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 13: The "I'm done with predicting seasons forever" edition

Amazing how a run of bad luck can completely change one’s outlook on a season.

When this season started, I was so excited that the Vikings got to play on basically every major holiday; they were going to cause Halloween havoc against the Bears, they were going to have roast Lions alongside turkey for Thanksgiving, and best of all, they were going to give their fans a very merry Christmas Eve by potentially taking the Lambeau game for a second straight year.

Did any of that happen, and will any of it happen?  No and probably not.

I’m really starting to think Winter Park was built over some kind of sacred burial ground.  An injury list that would read like a V.I.P. guest list if the Vikings were nationally relevant and a starting quarterback who destroys his knee without even trying in one of the most fluke-ish ways imaginable.  

Every other team in the NFL makes finding a franchise quarterback look easy, except maybe Cleveland.  The Vikings finally get one, and wouldn’t you know it, he may never play again.  Darn the luck.

Chalk up tonight’s Dallas game as one that looked very exciting and even winnable when the season started.  Not anymore.  The Cowboys are a juggernaut this year.  They have found the next Adrian Peterson and Dak Prescott ain’t too shabby, either.  This wouldn’t be that big of a problem if the Vikings were still good.  But they aren’t.  How many more “save our season” games can the Vikings blow before there’s no more season left to save?

The only real hope is that this Vikings team has one more sucker punch left in them.  Indeed, with the way the NFL is, one punch could be all it takes, and we could be looking at an 11-5 team when the end of the season rolls around.

But then I remember this team is cursed.  Maybe it’ll lift when the Vikings move their operations to Eagan.

Week 12: Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy some hot, fresh...Lion? Okay.

Winning…I had almost forgotten what that felt like.

The Vikings finally took care of a team for the first time in over a month on Sunday.  However, in true Vikings fashion, they almost choked the game away.  In fact, the late game had an eerily similar feel to the 2003 game (the Paul Allen “NOOOOOOOO” game, in case you need a reminder).

Only this time, the Vikings closed the deal with defense; something which the 2003 team was awful at doing starting with the seventh game of that season.  Losing a game or two is a natural occurrence during the typical NFL season.  Losing four in a row is a sign of a team that perhaps wasn’t as great as everyone made it out to be.

So indeed, as soon as the Vikings got hyped to Mars and back, they started losing. 

However, the losing streak is now in the past.  Hopefully, the Vikings can replace it with a winning streak and take back the division lead.

The opponent: the Detroit Lions.  Loss #3 on the year and the correct answer to a trivia question; indeed they were the first team to hand the Vikings a loss at shiny new USBank Stadium.  The Lions got into this position simply by winning football games.  The Bears stumbled out of the gate and fell on their faces, and the Packers are surprisingly fading at the moment after a 4-2 start.

Which leaves the Vikings and Lions to fight over the division today.  The first game was ugly, and I’m not sure what to expect out of the second game.  I think Vikings fans are simply relieved that this game means something, as a loss last week may have been the death knell of a strange season.

This is the first time the Vikings have played on Thanksgiving since the less famous Thanksgiving showdown with the Dallas Cowboys in 2000.  The Vikes have played Detroit thrice on Thanksgiving and stand at 2-1; a 27-0 win in 1969, a 23-0 win in 1988 and a 44-38 loss in 1995.

So, how will this one go?

Happy Thanksgiving.  Lion is on the menu this year, and I’m starving for the division lead. Skol!

Week 11: There's still time to fix this...right?

You know, after losing Teddy Bridgewater the way the Vikings did before the season even began, it was foolish to assume this season would come free of drama and anguish.

The same exact story played out again last week; the Vikings blew another game.  Because of this, the Detroit Lions are now in first place in the NFC North via tiebreaker.  Frankly, the only good thing about the past few weeks for Vikings fans is that the Packers are also going through their dumpster fire phase.

The question is, when do the Vikings snap out of it?  The great bounty hunter Spike Spiegel once said "I'm just watching a bad dream I never wake up from."  The past month of Vikings football has felt just like that; a continuous nightmare as the team falls from grace faster than Ken Bone after the internet found out his thoughts on the Trayvon Martin situation.  

