Vikings

Minnesota's Rough Patch Is Not Unprecedented

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Week 8 in the NFL was a great time to be alive. There were mind-blowing decisions, epic fourth quarters, and even a successful Hail Mary.

But it wasn’t a great time to be a Minnesota Vikings fan.

That’s because there was a much darker theme somewhere in rural Minnesota. The Vikings had lost just two consecutive games. The Los Angeles Rams had started to cook Brian Flores’ defense. Christian Darrisaw had torn his ACL and MCL, while Jordan Love regenerated from his game-ending injury like he was Wolverine.

Coming off a 5-0 start, it feels like the hands of Vikings fans cradle the broken glass of what was everything. The future is black, tattooed all I see, all they’ll be. But does it really have to be this way?

Minnesota’s performance over the last two weeks has been depressing, but it’s not unprecedented. The Vikings still are 5-2 and in an NFC race where contenders experience more than their fair share of setbacks.

Two big examples reside in the NFC North. The Detroit Lions started the season by barely beating the Rams in Week 1 and losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2. After finding their footing for a few weeks, Detroit suffered another setback when Aidan Hutchinson suffered a broken tibia and fibula in a win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Things seemed dark when Detroit was down 10-0 to the Vikings the following week. Still, Detroit found light through the glass panels of U.S. Bank Stadium. A 21-point second quarter paved the way to a 31-29 win, and the Lions rode the momentum in a 52-14 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

Two weeks after being left for dead, the Lions may be the best team in the NFL. And the Green Bay Packers feel the same way.

Vikings fans smelled blood when Love bent like Gumby on the turf in Brazil, and Packers fans worried when he suffered a sprained MCL. Love missed two weeks, but Matt LaFleur used Malik Willis as a human joystick for a pair of wins to keep the Packers afloat. While Love returned for two games, he left Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars with a groin injury, only for Willis to come in and save the day with a 30-27 victory.

At 5-2, the Packers have the same record as the Vikings, and they’ve done it with their godsend quarterback in and out of the lineup.

Similar stories are happening across the NFL.

The San Francisco 49ers started the season with a 3-3 record and were a walking M*A*S*H unit heading into Sunday night’s game with the Dallas Cowboys. Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk started the game on the sidelines, and Jordan Mason left the game with an injury.

That left George Kittle and Ricky Pearsall as San Francisco’s healthiest players. Kittle was riding the wave of adrenaline from National Tight Ends Day, and Pearsall suffered a shot in the chest two months before his NFL debut. That wasn’t a problem for the Niners, who defeated the Cowboys 30-24 and are now in the middle of a wide-open NFC West with a 4-4 record.

Their divisional counterparts in Los Angeles had a similar redemption arc after losing Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp in the season’s first two games. Vikings fans went into their game with the Rams feeling like Minnesota would run up the score. However, Kupp and Nacua hit the field like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock to save the season.

The AFC also has plenty of storylines. Patrick Mahomes didn’t throw a touchdown in over a month, and the Kansas City Chiefs are 7-0. The 5-3 Baltimore Ravens lost to a quarterback who looks like he’s in a Saturday Night Live skit. The Pittsburgh Steelers lead the AFC North with Justin Fields and Russell Wilson under center.

Every team goes through adversity at some point during the season. But why do Vikings fans go in the tank whenever something bad happens? A lot of it has to do with their history.

The 1998 Vikings were arguably the most dominant offensive team in the history of the NFL and were destined for Miami. Gary Anderson hadn’t missed a kick all season and went wide right to allow the Atlanta Falcons to win in overtime for one of the greatest upsets in NFL history.

The 2003 Vikings started 6-0 and missed the playoffs after going 3-7 in their final 10 games. Paul Allen’s “NOOOOOO!” call is somehow burned into the brains of fans who hadn’t even been born when Josh McCown found Nathan Poole in the back of the end zone in a season-ending loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

In 2016, the Vikings took it up a notch after a 5-0 start. The bad vibes began when Teddy Bridgewater suffered a career-altering injury just before the season and continued throughout the year. A rogue play sheet almost cost Mike Zimmer sight in his right eye. The offensive line disintegrated into dust, Norv Turner quit, and the secondary went rogue in a loss to the Packers that knocked them out of playoff contention.

Even the 2017 Vikings kicked Vikings fans in the nuts when they least expected it, fueled by the adrenaline of the Minneapolis Miracle and devastated by a 38-7 loss to a Philadelphia Eagles team playing with Nick Foles, the greatest backup quarterback of all-time.

There are more examples in Vikings history just like this (if I wrote all of them, this article would be 8,000 words long), enough to discourage the most optimistic Vikings fan. But for Kevin O’Connell, it was three years ago when his Rams lost three straight games in November only to pull it together and go on a Super Bowl run.

He still has a defense that will get Blake Cashman back, an offense that will welcome back T.J. Hockenson, and a quarterback who is playing well enough to get a team that’s supposed to be in a transitional year into the playoffs.

Even if the Vikings don’t win the Super Bowl, it would be hard to be upset if O’Connell Macguyvered this team to the playoffs. The other side would fear that they’ll see Kirky Krueger, the most aggressive version of Kirk Cousins they’ve ever seen. But it would be good to get there with J.J. McCarthy and a truckload of cap space arriving in 2025.

It’s the equivalent of someday having a beautiful life, but it doesn’t have to be in somebody else’s eyes. With enough on the table, the Vikings have a chance to reach their goals and just maybe overachieve in a league where every team has to go through a rough patch.

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Photo Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

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