KANSAS CITY, MO. - The script was different, but the pain, frustration and utter sense of helplessness were all too familiar for a Vikings team just one loss from matching the worst start in the 51-year history of the franchise.
"The good news is we didn't give the game away this time," defensive end Jared Allen said after the Vikings fell to 0-4 with a 22-17 loss to the Chiefs in front of 72,931 fans at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
"We just got beat. So that's something, right? I don't know. We got to figure out a way to win."
It's the fourth 0-4 start in team history. A loss to Arizona at home on Sunday would match the 1962 team for the franchise's worst start ever.
"When you're 0-4, you don't want to stay status quo," said coach Leslie Frazier, who joins Bud Grant (1967) and Mike Tice (2002) as Vikings coaches to start 0-4 in their first full seasons.
"You got to look at what we're doing and how we're doing it. Not that you have to make changes, but just take a look at what you're doing and see what can we do better than what we're doing."
And before you ask, that doesn't include benching quarterback Donovan McNabb, who had two touchdown passes but also was erratic with a number of his passes, including a screen pass that was high and behind Toby Gerhart and resulted in an interception that led to a Chiefs field goal.
"No, no," Frazier said when asked whether he'd consider changing to rookie quarterback Christian Ponder. "We're not in a situation where I don't think we're going to make a quarterback change. We'll go back and look at this tape and look at every position and try to see what we can do to help every position do better than we played today."
If it sounds like you've heard all this before, well, that's because you have. The only difference this time is the Vikings trailed 9-7 at the half after blowing halftime leads of 10, 17 and 20 points the first three weeks. They did lead 10-9 for four minutes of the third quarter before joining the Rams as the only 0-4 teams in the NFC.
"I haven't really seen a team beat us yet," tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said. "But I've seen the Vikings beat the Vikings for like the fourth week in a row."
Vikings fans now find themselves clinging to the memory of the 1992 San Diego Chargers. Since the current playoff format began in 1990, only those 1992 Chargers started 0-4 and still made the playoffs. They went 11-1 in their last 12 games and won a playoff game.
Based on the Vikings' first month of the season, that seems, um, unlikely at best.
Although the offense showed some life in the second half for the first time all season, it still misfired at key moments with penalties and errant throws. Defensively, the Vikings limited the Chiefs (1-3) to a franchise-record-tying five field goals by Ryan Succop but continued to give up game-changing plays down the stretch.
The breaking point came with 13 minutes, 51 seconds left when Matt Cassel threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Dwayne Bowe. Vikings cornerback Cedric Griffin bit on the stutter-go move and fell. He reached out to grab Bowe, drawing a penalty, but Bowe still got wide open for the catch. Griffin and safety Jamarca Sanford then missed tackles as Bowe headed for the end zone. That gave the Chiefs a 22-10 lead.
"The Chiefs just made a play on that play," Griffin said. "I didn't make a play. The Chiefs did. The quarterback and the receiver made a play for their team. And I didn't. Good play for them."
A face-masking penalty on a third-down sack by Everson Griffen enabled the Chiefs to drive for a field goal and a 3-0 lead on their first possession. The Vikings then took a 7-3 lead, overcoming two penalties, to drive 80 yards in nine plays en route to a 34-yard touchdown pass from McNabb to Devin Aromashodu.
It was one of the Vikings' best possessions of the season. McNabb threw two first-down completions to Shiancoe, including one on third-and-4. Adrian Peterson ran five times for 34 yards, including 7 yards on third-and-1 to set up the touchdown pass.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, they'd fall behind 22-10 in the fourth quarter before the offense showed another sign of life.
They drove 70 yards in 13 plays -- including a 20-yard completion to Bernard Berrian on fourth-and-14 -- to set up a 1-yard touchdown pass from McNabb to Michael Jenkins. Obviously, none of that mattered as the Vikings were left to digest another similar defeat.
With the loss, the Vikings are 6-14 since appearing in the NFC Championship Game at the end of the 2009 season. Fourteen of the starters on this team were on that team. And they're getting sicker to their stomachs about it by the week.
"I hate losing," Peterson said. "I feel like crying right now. It's not a good feeling."
Mark Craig • mcraig@startribune.com