The NFC North is now a three team race, but two of those teams look like hot garbage.  There is still hope, though.  If the Vikings can sneak out a pair of wins in the next two games, it would serve as a nice little bandage to stop the bleeding.  

7-4 is still a realistic possibility, and it would put the Vikings back into first place no matter what Detroit does in week 11.  

Aside from hoping for the future, I really have no answers for the last month.  I don't think any of us do.  These next two games are must-wins if this team hopes to make any noise in December. 

If the Vikings can slow David Johnson in any way, there's a chance they take back their momentum with a win. 

Otherwise, the only celebrations on tap for USBank Stadium in 2016 will be had by the 7 high school champions to be crowned when the Prep Bowl concludes next weekend.

Skol Vikings!

Week 10: Make the Vikings Great Again!

Well, the Vikings beat the Redskins in 2014, so today should be a breeze, right?

Uh...

There really isn't a lot to say about the last three weeks.  Oh, there is, but this blog would get a little PG-13 if I really did that.  

Let's just move on from the last three weeks.  The Vikings have a chance to get right against the Redskins.  There is still time this season to make the Vikings great again.  Here's a chance to get things back on track.

This is a must-win for the division chances of the purple.  Detroit has caught up, and there's no telling what they might be able to do over the final 7 weeks.  The Packers are the Packers and will probably get right before the Christmas Eve game, so there's always that to worry about.  Chicago is in the rear view mirror for now, but that can always change.

It's a road game, which was how this whole mess started, on the road against the Eagles.  

Anyway, I'm sick of talking about losing.  Let's talk about how 6-3 would help.

-It would hold off everyone for another week

-It would put everyone's minds at ease after blowing a 5-0 start

-It would possibly help the Vikings extend the division lead if Green Bay loses again.  Titans are not a cakewalk.

Minnesota really has no other choice; they MUST become great again, or face the consequences.  

It's time to get back on track.  #Skol

Week 7-8 reaction: The spookiest Halloween in some time. Are the Vikings on the decline?

As a Vikings fan, I have been conditioned to brace for certain things.  I'm always waiting around for Cinderella's coach (no pun intended) to turn back into a pumpkin.  How fitting, considering I'm writing this on October 31.

Teddy Bridgewater was supposed to have his breakout season to establish himself as at least a solid quarterback in the NFL.  His passes in the preseason were precise, and even his deep ball showed improvement, which was sure to get the loud minority of fans unsatisfied with his play off of his case.

Then, Teddy got hurt in perhaps the most Vikings way possible (yes, an even flukier way than Taylor Heinicke), and suddenly the 2016 season, as well as the entire future of the team was in doubt.  

Vikings fans know better than anybody (except maybe Browns fans) that it is not easy to find a franchise quarterback, no matter how simple everyone else makes it look.  The Packers can go out and get Favre and Rodgers, the Falcons can get Matt Ryan, the Colts can get Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck, and so on and so forth.

Teams like the Vikings have to wade through 20 guys before finally finding someone who might fit the bill. 

It was supposed to be Teddy.  The hope is that he can play again, at some point.

In came Sam Bradford, and through a combination of him and Shaun Hill, the Vikings went 2-0 including a very satisfying win over the Packers after months of their fans boasting about a ruined homecoming in shiny, new UsBank Stadium.

Then, the Vikings beat a Carolina Panthers team fresh off of losing to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50.  Awesome, this might work out after all.  Wins against the Giants in prime time; this time with Odell Beckham in tow (shut down by Xavier “Road’s Closed” Rhodes) and Texans followed.

5-0 into the bye week.  Nothing’s gonna stop us now, copyright 1987 by Jefferson Starship, right?

Something’s gone wrong in the happy-go-lucky world of the Minnesota Vikings.

As Carson Wentz broke out, I looked to the matchup against the Eagles as a potential first loss.  Oh, it happened.  Injuries finally caught up to the Vikings, and Mike Zimmer’s “next man up” philosophy could only go so far before Sam Bradford’s offensive line made Philadelphia look like the 1985 Chicago Bears.

