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.
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