Week 7: Sammy and the Jets!

Sigh…New York media…all of these flavors and you chose to be salty. 

Then again, I’ll never need to go to the store for seasoning ever again, so thanks, I guess.

This one’s going to be short, because I am short on time this week.  I continue to drift further away from this project as I work on others.  In the meantime, the Vikings have pulled out a couple of big wins against Dee Reynolds…and another Dee Reynolds.  A couple of stupid birds.  Watch Always Sunny and you’ll get it.

Now, they face Sam Darnold, and I have no idea how this will go.  The season has been a roller coaster so far.  This is going to be Charlie Brown levels of wishy-washy, but I could easily see the Vikings winning this game, or lose it.  I really don’t know. 

I would call this a must-win if you want to have any kind of wiggle room in the second half of the season.  New Orleans comes up next week, and they will want revenge for the Minneapolis Miracle, and they are a much better team than the Jets, so you need to pick up this win to get to 4-2-1.  That way, even if the Saints get vengeance, you still have a positive record going into the game against the Lions.  Beat all three, and you’re sitting pretty at 6-2-1 at the bye.

After the Buffalo game, I think we all need to take things one game at a time.

Week 3: Whoops, we skipped Packer week!

Sorry about that...we completely skipped last week's tie against Green Bay, and the consequences that came from it.  Well, we have a new kicker, and Kirk Cousins appears to be the real deal.  I am still salty that the coaching staff took the ball out of Kirk's hands in the final few plays of overtime when he was dealing and probably would have thrown another touchdown to win the game.  Instead, the coaching staff decided that they could maybe trust a kicker who hadn't made a kick all day.

Spoiler alert: they couldn't...and that's why Dan Bailey is now our kicker.

Fast forward a week; this is a game you absolutely have to win with a short week to follow, and your next two games being against the Rams and Eagles.  Buffalo may very well threaten to join the 0-fer club, population Detroit (2008) and Cleveland (2017).  Theoretically, this should be the easiest game the Vikings play all year...but of course, the Vikings never make anything easy on themselves, so I'm not holding my breath on a blowout win.

The Vikes will probably make this game closer than it has to be.  Then again, it could turn out exactly like the Bengals game from late last year.  That's all I have to say about this game on short notice. 

Week 1: Captain Kirk (Cousins) Steers the Good Ship Skol!

It all begins again. 

In Week One, the Vikings embark on a long journey toward that glitzy new stadium in Atlanta, GA; and the team might very well be good enough to get there barring another year like 2016.

2017 saw the Vikings lose Sam Bradford and dynamic rookie Dalvin Cook by the fourth week of the season.  Other than them, the team stayed relatively healthy.  The end result was Stefon Diggs performing a miracle to exorcise the long-standing Bountygate demon and give the Vikings their first playoff win since then.  We won’t talk about the next week, though.

Indeed, the Vikings were unable to “bring it home,” but many people have suggested they could bring it to Atlanta.  After years of being mediocre, does anyone else enjoy the respect the Vikings get now from the sports media?  For a long time, I joked that the national perspective was “the Vikings are Adrian Peterson and no one else,” which was true, for the most part, except for the brief Favre era.  It is great that the Vikes actually get props and the conversation isn’t “well, the Packers are going to win the North, there’s no debate.” 

If the Vikings are supposed to be a Super Bowl contender, they have to come out and play like it in their home stadium, where they won 7 of 8 games in 2017.  I would go so far to say you can’t lose your home opener if you want to play in Atlanta in February.  I’m not ready to crown Jimmy Garoppolo king based off of a few wins last year.  If he gets the 49ers off to a 6-0 start or something like that, then maybe.

My prediction is that the Vikings make the playoffs again this year, and the only way they miss the playoffs is if 2016 repeats itself.  With the initial Kirk Cousins deal, we’ve got three years to make this Super Bowl thing happen.

Finally this week, there was a lot of talk after the Minneapolis Miracle that whatever “curse” had plagued the Vikings for decades, Stefon Diggs had stomped a mudhole in it.  If that’s true, than the Philly loss was “just a bad game.”  I said myself a couple of years ago that I thought the “curse” would end after 50 years.  Considering it started with the misplacing of the 1969 league championship trophy (Minnesota’s lone championship to date), that means…2019, when Super Bowl 53 is played.  Time to see if that prediction rings true.