Oh well, we said.  We shrugged it off.  One loss to a team on the rise isn’t the end of the world, right?  After all, the Vikings were in the same position as the Eagles with Teddy two seasons ago, just trying to put some good games together and sell some hope for the future.  Though, Philly might actually make some noise this year.

Well, the future is now.  The Vikings next lined up to play the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, which is always a struggle.  But hey, the Bears were 1-6, right?  Easy money.  6-1, then on to Detroit for 7-1.  Winnable games.  Winnable games everywhere.

*whack*

I wake up from my unplanned nap and notice that the other shoe has fallen.  As usual, I say to myself.  After covering up several flaws for five weeks, the Vikings have gone 0-2 due to a laundry list of problems.  Unfortunately, there is no “quick fix” for what just happened.  For Halloween, the Vikings broke out the 1984 version of themselves and made the 1-6 Bears look like, you guessed it, the ’85 Bears.  In front of the entire nation.  Happy bleeping Halloween.

Again, through my years of watching Vikings football, I have been conditioned to expect such turns of events.  Mike Zimmer’s reputation as a great coach may have taken a hit tonight.  We can only hope that the play of the team improves from here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this team lays another rotten egg at home against the Lions.  Detroit has just become a scary team. 

If the Ed Thorpe curse is real, it must be ending soon, because the Vikings are really getting punched in the mouth right now.  

Then again, if you had told me that this team would be 5-2 without Teddy, Adrian, or an offensive line worth a dollar, I still think I would have taken that; though I would have swapped out this awful loss to Chicago with a loss to a better team, because that was dishearteningly ugly.

Week 7: A Field Trip to Wentzylvania!

Well, here we go…another game that’s tough to call.

Of course, the Eagles looked a lot more dangerous a couple of weeks ago.

But first, a little recap of the previous game.

The bye week took forever to pass.  Seriously, this past week of football was exciting, yet something was definitely missing. 

The Vikings went into the bye about as perfectly as one could expect; 5-0, first place in the NFC North and a string of 20 quarters without a turnover on offense (seriously, that weird fumble-to-fumble against Green Bay is still the only giveaway the Vikes have this year).  Sam Bradford looks great, though this blogger sincerely believes Teddy would have the team in the same place if healthy. 

The defense, of course, continues to stymie the rest of the league and is a big reason for 5-0 instead of 4-1 or 3-2.  Typically, there has been an element of drama in every Vikings game I have ever personally attended.  Houston provided very little drama as the Vikes rushed out to a 24-0 lead in the second quarter.  It was about as relaxed as I ever felt at a game, which is not a bad thing at all (relaxed minus the constant cheering when things went right, that is).

USBank Stadium is amazing and if you have a chance to attend a game or go there for any other reason (second round state tournament games for high school football and soccer are coming up), do yourself a favor and go.

…So when does the other shoe drop? 

It had to be asked.  This is the tradition of Minnesota Vikings football; to occasionally explode out of the starting blocks only to trip and fall just before the finish line.  I’ll spare us the painful memories, because the networks have a thing for showing Vikings pratfalls when the team is actually good.

Philadelphia took a couple of bad losses in the past two weeks and looks about as threatening as Apollo Creed did against Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.  But, when they are on their game, they are as capable as Mr. Balboa himself.  No one has forgotten their Texas-sized whooping of the Pittsburgh Steelers; the team that some thought could win it all this year.

The Vikings are rested, and they just need to go into Philly and play their game.  Carson Wentz may very well be a star someday, but he’ll have to get past the Zim Reapers first. 

Halloween may come early for Mr. Wentz, for all the wrong reasons.  And I may have to restrain myself from unloading all of my Halloween puns now when the Vikings have a game on the actual day next week.

This one won’t be easy, but I think 6-0 is in sight.  Just…don’t go researching what has happened to 6-0 Vikings teams…the results are frightful, but the fire is so delightful.

Wait, wrong holiday. 

Skol Vikings, and fear the Zim Reapers.

Week 5: We Could Have Something Big Here. Also, winning tickets in random BWW drawings rules!

We are through a quarter of a season and the Vikings have a perfect record of 4-0. 

