Vikings vs Packers: Little Brown Jug 2.0? The slow and painful death of a once-great rivalry.

Well…that Vikings game against the Packers certainly…existed.

With the puke in my sink as my witness, I have to say that we saw one of the worst losses in all of Border Battle history on Sunday.

What made this one so bad?  Was it the fact that the Vikings were more than willing to be the slump-buster for a wounded Packers team that fell behind them in the standings after an inexplicable loss to Detroit last week, handing back the keys to the NFC North in the process? 

Was it the seemingly one-sided officiating?  Yes, the Vikings’ penalties were mostly self-inflicted, but the Packers got off scot free with quite a lot (like nearly decapitating Teddy on a facemask). 

Or was it the fact that at 7-2, the Vikings had finally begun to look like a professional football team for the first time since 2012 (possibly 2009), only to lose badly to Green Bay and make all of this progress seem like a total fluke? 

It’s likely a combination of all three.  That, and there’s the fact that with so many green and gold fans living in Minnesota, the taunting certainly won’t stop anytime soon.  “We have Super Bowls and you don’t!”  “We have Aaron Rodgers and you don’t!”  “You thought you could actually beat us?  That’s cute!”  They might even steal a great line from Dodgeball; “We’re better than you, and we know it!”

Ahem…getting back to my earlier point, I think the worst part about losing to the Packers for the 15^th time in 20 games since 2006 is that the Vikings proved once again beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are simply not ready for the spotlight (though let’s be honest, this team’s entire history is built around not being ready for prime time).

This team can win games.  They proved that by winning seven of eight after that awful MNF loss to begin the season.  You can say whatever you want about “getting fat” on mediocre/bad teams; the Vikings are finally decent at winning games again.

What we wanted to see was progress.  A win against the Packers would have sent the Vikings’ playoff stock skyrocketing.  As I said last week, even a win over a wounded Packers team would have been huge.  It would have also provided the confidence to beat just about any of the tougher teams on the back seven (Atlanta, Arizona, etc).  If the Vikings are going to become a premier team in this league, they must be able to defeat the team that has run the NFC North since its inception in 2002 when the realignment happened.

By choking away such a huge chance on Sunday with awful line play and inexcusable penalties that we weren’t taking in previous weeks, fans will surely enter this week moaning, “If we can’t beat the Packers, how can we expect to beat Atlanta or Arizona or Seattle?”

The biggest question the Vikings need to answer beginning next Sunday at Atlanta is this; are the Packers just an Achilles heel like the Yankees to the Twins or the BlackHawks to the Wild? Or is this team lacking the ability to beat the elite? 

If the answer to the first question is yes, the Vikes might be able to do just enough to avoid a season’s on the line situation at Lambeau Field in Week 17.  After Week 11’s pathetic showing, it's clear we want no part of that.