Week 16: Have a holly, jolly Christmas, and kick the Packers in the rear!

The Vikings had been Kings of the North since beating the Packers and continuing to win week after week until Carolina, but Sunday the 17^th made it official.  The Vikings showed no mercy, pounding a team that clearly had no answers.  We even got to see Teddy step onto the field to a massive ovation.  It was a goosebumps moment.

Everything seems to be lining up for the Vikings to take one of the top two NFC playoff seeds by force.  With the Super Bowl being hosted by Minneapolis this year, it goes without saying that home field advantage is as important as it possibly could be.  However, you also have to have faith that this team could go on the road to defeat someone.  The next two weeks will be very intriguing.  I feel like the Vikings finish with no worse than 12 wins, and that’s if they slip up against a Packers team with no Aaron Rodgers.  The only two things tipping the scales in Green Bay’s favor for that game are the game being at Lambeau Field, and the fact that it will be very cold there tonight.

Zimmer should have the Vikings prepared to take this one.  A Vikings team that wasn’t quite as good as this one beat the Packers at Lambeau Field to take the division two years ago, and that was with a fully healthy #12.  Brett Hundley is going to have to play like Brett Favre for the Packers to have a chance in this game.  However, we should not count our chickens before they hatch.  The 1988 Vikings were in the midst of a season much like this one and lost to a much worse (4-12) Packers team 18-6…on a cold night at Lambeau Field in week 16.  They finished second in the division to Chicago and eventually lost to San Francisco on the road in the second round of the playoffs. 

Which just goes to show you there’s always a bad Vikings loss somewhere to remind fans to keep their hubris in check.  Yes, the Vikes might win by 30, but Hundley might surprise everyone.  Here’s hoping for the former.

And have a Merry Christmas, Skol Nation.

Week 16: Hello Mr. Vikings fan, Merry bleeping Christmas!

Being a Vikings fan is absolutely maddening.  I know, breaking news, right?

The only thing more maddening than watching this team fizzle out in the clutch every single year is wondering how it happens so consistently.  Sports are a cycle.  Sure, some teams remain good for years by making the correct decisions, but even teams considered bad change something whether ownership or front office personnel or simply players and become good for a time.  

The Pittsburgh Steelers began their history as an awful, awful team, but things shifted for them around the 1970s and Franco Harris’s “Immaculate Reception” started a wave of success that continues to the present day, as the Steelers currently possess the most Super Bowl victories in the league.

A rich team history…the Vikings have that, but without the hardware to show for it. 

It’s not like the team does things any differently from any other team.  The Vikes build through the draft, having constructed a strong defense that should have been able to propel the team into the playoffs as division champions again.  The Vikings sign key free agents to provide veteran leadership and depth.  They drafted a franchise quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater in 2014 and got Adrian Peterson in 2007.

So why does this team continue to fold like a cheap suit when it gets anywhere near success?  The Vikings’ last trip to the Super Bowl predates every Star Wars movie ever made.  The team has only had four real chances to go back since (1987, 1998, 2000, 2009), and most of you reading this know how those turned out.

With the way sports tend to cycle from year to year, one figures the Vikings have to have their turn at some point.  Some of the most historically awful NFL teams (Buccaneers, Saints) put together good years and won it all.  No amount of embarrassment over a number of years could keep them from their one shining moment. 

My fellow Vikings fans must feel tortured at this moment because they can look around the NFL and see the exact same things their front office does working for other teams.  The Dallas Cowboys drafted Ezekiel Elliot, who looks like the next-generation Adrian Peterson and they are 12-2, best record in the NFC; something to which the Vikings also laid claim at one point in 2016.  Meanwhile, the Vikings wasted the prime of the actual Adrian Peterson.

The most egregious example of “they have everything and we have nothing” (despite the fact that both teams do things virtually the same way) arrives this week in the form of a Green Bay Packers team that, in a twist surely no one saw coming (/sarcasm), righted the ship after some horrible losses of their own.  Just in time for Christmas.  Oh joy.  Two teams going in completely different directions.

The Packers, of course, need no introduction to Vikings fans.  As the haughtier of Packer fans consistently remind the fans of “little brother,” they have the most combined old-school NFL Championships and Super Bowls of any team.  Titletown USA, they call it.

The Packers have a quarterback who has made a career out of roasting the Vikings defense like chestnuts on an open fire.  They drafted him the same year the Vikings drafted Troy (bleeping) Williamson, though in the Vikes’ defense, Daunte Culpepper was coming off of a career year.  Before Rodgers, there was Favre; a man we all loved to hate, but he would have been our favorite player ever if only he didn't play for that team.

On the other side, the Vikings’ record at drafting QBs is spotty at best.  Fran Tarkenton is a legend and Tommy Kramer, along with Culpepper, was pretty good.  But Tavaris Jackson sucked.  Finally, they got Teddy Bridgewater, only for his leg to practically fall off as he suffered the fluke injury to end all fluke injuries, putting his future in limbo.