Skol Vikes.    

Free Agency: Vikings Football; Special Kirk Cousins edition!

It is shaping up to be the decision that could shake the foundation of the Minnesota Vikings for years to come.  Find the right quarterback to steer a fundamentally well-built team on the right course toward Valhalla; in layman’s terms, sign the guy that might reverse nearly 60 years of heartbreak by guiding the Vikings to their first Lombardi Trophy. 

Vikings fans have been through this before.  In a well-remembered tale, longtime adversary Brett Favre donned the purple and gold for one magical season, and one that was anything but.  The less said about Donovan McNabb in purple, the better.  Josh Freeman?  I have successfully repressed that memory.  The current situation is different; while Freeman was a young man who could have stuck around if not for that horrendous Monday night game, Favre’s tenure was a short window-opening, and the window slammed shut on fans’ fingers in 2010.  McNabb was the NFL equivalent of a transitional champion in professional wrestling; someone with name recognition holding the belt until the higher-ups decide “the kid” (or another better quarterback) is ready.

In 2011, “the kid” was Christian Ponder, who ultimately didn’t pan out.  In 2014, the Vikings tried again with Teddy Bridgewater, who began his career in Week 3 after an injury to Matt Cassel (with Ponder still on the team at the time).  The jury is still out on Teddy after a horrific knee injury completely derailed any season he may have had in 2016 or 2017 after a reasonably successful, though not flashy 2015. 

Indeed, the biggest on-the-field crime of the Adrian Peterson era was not building all that well around him.  For a long time, Adrian carried the team to some pretty mediocre records, but without him things would have been far worse.  In many respects, the Vikings have had the same problem as the Packers.  While Green Bay has been recently exposed as a nearly-incompetent offense/team without Aaron Rodgers, the Vikings for several years would have been as incompetent without Adrian Peterson.  While the Packers have only managed one trip and one Super Bowl win with the career Rodgers has had, it is still one more than the Vikings have even sniffed since 1977; yes, the Raiders loss predates the entire Star Wars franchise by about four months.

For the Minnesota Vikings as a franchise and a fanbase frothing at the mouth for “just one before (they) die,” the Minneapolis Miracle— ten seconds which turned back decades of agony for one week— was nice but not quite nice enough.  In a season where the hype built on a weekly basis as every Minnesota fan knew they were hosting the biggest sporting event in the nation and one of the biggest in the entire world, they were ultimately left out in the cold, once again trophy-less and ring-less.  Let the “no rings” and “empty trophy case” jokes fly for another year.

Now, a decision needs to be made.  Free agency looms and the Vikings must decide who to bring back and who to add in order to position the team for another run at glory.  Fans do not want to wait another eight years just to win a playoff game.  Some were in high school when the Vikings beat the Packers in the 2004 wild card game.  Those same people likely sat in their dorm rooms watching the Vikings beat the Cowboys in the 2009 divisional playoff game. 

Oh wait, I’m describing my own experiences.  Moving on…

Losing via Bountygate hung over the franchise like a dark cloud, and the Minneapolis Miracle was the first playoff win for the team since that fateful night nine years prior.  Other teams win playoff games with great regularity, so why can’t the Vikings?

After leading Minnesota to 13 of 14 wins after a mysterious knee injury sidelined Sam Bradford, 

Case Keenum seemed like a solid choice to try again in 2018, but he’s off to a well-deserved contract and likely the starting job in Denver according to the latest reports.  Bradford, who got saddled to an injury-riddled 2016 Vikings team, is being pursued by the Buffalo Bills after they sent Tyrod Taylor to the Browns.           

Drew Brees was thought to be available, but only for a nanosecond, as the Saints signed him to a two-year deal that will likely have him finish his career there.  I am not looking forward to the potential revenge for the MM should the Vikings and Saints make the playoffs and face off again.

