On a cold night in January 2005, the Minnesota Vikings were battling the Green Bay Packers in an NFC Wild Card game. In a showdown tailor-made for NFL Films, the Vikings had taken a 24-17 lead and were looking to silence the crowd at Lambeau Field by driving deep into enemy territory.
With a first-and-10 on the Green Bay 34, Daunte Culpepper took the snap and rolled to his right. Avoiding the rush, he spotted Randy Moss streaking down the sideline and threw it downfield. Moss hauled in the pass and slid through the mud into the Green Bay end zone for “a cold-blooded connection” that effectively put the Packers away.
Moss jogged toward the goalpost and pretended to moon the crowd at Lambeau Field, mocking a group of Packers fans who mooned the VIkings’ team’s bus before the game. While Cris Collinsworth belted out the type of laugh reserved for a bunch of dads at the bar, Joe Buck called the play “a disgusting act.” The football gods must not have been upset, because Minnesota walked away with a 31-17 victory.
The Minnesota Moon was both one of the greatest moments in Vikings history and an epilogue to one of their strangest seasons. The 2004 Vikings had plenty of quirks that made them a hot mess. But to understand it, you have to go back to the end of the 2003 season.
The Vikings were coming off one of their worst moments in franchise history when Josh McCown connected with Nate Poole in Week 17 to help the Arizona Cardinals spoil Minnesota’s 6-0 start and send the Packers to the playoffs. Armed with one of the league’s best young quarterbacks and a game-changing receiver, the Vikings needed to find a way to return to the playoffs under Mike Tice.
Unfortunately, there were no improvements made during the offseason, and the Vikings’ first-round pick, Kenechi Udeze, was a non-factor. Smack in the middle of the Red McCombs era, the Vikings were on a tight budget and had to find a way to best utilize the roster they had.
For this team, that meant throwing the ball to Moss as often as possible. When Tice took over as head coach in 2002, he instituted the Randy Ratio, a formula where the Vikings would throw the ball to Moss 40% of the time. Even with opposing defenses knowing what was coming, Moss put up a career-high 111 catches, 1,632 yards, and 17 touchdowns during the 2003 season.
Moss continued to carry the Vikings in 2004, catching eight touchdowns in the first five games of the season. But Moss injured his hamstring during a Week 5 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Even though they defeated the Tennessee Titans in Week 6 to improve to 5-1, Moss sat out several games and wasn’t the same player for the rest of the season.
Culpepper became the focus of the Vikings’ offense, throwing for 4,717 yards and 39 touchdowns and finishing as the Vikings’ second-leading rusher with 406 yards on the ground.
With Moss out, the Vikings had to rely on Nate Burleson to become their top target. He thrived with 29 catches, 297 yards, and four touchdowns in the five games that Moss was either limited or inactive.
That included a monster performance in Week 9 against the Green Bay Packers. Culpepper threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns, and the main beneficiary was Burleson, who caught 11 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown in a 34-31 loss.
Even with Culpepper and Burleson stepping up, the Vikings were in a second-half free fall. After losing to the Packers, the Vikings were able to rebound with wins over the Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars but had to go to Soldier Field to face the Chicago Bears.
The Bears started Chad Hutchinson in that Week 13 matchup, who was considered a first-round talent but decided to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization. After Hutchinson compiled a 24.75 ERA, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys, where he threw seven touchdowns and eight interceptions in his rookie year.
The Cowboys threw in the towel, and true to form for this Vikings team, Hutchinson made his first start of the season and had the best game of his career. With Drew Terrell, Bobby Wade, and Desmond Clark as his top targets, Hutchinson threw for three touchdowns in a 24-14 Vikings’ loss.
After a Week 14 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks at the Metrodome, the Vikings beat Detroit in Week 15 to tie the Packers in the standings at 8-6. This set up a winner-take-all game for the NFC North title on Christmas Eve at the Metrodome.
After a scoreless first quarter, both teams exploded for a combined 38 points in the second, and the Packers took the lead on a Javon Walker touchdown in the third quarter.
The Vikings stormed back after tying the game on a Morten Andersen field goal to open the fourth, and Chris Claiborne took a Brett Favre interception to the house to give Minnesota a 31-24 lead with 8:18 left. While the Vikings were in control, Favre worked his magic, finding Donald Driver on a three-yard pass to tie the game with 3:34 remaining.
After the Vikings’ offense fizzled out, Favre put a bow on a 365-yard performance by setting up Ryan Longwell for a 29-yard field goal to claim the NFC North title.
The loss gave the Vikings a hangover the following week, and they lost to Washington to finish the season 8-8. The good news was that the Vikings were able to back into the playoffs; the bad news was that Moss’ drama was just beginning.
The Vikings played terribly in Washington but made it a three-point game with two seconds remaining. Although the Vikings had the opportunity to recover the onside kick, Moss decided to head to the locker room early. TV cameras spotted him leaving the field, which unleashed a firestorm as Moss struggled to be the same impact player he was down the stretch.
Moss was held to under 70 yards in four of his final six games but scored five touchdowns. With his overall effectiveness in question, the Vikings headed to Lambeau Field for an NFC Wild Card game with the Packers.
It’s rare for a team to come into a game with swagger after going 3-7 in their final 10 games, but the Vikings did it thanks to their A.F.R.O.S. Everyone on the team blew out their hair, and wide receiver Kelly Campbell revealed it stood for “America’s Finest Receivers On Sundays.” It was a preview of what was to come.
The Vikings stunned the Packers in the first quarter with a 68-yard touchdown pass from Culpepper to Moe Williams. After Culpepper hit Randy Moss for a 20-yard touchdown, Andersen connected on a 35-yard field goal to give the Vikings a 17-0 lead.
The Packers chipped into the lead with a Longwell field goal and a Favre touchdown pass to Bubba Franks, but the Vikings went into halftime with an advantage thanks to a 19-yard touchdown from Culpepper to Burleson.
The Vikings and Packers battled through the sleet in a scoreless third quarter before Najeh Davenport made it a one-score game with a one-yard touchdown plunge early in the fourth. That set the stage for Moss to grab his second touchdown, moon Lambeau, and leave Green Bay with an upset victory.
While the way the Vikings won was exciting, it was nothing compared to Moss’ post-game interviews. Caught in the middle of the most frustrating season of his career, Moss had the bravado of Stone Cold Steve Austin, telling Chris Myers, “We whooped their ass.”
The fun didn’t stop when Moss left Green Bay. He was met by reporters in a Winter Park parking lot to get his reaction on a $10,000 fine. Vikings fans know the rest.
Moss’ comments all but sealed his ticket out of Minnesota, but a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles the following week wasn’t the end of the madness. The Vikings went into a bizarre offseason where Moss was traded to the Oakland Raiders, leading rusher Onterrio Smith was caught with “The Whizzinator”, and Tice was busted scalping Super Bowl tickets.
All of this served as a prelude for an even crazier 2005 season where Culpepper’s career was derailed by a knee injury, Burleson came back to reality, and the Vikings launched the Love Boat on Lake Minnetonka.
For most franchises, a team is celebrated when they win a championship or do something memorable. While Moss’ moon will be passed down for generations, the 2004 team was the kind of beautiful, hot mess you can’t look away from.