If you have been paying close attention to Vikings football over the past few seasons (and I’m sure you have if you’ve seeked out this blog to kill time before the noon kickoff against the Texans), by now I’m sure you have noticed some key differences from teams of the recent past; namely that this defense is really, really good.

I can say, with a sour taste in my mouth coming back from watching the 2013 Vikings defense, that the defense of that season (pre-Zimmer) would have allowed Sterling Shepard, Victor Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr. to all get loose for a huge combined game in either a close or blowout loss, because that’s what that Vikings team did in prime time.

The Vikings of 2016: nada.  Those three got about a hundred yards total and caught zero touchdowns.  Rhodes closed indeed.  This Vikings teams is 2-0 under the lights with two more games scheduled barring any sudden flexes as the season rolls on.  Moreover, they finally snapped an ugly Monday Night Football losing streak that dated back to 2009.

Aside from the defense, the offense did something that was rare for a Vikings team pre-Zimmer; they responded to the Giants scoring with a nice long drive and put one on the scoreboard to make the lead 14 points again.  How many times have we seen that old, familiar story of “Vikings play well, but can’t dagger the other team, and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as a result?”  Not this team. Not Monday night.

Next up: another home game against Houston.  The Vikings have faced Houston three times and have never lost to them.  The last game took place in 2012 (you know, the year Adrian Peterson went super saiyan), and the Vikes won 23-6.  In 2004 and 2008, the Vikings won by a touchdown.  2004 might be the most famous game of the bunch, as it saw the Vikings get up 21-0 only to need overtime to win.

This feels like another win for the Vikings.  They proved last week that they didn’t have to sack Eli Manning 10 times to get a victory.  All of the moving parts just need to work together, as they have in the first four games.  I’m feeling a couple of turnovers lead to points, but I’m wondering how long the Vikes can sustain the current no-offensive-turnovers run of 16 quarters.

All I know is I’m looking forward to doing the new “Skol” chant at the game.  And as always…

Fear the Zim Reapers.

Week Four: Cutting the Giants Down to Size, or: What? It's Week Four already???

Yes, yes, I know.

The season is already three weeks old.  This will return as a weekly blog starting right now.

Without further ado, here we go.

The 2016 NFL season has so far proven the old adage that you can’t script September. 

Oh, that’s not a thing?  Well it should be.

Just days before the NFL season was set to begin, Teddy Bridgewater collapsed at practice in extreme pain.  We didn’t know if Teddy had suffered some kind of freak bodily injury that could have either killed him or ended his career, but we did know it wasn’t good.

Enter Sam Bradford; former 1^st overall pick of the St. Louis Rams in 2010.  Some people panicked and declared the Vikings’ season to be over before it started, as they had when Teddy got hurt.

Cooler heads reminded everyone else that Sam Bradford, injury-prone underachiever he might be, was entering the greatest situation of his life; plenty of weapons at his disposal and a defense that makes grown men cry for mommy.

So far, cooler heads have prevailed and Bradford has done everything asked of him as part of a 3-0 start that hasn’t quite come the way Vikings fans may have expected, but we will certainly take it.  A little bit of national credit (and I do mean little...the excuse computer has been working overdrive) after being the Doomsday to Cam Newton’s Superman?  That was fun to watch.    

Of course, shutting up all of the Packer fans who told us for months that they would ruin our homecoming was pretty sweet, too.  Oh, and also getting a respectable game out of Shaun Hill in week one.

There are flaws in the Vikings’ offensive game, but if this team can still get better, this season could be a lot of fun.

Next up is the Giants on Monday Night Football.  Normally, I would dread such a game, but the Vikings have started a new streak: 3-0 in prime time games.  It is entirely possible that “the moment” under the lights is not a weakness to this team anymore.  One difference this season is that unless he does something stupid in the next few days, Odell Beckham Jr. will actually get to play this time.  The Giants also have a rejuvenated Victor Cruz and a rookie in Sterling Shepard who is contributing right away.  Trying to contain three talented wideouts could be a challenge.  Then again, don't most good NFL teams have at least two?  Hopefully, the Zim Reapers will be up to the task.