In the end, the only option at this point is to make a play for Kirk Cousins, and it sounds likely that the Vikings will land him.  The real question is how do you construct the team for a situation like last year if (God forbid) it happens again?  Honestly, Josh McCown at the right price wouldn’t be a bad option to have around for a year.  Or just keep Teddy as a backup and/or draft a guy.  You need some kind of insurance policy if things go dreadfully wrong.  Last year, the Vikings lost their starting quarterback and almost made it to the Super Bowl because they had such a plan in place.  I don’t think any of us could have predicted such a run for Case Keenum, but it certainly beats the daylights out of the alternative (Aaron Rodgers walks into A. Barr and the Packers’ season goes with him).      

With the NFL news cycle going crazy, free agency truly is the most wonderful time of the year.  Whichever direction the Vikings decide to take, I just hope it doesn’t take another decade to make it back to the NFC title game.

(Edit: It appears likely that Kirk Cousins will indeed sign a 3 year contract tomorrow.)

NFC Title Game: To go boldly where no (host) team has ever gone before!

So, it’s time to put the miracle in the rear-view.  Now there’s a phrase used in everyday life.

The 2017 Minnesota Vikings have already made history after one playoff game.  If you believe that there is a curse specifically targeting the Vikings, they may have destroyed it with the Minneapolis Miracle only to encounter another one: something called the home field curse.

As we all know, no team has ever had home field advantage in the Super Bowl, and no matter how hard the NFL tries to play it (AFC being designated the “home team” as per usual rotation), if the Vikings make it, they will be the home team.  There’s no way around it. 

The other part of the “home field curse” is that no one had ever made it past the divisional round of the playoffs in the year their city hosted the big game; something the Vikings have already done thanks to Case Keenum and Stefon Diggs putting the Saints’ season through a table Dudley Boyz style.  The Vikings already conquered one part of the curse by being one of the few host teams to make the playoffs in the first place.  This is uncharted territory.  

Minnesota’s opponent on Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles, are not a victim of this curse, because Philly has never hosted a Super Bowl.  But they, like the Vikings, have also never won one.  That is the best thing about the championship games this year; three of the four teams have never won a Super Bowl, and one of them automatically gets that shot regardless of results.

The Eagles are definitely powered down without Carson Wentz, but I would not sleep on Nick Foles.  The Vikings defense will have to be up to the task of stopping Philly’s ground game and making them a one-dimensional team.  The Eagles only scored 15 points against Atlanta, but they seemed to make all of the right plays at the right times.  Meanwhile, we needed a rookie to falter at the worst possible time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  Mike Zimmer said “there is no damn curse.”  If that’s true, I expect a win on Sunday.

There isn’t much more to say except I really hope this isn’t the last Vikings Cavalcade this season to review one game and talk about the next one. 

I hope to begin the next post with “THE VIKINGS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!” 

I also hope to be able to start a Skol chant in public whenever I feel like it.  It’s all up to you now, Vikes.

Minneapolis Miracle, or "Vikings fans finally allowed to have a nice thing" Edition!

“Vikings gonna Viking.”

Those three little words were my simple response to how things had played out with 25 seconds left in the second NFC Divisional playoff game; the last football game of the weekend.  Yes, it was only a one point game at 24-23, but come on…this is the Vikings.  A missed pass interference penalty in 1975 in this very round ended what many people say was that team’s best chance to win a Super Bowl.  Even if we get into field goal range, there’s no guarantee Kai Forbath makes the kick (with apologies to Kai…he’s still a better kicker than Blair Walsh).

This team has had a recently awful track record with clutch kicks in the playoffs.  Gary Anderson hadn’t missed a single kick in 1998, and missed one that would have likely put the NFC title game away against the Falcons.  Blair Walsh missed the easiest kick of his life in the last playoff game the Vikings had. 

With all of that on our minds, why was this game any different?  We were about to lose to the freaking New Orleans Saints, the team that put a bounty on Brett Favre and were allowed to get away with it.  Of all the teams to lose to, only the Saints or the Packers (if they had run the table) could have hurt this much. 

But then, Stefon Diggs caught that pass and somehow stayed on his feet as two Saints ran into each other, giving him a free path to the end zone.  Before the game, if you had told me one of these teams would win like that, I would have assumed the Saints.  Because a receiver breaking free for a last-second winning touchdown after two defensive players collided seems like a vintage Vikings choke moment that may or may not have happened at some point.

