On December 28, 2003, the Minnesota Vikings were fighting for their playoff lives. All they had to do was beat the Arizona Cardinals, who entered the game with a 3-12 record. Sun Devil Stadium was filled to 50% capacity at best, and most of the fans in attendance were decked out in purple.
The Vikings held on to a 17-12 lead when Josh McCown tried to rally the Cardinals to victory. With the clock running down, McCown bought time and fired the ball to the end zone. Nathan Poole caught the ball out of bounds, but a now-antiquated rule that didn’t allow defenders to push a player out to prevent a reception saved him.
It was a game-winning 28-yard touchdown. Almost 2,000 miles away, a stadium full of beer-chugging fans celebrated the Green Bay Packers punching their ticket to the playoffs. Paul Allen screamed “NOOOOO!” so loud it ripped a hole in the space-time continuum and etched his call into the brains of Vikings fans who hadn’t been born.
It is one of the most infamous moments in Vikings history. However, it’s also one that should never have happened for a team that started 6-0 but lost seven of their last 10 games. It’s a reminder of the pain Vikings fans have endured and a scenario that this year’s team can not afford to repeat.
The 2024 Vikings are a much different team than the 2003 Vikings. In 2003, they were led by Mike Tice, who Red McCombs partially hired in a cost-cutting measure that made the Pohlad family look like Phil Knight donating to his alma mater. They were an unhinged masterpiece that would create another infamous moment – or more specifically, a disgusting act – at Lambeau Field one year later.
However, similar to this year’s team, the 2003 Vikings shocked anyone who had watched the team go 6-10 the year before.
The 2024 Vikings entered the season with modest expectations. They were led by draft bust Sam Darnold and added a few mysterious pieces to Brian Flores’ defense. In September, they walked into MetLife Stadium as complete unknowns but picked up a convincing win over the New York Giants to open the season.
Wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans followed, and the Vikings rattled off five-straight victories to open the season. Face value to just get in for a Week 7 showdown with the Detroit Lions hovered around $250, and a team that people thought was rebuilding was in the heat of a playoff chase.
Back-to-back losses hampered that optimism, but the Vikings rebounded with last Sunday’s win over the Indianapolis Colts. At 6-2, Minnesota currently stands as the No. 1 wild card team in the NFC and is a game behind the 7-1 Lions for first place in the division. But as the 2003 team found out, the dreams of a contender can fade away quickly.
The 2003 Vikings went on a four-game losing streak after winning their first six games. However, it wasn’t just that they lost; it was who they lost to. While Minnesota lost to the 10-6 Packers, they also dropped games to the Giants, San Diego Chargers, and Oakland Raiders, who each finished the season with a 4-12 record.
A win over the Lions was like a warm blanket in late November, and the St. Louis Rams and The Greatest Show on Turf predictably rocked the Vikings the following week. Minnesota appeared to be on track to the playoffs, but a loss to Dick Jauron’s 7-9 Chicago Bears put their playoff hopes on the ropes.
The Vikings decimated the pre-Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs, who were still formidable with a 13-3 record that season. However, their previous stumbles made the Cardinals game a must-win. In a one-game environment where anything could happen, McCown’s laser knocked the Vikings out of the playoffs and gave Minnesota one of its biggest collapses in franchise history.
If you’re keeping track at home, Minnesota lost four games to teams with a combined record of 16-48 that season. It’s important to remember this when looking at what’s remaining on the schedule for the 2024 Vikings.
The Vikings will travel to face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. This game looked to be a mismatch on paper even before Trevor Lawrence became unlikely to play with a shoulder injury, but it is now setting up to be a demolition. Jacksonville’s offense was already in shambles with Lawrence on the field, and their defense allowed the second-highest explosive pass rate before going up against the best receiver in football.
When the Vikings are done, they’ll travel to Nashville to take on the 2-6 Tennessee Titans. Led by the walking meme machine Will Levis or backup Mason Rudolph, the Titans are still trying to pick up the pieces from the end of the Jon Robinson and Mike Vrabel era. Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown aren’t walking through that tunnel, so this should be another game the Vikings win.
Then there’s a trip to Minnesota’s house of horrors: Soldier Field. The Bears started the season with promise, but they’ve fallen into the traditional “Defensive coach who doesn’t bother with offense” trap that ruled Minnesota over the early 2020s. Matt Eberflus’ defense isn’t as good as Mike Zimmer’s (Vikings) defense either, which leads to the Bears losing games by a score of 16-9.
However, Minnesota’s schedule gets more challenging after that. Over the next three weeks, they will face Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals, Kirk Cousins at the Atlanta Falcons, and a rematch with the Bears. But all three of those games are at home, in a stretch that becomes four of five games after going to Seattle and returning home to face Green Bay.
If anything, Minnesota’s motto for the next three games should be smash ‘em and stack ‘em. By doing so, the Vikings would have a 9-2 record when they return home to face the Cardinals on December 1.
It’s a different situation than the 2003 Vikings faced, stumbling against inferior opponents and fighting for their playoff lives. While Green Bay and Detroit to end the season sounds daunting, the Vikings could be fighting for playoff positioning instead of trying to stay off the golf course in early January.
That would help Minnesota avoid a similar moment on the field in Tempe that Sunday afternoon and help the Vikings reach the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.