One of the stranger themes in the NFL over the past several years is that the Vikings defense loves to play Eli Manning…and most of that success was when the defense was not that great.  Last year was another example of why Eli must hate us by now.  After bludgeoning Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton in back-to-back weeks, what does Zim have planned for Eli?  I guess we’ll have to find out.

In Zim we trust.  Enjoy the season, Vikings fans.  It should be a fun one with games on Halloween, Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving, among others.

Fear the Zim Reapers!

Hello, Vikings fans.  This is a bonus post for this week.  Expect the main post later this week. 

After dismantling Cam Newton and making him look like a rookie, people began to praise the Vikings defense calling them the “Purple People Eaters.” 

You may remember this as the nickname the Vikings defense acquired in the 1970s when they were really, really good.  Drawing comparisons to the past is never a bad thing, but I also feel like that name belongs to Alan Page, Jim Marshall, Paul Krause, and the rest of that team that served as the heyday of the Vikings when we were good enough to at least appear in Super Bowls.

It’s a new era in Vikings football with a new stadium and expectations for the near future are as high as they have been in some time.  Mike Zimmer is doing his best to put the Vikings in a position to succeed for years.      

Not to mention, the defense is really, really good again.    I will always respect Bud Grant and his legacy of putting this team in the national consciousness, but taking the nickname he and his players earned just wouldn’t be right.  We need a new nickname to pay tribute to the monster Zimmer has created.

This blog cannot take credit for creating this name, but we really like it and think it best sums up what the Vikings defense does and will hopefully continue to do.

“The Zim Reapers.”  

Right away, it leaps out at you.  “The Zim Reapers are knocking at your door!”  “Fear the Zim Reapers” could very well be the slogan of the 2016 Minnesota Vikings.  I can foresee some kind of chant involving the Zim Reapers being invented in the future.  Cam and Aaron will be seeing Harrison Smith, Everson Griffen and others in their nightmares for the next month.

I love this name and I heartily endorse it for the nickname of the Zimmer defense that is finally starting to catch the attention of the nation.

Fear the Zim Reapers.

Week 18: Wild Card; on to…uh, Minneapolis!

Welcome to the Division Champion edition of Vikings Cavalcade!  

I was pretty ecstatic Sunday night.  At least, I felt that way after the Vikings properly defended a play that may or may not have happened on time (in slow motion, Rodgers appeared to get the play off in time, but it’s extremely bang-bang and would have almost certainly been carefully reviewed had the Packers scored). 

In a way, ending the game like that was the perfect way for Minnesota to win the NFC North; Vikings fans were extremely upset when the Lions forgot how to play defense on the Hail Mary awarded to Green Bay after what I like to call “the Phantom Facemask.”

After losing to Seattle a few days later, the Vikings fell behind Green Bay in the division race, seemingly for good; and it burned fans up that the division turned on what we thought was a screwy sequence at the end of that Thursday game (and that THEY got to win like THAT and all WE got was a beating from the Seahawks).  

How appropriate, then, that the Vikings showed the Lions how it was done; knocking down one final heave from one of the best quarterbacks in the game today.

After years of Packer dominance (with the Bears winning in 2005, 2006 and 2010 and the Vikings winning previously in 2008 and 2009), does this win signal a changing of the guard?  Or will the teams trade the title over time?  That seems the more likely route, unless Green Bay reverts to 1970s form anytime soon, which won’t happen as long as they have a HOF quarterback behind center. 

My, what a long way we have come from Week One, where most of us shut the television off in disgust and said “Playoffs?  You kiddin’ me?  I just hope we can win a game!”  Well, 11 wins later, here we are.  We get a rematch against Seattle; not a favorable matchup, but we also aren’t missing half of our defense this time.  And speaking of those other guys, I’m not so sure Green Bay got the “easy” matchup, either. 

Kirk Cousins is red-hot right now.  The Redskins are no cupcake, in my opinion.  Yes, they probably are an easier team to beat than Seattle, but not if Cousins has all day to pick apart that defense.  We had a 17 point lead on Green Bay in the third quarter with hardly a contribution from Teddy.  If the Redskins get going, watch out!

