bye week, with their next game coming Dec. 10 against the Lions at Soldier Field.