On Sunday night, the Minnesota Vikings had everything in front of them. There was a chance to win a second division title in three years under Kevin O’Connell. There was an opportunity to earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time since 1998. And there was a chance to announce to the world that they were a serious Super Bowl contender by beating the Detroit Lions in front of a packed house at Ford Field.
Instead, the Vikings fell off the final rung of the ladder, crashing and burning in a 31-9 loss to Detroit. A lot of things went wrong, from Sam Darnold’s inaccuracies to a few missed plays on both sides of the ball. But if you ask the Lions, they won because they believe they’re a special group.
“All I can think about is, man, we’ve been forged in this stuff now,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said in his postgame speech. “This has been three years in the making. … That just doesn’t happen. You gotta work through it, grind through it, and go through the downs to get to the ups of where we’re at. That was unbelievable, man.”
Campbell speaks the truth. The Lions are having a dream season. They are a special group that earned the No. 1 seed for the first time in franchise history. Nobody can take that away from them. But it also doesn’t take away from the Vikings, who remain a special group after Sunday’s loss.
It starts with the peaks and valleys that this team has endured. They lost their franchise quarterback, Kirk Cousins, last March and his eventual successor, J.J. McCarthy, last August. Rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson died in a car accident in July. Jordan Addison was arrested for DUI a few weeks later. Mekhi Blackmon tore his ACL in the first training camp practice. Vegas tabbed the Vikings to win 6.5 games entering the season.
There aren’t many teams that could dig themselves out of this early-season hole. But that’s exactly what the Vikings did. They focused on the cliche “Go 1-0” every week, and the wins started piling up before their next valley at the end of October.
After suffering back-to-back losses to the Lions and Los Angeles Rams, the Vikings had a hangover with less-than-ideal wins against the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars. Even victories over the Tennessee Titans and Chicago Bears weren’t picture-perfect, but the Vikings were still racking up W’s.
A win over Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons seemed to get the fans on board, and the Vikings aced every successive test, from a comeback win in Seattle to a home victory over the Green Bay Packers. It put the Vikings in the position they were in on Sunday night, one win away from becoming the top seed in the NFC. Instead, they hit a valley the likes of which they haven’t seen since October.
This is the moment where Minnesota fans become deflated. Every Vikings fan knows these moments: Gary Anderson’s missed field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship game and Blair Walsh’s miss in the 2015 Divisional round. Other games are defined by lopsided scores like “38-7” or “41-doughnut” and have their team defeated before they step on the field.
Sometimes, you can just see when these letdowns are about to happen — but not with this team.
The most interesting thing about Sunday’s game was that many Vikings fans believed they would win. The Lions are a great team, but Minnesota is also great. They rode the wave to their second season in franchise history with 14 or more wins. Sometimes, a team has a bad day. These Vikings had a bad day, but it doesn’t mean all is lost.
The Vikings still have an offense that ranked ninth in scoring (432 points) and 12th in total offense (5,898 yards). Their defense ranked fifth in points allowed (332) and 11th in yards per play (5.3). Before Sunday night’s debacle, their quarterback was an MVP candidate.
If you traveled back to August and told a group of fans what the Vikings would do this year, they would think you’re nuts. But really, it’s the framework of a team that could make an unexpected run in January.
It starts with the matchup with the Rams in the Wild Card round. Los Angeles earned a 30-20 win back in Week 8 but that was on a short week with the advantage of rolling out Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp at the last second. Sean McVay could get the best of his pupil again, but O’Connell is just as likely to learn from those mistakes, like his team has done throughout the year.
If the Vikings survive, it could mean another trip to Detroit. The Lions can claim their two wins over Minnesota this season, but they also have all the pressure in the world after Sunday’s win. Campbell’s team may thrive in this environment, but the Vikings showed they could hold their own, entering the fourth quarter only down 17-9.
This may be the moment when Darnold learns from his mistakes and connects on one of the wide-open touchdowns he missed on Sunday night. It could also be where Brian Flores creates the game plan that finishes the Lions at home and gets Minnesota to the NFC Championship game.
It creates a different path to the Super Bowl, but one that the Vikings are equipped to manage. Win the next few games, and this group will regain some of the aura it lost on Sunday night. Lose in the first round, and it’s onto the 2025 season.
However, the loss to the Lions shouldn’t affect them going forward. The Vikings can show they are still the special group they appeared to be when they walked onto the Ford Field turf.