Somehow, some way, the Vikings now have their miracle playoff moment, like Pittsburgh and the Immaculate Reception, which turned that franchise’s entire history around.  The Steelers won four Super Bowls in seven years following Franco Harris’s immortal play, so perhaps there are greater things in store for the Vikings even if they are unable to “Bring It Home” this Sunday with a win over the Eagles.

Then again, how do we know that the Minnesota/Minneapolis Miracle wasn’t the start of such a thing?  There’s only one way to find out; by tuning in to the NFC Title game at 5:40 p.m. on Sunday.  Here’s hoping if we win, we don’t need another miracle to do so.

And here's the miracle itself, one more time, because I will never get tired of this.

https://youtu.be/OKgUiBOpsZ4

Divisional: The Exorcist Edition!

The Vikings have been running a "bring it home" campaign detailing everyone for whom they want to win the Super Bowl.  With this weekend's opponent, I think a certain quarterback should be added to that list.  Yeah, you know the guy.  The guy Bountygate hurt the most; Brett Favre.

But enough about the past.  Today is about exorcising some demons.  Neither Atlanta or Philadelphia should have struck fear into the heart of either team playing this afternoon at USBank Stadium.  Therefore, it's my prediction that the winner of today's game will go on to beat the Eagles next week and represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

It's a pretty simple task, beat the Saints and go on to play a severely weakened Eagles team.  It has been eight years since the Vikings beat the Cowboys in the divisional round, and they haven't won a playoff game since (thanks, Blair Walsh).

But, it's also the Vikings, a team that is 17-28 all-time in playoff games.  I'd say it's time to turn things around.

Week 17: Eyes in front edition

Personally, I would have liked to see a blowout over the Packers, but 16-0 works just fine as a Christmas present.  It got us a win, and unless Philadelphia gets its mojo back in the playoffs, the Vikes possibly won't play outdoors again this season. 

But that of course means the Vikings need to win today.  I'm putting down today as a must-win, even though there's a chance Atlanta beats Carolina to accomplish the same thing.  Today's Cavalcade is going to be a short one, because there are not 86 different scenarios to visit.  Instead, we have just one: win and claim a bye.

There might be some scoreboard-watching today, but if the Vikings win, none of it will matter because they would get an extra week of rest and be prepared for the divisional round of the playoffs. 

I will share my thoughts on why this team has me believing again next week, whether they end up slipping to Wild Card Weekend, or they come through and get the bye.  Either way, as division champs, they'll play at home.  You just need to beat the Bears, and this defense has given up 7 points since losing to Carolina.  I've got to think we'll be fine.

It's a nice feeling to be going to the playoffs no matter what happens this week.  Beats the crap out of the alternative (2016, anyone?).  Skol!

Week 15: Win and In, quite literally.

I think we had a collective freakout on Sunday.  It’s amazing how stressful a Vikings game can be, even when the team has 10 wins more than a week before Christmas Day.

(Speaking of which, Vikings-Packers, however much it ends up meaning, is on the 23^rd, not the 25^th.)

There are several ways to look at Sunday’s loss…the first since early October.  The first way is sheer panic.  We didn’t think much of it when the Vikings lost that ugly game to…Carolina in 2009, did we?  We already had the division sewn up; it didn’t matter.  Or so we thought.  The next week brought an unfortunate overtime loss to the eventual 7-9 Bears.  And the rest is history.

Another way to look at it is that this year’s game went better than that.  The Vikings got handled for much of it, but they overcame a bad performance to come back and tie the game late in the fourth.  If not for a long Cam Newton run on which Matt Kalil got away with holding, we might be talking about a nine game winning streak.  Overall, it was not a great game, as so many little things that hadn’t gone wrong for a while went wrong, and we can only hope the Vikings got a bad game out of their system.  Better now than in January, especially if the Vikings get a first round bye. 

The Vikings got a taste of losing, and it should hopefully keep them humble and hungry.  Adam Thielen even said that the team had forgotten what losing felt like, so the loss might be a good thing in the long run.  All I know is win this week and all is forgiven.  You’ll automatically clinch the division if you beat Cincy, meaning you wouldn’t have to play at Lambeau Field more than once this year.  If they end up making it, the Packers—who are the team it would hurt the most to lose against this postseason in particular (hypothetically)—would have to come to The Slatra House (Norse word for slaughter, meaning “to butcher”).  The same would be true for Detroit; a return trip to Minneapolis if they played the Vikings a third time at all.   

