Momentum is a fickle, funny thing.

That's how Mark Craig of the Minnesota Star Tribune on Monday characterized the occasionally torturous and other times advantageous invisible but seemingly invincible force that influences football.

And as a consequence, good or bad, affects the day-or-week-after-game moods of Vikings fans.

Minnesota, like every sports team that's ever existed, knows the full-powered capabilities of momentum. It's what propelled the club in the second half against Indianapolis in the NFL's largest comeback of all-time three years ago. And it's what sank the ship Sunday at home against Philadelphia.

In unmistakable form, momentum is capitalizing a successful drive with six points – over settling for a field goal. It's executing an explosive run or pass, hurrying to the line and breaking an opponent's will with another healthy gain. On defense, it's stymieing the run and intercepting a throw when the offense must try something in order to do anything. It's getting off the field and giving your offense another opp.

It's not always so easy to quantify, though, Vikings guard Will Fries told Craig: "It's just an emotional feeling you have for a while," said the free-agent signing who was part of the wrong-side-of-history Colts.

Until it evaporates or gets stolen, and the quest to regain momentum begins again.

The topic of Craig's analysis is particularly relevant this week since Minnesota (3-3) is flushing its third loss and quickly moving on to challenge the Chargers (4-2) in Los Angeles on Thursday Night Football.

It's essentially a repeat of last season's scheduling beast, when the Vikings came off their bye and lost in a physical, one-possession home game against Detroit prior to the L.A. Rams beating them on short rest.

What can Minnesota do to avoid that same 0-2 fate?

Although momentum ultimately will be dictated Thursday, in the moments between whistles and with player and coach responses to positive or negative actions, the Vikings can recapture momentum now.

Quotes in Craig's article from Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores, a four-time Super Bowl champ on the Patriots staff, pinpoints how momentum is attainable even before the team plane leaves the Twin Cities.

"I think it boils down to relationships," Flores said. "The best teams I've been a part of have had great relationships within the team. And those relationships allow them to overcome the adversity that's going to hit within the season.

"We know it's going to happen. It's not going to always be 30-0 [wins]. That's just not this league. It's hard. There's adversity. There's frustration. There's stress. There's anxiety. All those things occur in the National Football League, as well as in life. … I think you get through those through the people around you and with the people around you."

Read Craig's story on momentum – a fickle, funny thing – here.

Midterm-ish report cards for rookies

Though we're not yet at the halfway point of the 2025 season, we've seen enough from 32 teams to have a sense of things. Like, 40 is the new 30, or something like that (go rewatch what Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco did last Thursday night). Personnel is paramount: just see Detroit's offense and defense firing on all cylinders after esteemed coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn took head coach positions. The defending champion Eagles are, well, distinguished as that for a good reason – or multiple.

And there isn't a gimme game left on Minnesota's schedule.

There's a boatload of other things that aren't disputable, or exactly certain, however, after seven weeks.

The performance of rookies definitely falls into that latter category of it's too early to know really.

Nevertheless, Josh Edwards of CBS Sports on Tuesday tried his hand at grading all 32 2025 first-round draft picks. Each player, aside from Bills CB Maxwell Hairston and Cardinals DT Walter Nolen (neither has debuted yet), has made some caliber of impact. Edwards touted the class as "really impressive thus far."

Our eyes immediately scanned to the 24^th overall selection, guard Donovan Jackson.

Here’s what Edwards wrote of the college national champion and Vikings rookie, who returned from wrist surgery this past Sunday, to start his fourth career game, after playing through the injury in Week 3.

Edwards handed Jackson a "C" grade, which is the equivalent of Bears TE Colston Loveland (No. 10), Bengals EDGE Shemar Stewart (17), Ravens S Malaki Starks (27) and Commanders T Josh Conerly, Jr. (29).

Of course it's way, way, way too soon to actually put a label on Jackson – beyond descriptors such as "tough," "team player" and "improving" – because he's inexperienced (228 offensive snaps), and he hasn't had stability next to him, aligning between two different left tackles and three different centers.

That said, Jackson is considered by Pro Football Focus as one of the premier guards in this rookie class. His 61.8 grade in pass blocking is tops among rookie interior linemen (guards plus centers), and his 55.1 run-blocking mark ranks fourth out of nine IOL with 200-plus snaps under their belts. In total, Jackson has allowed a sack and seven pressures through four games per PFF. And he's only been penalized once.

If you peep Edwards' article, keep in mind that grades are subjective and will fluctuate.

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