Forgive me. I know the headline is a bit cliché.
Sports are cyclical and a roller coaster of highs and lows. Unless you grew up a fan of the Tom Brady New England Patriots or the Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs, you’re familiar with the rise and fall that most franchises experience. The front office finally puts together a good team that exceeds expectations and begins to surprise the football world, and then the expectations for that team shift accordingly. And when the expectations ratchet up, so does the pressure.
How teams respond to the pressure of those expectations is what separates good from great. It’s the difference between franchises like the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings, which have appeared in four Super Bowls, and those that have managed to win them.
I’m not trying to be that classic, doom-and-gloom Minnesota sports fan. I’m a firm believer in enjoying the moment without letting the possibility of a letdown get in the way. But the reality is that, for whatever expectations this team came into the year with, they’ve exceeded them by leaps and bounds. The Vikings are no longer catching anyone napping or underestimating them.
Now, they have a target on their back.
Minnesota has the No. 1 record in the NFC. Sam Darnold has the fifth-best MVP odds in the league. NFL.com named them the No. 1 team in their power rankings above the two-time reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs. Your priors about what this season was supposed to be are becoming more irrelevant by the second. This team may be special.
They’ve passed every test so far. Blow out a bad team like the New York Giants? Check. Beat a good team like the San Francisco 49ers? Check. Blow out a good team like the Houston Texans? Check. And don’t let the final score fool you. You can also check “Beat the pants off your rival in Green Bay” off the list.
The next test for the 2024 Vikings? Don’t fall for the letdown game.
Minnesota’s game in London against the Aaron Rodgers-led New York Jets feels like a classic letdown situation. The Jets have loaded their roster with several premiere talents like Breece Hall, Sauce Gardner, and Garrett Wilson. They’ve got every Vikings fan’s least-favorite quarterback, Rodgers, on the opposing sideline. Despite their record showing deficiencies and problems with this team, the Jets have many pieces to solve their issues already in their building if those stars finally live up to their billing.
It could also be challenging for the Vikings to keep their emotions in check. It’s a true revenge game for Kevin O’Connell and Darnold, whom the Jets once mishandled early in their careers. Darnold was predestined to be the savior in New York. However, they gave him a surrounding cast that featured Jamison Crowder as his No. 1 receiver and 37-year-old Frank Gore as his lead back. The infamous Adam Gase coached him.
Is there a quarterback alive who could’ve made that situation work, much less one that needed as much development as Darnold?
O’Connell (and Kyle Shanahan during his time with the 49ers) have done tremendous work to fix Darnold’s confidence and decision-making. Even when we see flashes of the risky hero ball that got Darnold in so much trouble previously, he quickly reels it back in. He’s been a nice balance of controlled and opportunistic, not letting fear of losing control prevent him from trying to make a play. It’ll eventually burn him if he continues to make risky plays, so it’ll be up to O’Connell to manage Sam and keep that bottled up.
A talented defensive mind like Robert Saleh will not disrespect Darnold by not taking him seriously in this game. Saleh will likely try to get in Darnold’s head early and flip the game script. We’ve yet to see Darnold have to rally this team back from any sizeable deficit to now. If that happens, New York will be left to hope that Old Sam breaks out under the pressure.
Meanwhile, no quarterback has a burning hatred for the Vikings like Rodgers. He has never forgotten the Anthony Barr hit and would give anything to dash the hopes of the Vikings faithful. We have yet to see a truly vintage “Green Bay-esque” performance from Rodgers in New York. Still, if it’s in him, he’ll try to will it into existence this weekend in London.
I don’t know if it’s the travel, the revenge factor, or simply my scarred psyche as someone this franchise has let down too many times. Still, I can’t shake my concerns about this game. A game that Minnesota should win handily. Perhaps this is just one more box to check along their path to greatness.
If this team can handle the pressure of being an NFC favorite and come out in London like they have the first four weeks of the season, I’ll stop looking for disaster to strike. They’ll eventually lose a game, but a win here would be another piece of evidence that no pressure is enough to derail this team. If they can keep this incredible momentum going as T.J. Hockenson’s return looms on the horizon, then there’s no limit to what the Vikings can do this season.