The media is probably looking at last Sunday’s game as the “Vikings aren’t for real” game, which is fine given that the team performs better when the media isn’t drooling all over them anyway.  Makes me wonder how the Packers or Cowboys handle it.    

Next week’s Cavalcade will be going up on Friday, as I am busy with Christmas stuff on the day of the Vikings-Packers game.  Hopefully I’ll be typing up a description of a division championship.

Week 14: Eight straight feels great, but how great?

I am oddly comfortable right now.  Christmas 2017 is shaping up to be a great affair with a first place operation within the division and (as of this writing; Saturday night) a team ranking first place in the entire NFC.  Now, things could easily change, but that Vikings-Packers tilt on Christmas Night (not Christmas Eve) should be very enjoyable if the Vikes have locked up a quality playoff spot. 

The big question is, when do we have that moment where dissention within the ranks starts to show cracks in the armor?  The Vikings struggled a bit on offense against the Falcons, but were able to grind out an eighth consecutive victory; something that only the greatest of Vikings teams have done historically.  There wasn’t much dissent to be had.  We all remember the Sunday night game (oddly enough, against Carolina) where Brad Childress and Brett Favre got into it; a game which ended up being an ugly 26-7 loss.

How about the Monday night game against Chicago that same year where the Vikings fell down 23-6, rallied to tie the game, but lost in overtime?  In seemingly every big time Vikings season, there exists a moment where the “football gods,” if you believe such a thing exists, seem to slap the fandom in its collective face and taunt us just like a Packer fan about having no rings.  This has happened consistently ever since the team first started winning playoff games back in the late 60s.

Am I foolish for bracing in anticipation of such a moment on a week-to-week basis?  Or, should I just give myself up entirely to this team and enjoy the ride with a squad that very well could be good enough to finally get that elusive first Super Bowl trophy?  It is a question I will continue to ponder as the season rolls on.  Are you guarding your heart, Vikings fans?  Or have you given in to the hype train? 

Week 13: 9-2 and, uh-oh, here comes that old familiar pain...

The Vikings are having a really good season.  With a win against the Lions on Thanksgiving ten days ago, the division lead is three games.  A victory against Atlanta today would basically clinch a playoff spot.  Everything is going well…and it’s quiet on the drama front concerning this team.  Too quiet.

That old familiar feeling is beginning to creep up on us again.  It’s a feeling that is all too familiar to Vikings fans and a question we have all asked from time to time; how will the Vikes let us down this year?  We lost Sam Bradford after one game (Bears game doesn’t really count) because his knee decided to break down.  We lost Dalvin Cook in week four to an ACL injury.  And yet the team is 9-2, in second place in the entire NFC with only those red-hot Eagles who never lose ahead of them.

I feel like this is the position all of us wanted to be in, but we all secretly dreaded it at the same time because the other shoe always drops on this team.  You need look no further than the heyday of the Vikings.  This team made it to four Super Bowls in the 70s and I don’t need to remind you what happened in those games.  This year, Minneapolis hosts it.  I have not personally even entertained the thought of the Vikings actually playing in their own Super Bowl for good reason.

The best option is to continue taking things one game at a time.  At this point, Vikings fans should just be happy the Packers aren’t leading the division.  Let the media make the comparisons to 2009 and, much to our chagrin, bring up Gary Anderson, Blair Walsh, and Brett Favre throwing across his body in the Bountygate game.  Unfortunately, until we win a Super Bowl, those three things are the legacy of the Vikings. 

Thankfully, we have five games left of regular season football to just sit back and enjoy a 9-2 season that could turn into something more.  Let’s go get those dirty birds today.

Week 8: Insert clever London pun here!

Vikings vs Browns.  Perhaps the first early morning game in the history of the Minnesota Vikings, this one kicks off at 8:30 central time, and many people probably won't even read this post before kickoff.

The Vikes can't blow a game against a winless team...right?  Right? 

Let's hope so.  This feels like a major trap game being overseas playing three and a half hours before the rest of the league.  The good news is, the Vikings shouldn't have nearly as much trouble finishing drives against the Browns as they did against the Ravens.  If the Vikes finish even one more drive in that game, it's a blowout.