In closing, being a Vikings fan is like watching your friend get the hot new toy for Christmas.  It looks awesome and you beg your parents to buy you one…only for yours to wind up being a defective pile of fecal matter that breaks in ten seconds.  Except in this case, no matter how many times your parents get it replaced, it just keeps happening and happening.  It’s like you aren’t allowed to have this one specific toy.

Just like the Vikings seemingly aren’t allowed to have the same kind of success as other teams by copying their model.

Vikings-Packers at Lambeau.  Christmas Eve at noon.  Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst.

(In the improbable event of a Vikings win, potentially taking Green Bay down with them, here is a link that will brag for you!)

Ohhohohohohohohohoho, Delicious!

Week 16: The prime time curse is over (for now)!

Boy did Sunday night feel good.  Yes, the Giants had nothing for which to play.  Yes, Odell Beckham sat out the game due to his own stupidity the previous week. 

When they eventually got started offensively, the Vikings outclassed the Giants and looked like the far better team.  Aside from a couple of touchdowns given up when the game was out of hand, the Vikings defense played brilliantly and for once, they buried a bad team like all of the other good teams do, instead of struggling to win like earlier in the season.  Well, to be fair, they beat the Bears by 21 last week, too.

Sure, this barely counted as a “big win” for the Vikings (according to some people) due to the quality of the opponent, but try telling that to most Vikings fans.  Personally, I will gladly take any game where my team can hang 49 on the other team.  Teddy didn’t exactly light the Giants up like many thought he might, but you don’t have to throw for 350 and 3 when you can run the ball like the Vikings can at their best.

Perhaps the biggest reason for jubilation after Sunday night is this; the Vikings finally won in prime time.  The Arizona game was the first time in a while that the Vikings did not embarrass their fans under the lights, and, though playing a much inferior opponent this time around, I think it’s safe to say fans are more than happy with Sunday’s victory over the Giants. 

But…there is another.

The Packers still loom large in that week 17 matchup which has (not surprisingly) become the feature game of the week.  That’s right, the Vikings become one of the few teams to play in back-to-back SNF games since its arrival on NBC in 2006 (I’m guessing there weren’t many situations like this in the ESPN days since they didn’t have flex scheduling in those years).

But, that is another story for another day.  For now, let’s just enjoy the fact that we’ve made the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

Week 16: Nodell in Prime Time: The NFL Strikes Back!

(Yes, I realize the title has nothing to do with the Vikings, I just wanted to make that joke.)

It is a not-so-dark time for the Vikings.  Although injuries threaten the playing time of superstar Adrian Peterson, Vikings fans have noticed the potential return of Harrison Smith, Anthony Barr and Linval Joseph in time for Sunday Night Football.

Led by Teddy Bridgewater, whose late-season emergence has delighted everyone except the most jaded of hearts, the Vikings welcome the New York Giants, whose playoff hopes depend on winning the NFC East.  (Update: they now have nothing to play for, as Washington beat Philadelphia 38-24.) 

Odell Beckham Jr’s game-long war with Josh Norman did not go unnoticed.  The league suspended New York’s best player when it hurt the most; another chance to show off under the lights and potentially save the season with a win (now null and void).  That goal for the Giants gets tougher without Beckham.   

Packer fans lie in wait for week 17.  Unless the Vikings lose and the Packers win, the regular season finale decides the fate of the North division.

I think we are all aware of the stakes by now.  If certain things happen, the Vikings can clinch a playoff spot before taking the field on Sunday night (hello again, 2009 parallel!).  The most important part, of course, is taking care of business that night if Green Bay wins.  We all want week 17 to turn into week 17 of 2012, except with the division on the line this time.

This game has gradually lost most of its luster since NBC flexed it.  Unless the Packers and Falcons both win, this Sunday night game will essentially become an exhibition for the Vikings.  A Packer win would keep the sense of urgency for the Vikings to win in order to have a chance to achieve Mike Zimmer’s goal of stealing the division title in week 17.  A Falcon win would keep the pressure on the Vikings to win because of a stupid tiebreaker I still can’t figure out.  Seriously, we whipped that collective butt; exactly how do they get into the playoffs over us if they tie us for the second wild card seed?

Of course, the Seahawks would have to lose for that scenario to possibly play out next week as well, and I don’t think they will.  The Rams beating the Seahawks came as a shock to everyone in week one.  Seattle laying a beating on the Rams in week 16 would shock no one. 

So let’s review; a Vikings win (necessary only if everything goes the exact opposite as we want) gets us in.  A Seahawks win gets us in no matter what Atlanta does.  If all else fails, a Falcons loss will do the trick.  Or, in the unlikely event that any of the three teams tie their opponent; that would work, too.

Back to our game; it’s hard to predict anything because we won’t know the situation until at least the Falcons and Panthers get done around roughly 3-3:15 or later.  The Rams and Seahawks follow at 3:25, so Minnesota’s pair of chances to clinch by doing absolutely nothing air back-to-back.

About the only thing I can say is that I hope the Vikings finally end the prime time curse, regardless of this game meaning anything or not.  Packers-Cardinals will play alongside Seahawks-Rams, so we will have an answer before kickoff.

One thing is for sure, with Nodell, things just swung in Minnesota’s favor if it comes down to win-and-in.  Hopefully Teddy continues his December surge as well.