It’s just a nice thought at this point, but if the Vikings can get past Seattle and Arizona and Carolina follows the trend of bye-week teams losing immediately, TCF Bank Stadium would be able to go out with a bang hosting the NFC Title game.  I just hope Green Bay has lost by that point, because after the way it ended for them last season, I’m not sure if I want an angry Aaron Rodgers slinging the ball around on the second-biggest stage of them all.  That is, unless our defense could shine again, and have an exact repeat of last Sunday’s game.

Mike Zimmer might not consider it a signature win, but it was.  The Vikings won two Sunday Night Football games in a row (literally) after losing so much under the lights in recent years.  Furthermore, when the people doubted the team after bad losses, the Vikings always seemed to answer the bell and bounce back with a win or a closely-contested loss to show they hadn’t lost their edge. 

Some people doubt the Vikings again as they welcome Seattle.  I say let them doubt, and let’s see if the Vikings can get the last laugh.  It’s the playoffs, where “any given Sunday” goes from oldest cliché in the book to sudden reality.  It’s time to stop being pessimists and believe in this team. 

Bring it on.

Week 17: Return of the Ted-i?

Here it is…week 17 is upon us.

The Vikings have returned to Sunday Night Football in an attempt to rescue the NFC North title from the clutches of the vile Green Bay Packers.

The Packers, fresh off the worst beating of the season (against a team the Vikings nearly pushed to overtime, by the way) need to regroup for a rematch that could result in them losing a treasure they have held for most of the season.

Vikings fans once again have a reason to feel confident, even if Week 11 was a disaster.  Packer fans…well, when you’ve ruled the NFC North since the NFC Central kicked Tampa Bay to the curb, you’ve got every reason to remain confident even when your team looks mortal for the first time since 2008.

Which side’s overconfidence will be its weakness?

It’s finally time for the big one.  All season, we’ve been waiting for the Vikings to beat a good team.  The win over Atlanta is as good as it got, as the Falcons at least were decent when we played them.  Eh, I’m going to count Kansas City as well.  Sure, they were down and out when we beat them, but it wasn’t by much.  The Vikings were the last team to beat KC…they are in the playoffs now.

But, every other chance they’ve had to beat a good team has gone badly with two close losses and a pair of not-so-close losses (Packer game wasn’t a rout; Vikes trailed by 6 in the fourth quarter). In other words, 10-5 is made up of roughly nine wins over mediocre teams, four losses to good teams and the still-inexplicable San Francisco loss that thankfully did not cost the Vikings the playoffs altogether.

Sure, we won in prime time, but this team still lacks that one win that would make people stand up and say, “You’d better watch out for the Vikings; they could win the NFC!”

They could get that win this Sunday.  Much like Week 11, even though Green Bay is wounded, it’s still Green Bay.  A win here would boost Minnesota’s stock exponentially.  Winning the division in Mike Zimmer’s second season would echo Mike McCarthy’s second season when the Packers did the same thing (though to be fair, McCarthy had Brett Favre that year).

The nice thing here is that the Vikings play next week no matter what.  Fans can relax, if only a little at the fact that Aaron Rodgers, if he bounces back here and the Packers beat us for the nine thousandth time in his career, cannot end our season and knock us out of the playoffs in Week 17.

Still, we want that win.  We want that division title.  We just want to beat the Packers, period.  It has 

been 3 long years since that magical game where Christian Ponder threw three touchdowns and 

Adrian Peterson ran through the Packers defense before Blair Walsh kicked us into the playoffs.  It has been so frustrating watching these games the past ten years.  They have been the better team consistently, but in 2015, I feel the Vikings are the more complete team, which made Week 11 all the more upsetting when we lost. 

Once again, Vikings-Packers serves as a measuring stick for the purple.  They’ve proven they can play with anyone else.  The team’s progress the past two seasons has been remarkable if you think about where we were in 2013.  It’s time to purge some demons of the past and do something that even Detroit and Chicago (both teams we swept, in case you’ve forgotten) managed to do this season…beat the Packers at Lambeau Field.

If we fail, it simply isn’t our time yet.  I think we know better than to be overconfident.