Much like the last game, I expect the Vikings to win this one handily.  However, this team likes to make everything much harder than it ever has to be, so I would expect more of a grind like the Ravens game.

Whatever way the Vikings get to 6-2, I welcome.  I only pray for no more major injuries going into a bye week that shouldn't ruin the season like last year.  This team needs every win they can get right now, because the schedule gets tough with five road games in the final eight weeks to close out the season.

As always, Skol Vikings.

Week 7 (2): The "did Packer fans not watch Bountygate?" edition.

Yes, last week was actually week 6.  Oops. 

Before we move on to discussing Baltimore, the initial question is in the title of the post.  Plus, it's hard for me to have too much sympathy for a fanbase that has been spoiled rotten for the past 25 years on quarterback play and quarterback health.  Without Rodgers to fall back on, possibly for the rest of the season, we get to see how good of a coach Mike McCarthy really is.

Seriously though, Packer fans...unless he makes a miraculous recovery, welcome to the world of practically every other NFL team that doesn't have a potential Hall of Fame quarterback to lead them.  Quarterback injuries happen; you've just been extremely lucky to avoid significant ones in most years.  Vikings fans felt their world come to a crashing halt when Teddy Bridgewater went down to a non-contact injury right before the season last year; there aren't many teams that are unluckier than us.

Anyway, onto Baltimore.  The Ravens at 3-3 are only a game worse than the Vikings, but they honestly don't scare me that much.  Not like the Packers pre-Rodgers-injury.  Also, the Bears beat them last week with a 113 yard performance from their rookie Mitchell Trubisky, which was by design.  Joe Flacco has been on the decline this season, and this is a very winnable game; though I know better than to guarantee anything as a Vikings fan.  Still, the Vikes should win this one as long as they stick to their fundamentals.

Teddy also came back to practice this week.  I think I'll be talking more about him in the coming weeks, though I doubt they'll rush him back to action unless Case Keenum starts to struggle. 

Then there's the London game next week with the Browns...more on that next week.  Here's hoping the next time this blog gets updated I'm talking about a 5-2 team.

 

Week 17: ...we should all be used to this by now...

With apologies to Little Orphan Annie, it truly is a hard knock life for Vikings fans.

Ah, 2015.  David Bowie, Prince, Glenn Frey, and a bunch of other people were still alive, and the Vikings won the NFC North.  Good times, good times.

A year later, 8-8, over 9,000 injuries and a wasted opportunity to truly do something great is all we got.  Though let’s be honest, this season was stolen from Vikings fans.  Teddy Bridgewater falling down and destroying his knee was something that could only happen to the Vikings.  Sam Bradford was a good bandage, but somewhere down the line, it all fell apart and the Vikes could not stop the bleeding.

Despite all of that, the real reason it’s tough to be a Vikings fan is because…they did it.  As of this writing, the Green Bay Packers are division champions.  And unlike the Vikings last year, they’ll probably go on to win a fifth Super Bowl and we will never hear the end of it.  Admit it, fellow fans; you’re more upset about that than about the Vikings collapsing.  I think a lot of us would have forgiven a lost season if the Vikes could have knocked off Green Bay on Christmas and possibly kept them out of the playoffs.  But no, the Packers continue to increase the gap and get another year to make “empty trophy case” jokes.

And I don’t think the Vikings will ever catch up.  Indeed, as a wise man once said, "they have everything, we have nothing."

So farewell, 2016-17 season.  Maybe the draft will be good.  Perhaps the Vikings will find the missing pieces to do well next year.

Or, it could all turn to crap again because Winter Park was built over a sacred burial ground. 

At least the Vikings went 1-0 against the Packers in “our house” in 2016.  Of course, you know they’ll probably return the favor by winning the Super Bowl when we host it next February.    

Boy, it was fun when the Vikings were good last year and in the first five games this year.  How I yearn for those times to return again.  The silver lining is that there won’t be a Blair Walsh vs Seattle moment in this year’s postseason, and that’s about all we can be happy about. 

Ouch.

Well, we beat the Bears anyway.  Here's to 2017.  Maybe we'll be good?

For added effect, re-read this post with this video accompaniment...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU

       

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.