Imagine, if you will:
The sun went a long time ago at TCO Performance Center, but Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell remained hard at work. Trying to get the aspects of a team that won 14 games to click late in a lost season, O’Connell had tried everything to light up the rest of the NFL.
After a crashout that included knocking over a small Santa Claus and words we can’t print at Zone Coverage, O’Connell gave it one last shot. With pure progression offense in one hand and a young quarterback in the other, the lights finally came on as O’Connell urged everyone to come and look what he had done.
The Wilfs, J.J. McCarthy, Justin Jefferson, and the rest of the team came outside and marveled at the display. Then O’Connell heard a familiar voice join the praise.
“It’s beautiful, man,” the large man said, with a Starbucks in each hand and Metallica blasting in his Walkman.
“Thanks, Dan Campbell,” O’Connell said. “…Wait…Dan Campbell?”
The Detroit Lions head coach stood there with a cheesy grin. He explained that his team was on the verge of elimination from the playoffs, and a Christmas stay in Minneapolis would have to do. Kerby Joseph, Brian Branch, and others hobbled out of a rusted-out motor home, and O’Connell was left wondering what he was going to do with all of the chaos surrounding him.
In many ways, this season has turned O’Connell into Clark Griswold, furiously trying to put out the fires of a lost season. But it has also been a reversal of fortunes, with both teams living like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation before a nationally televised matchup.
Like Griswold planning a good old-fashioned family Christmas, O’Connell had a vision of the perfect season. The Vikings were coming off a 14-win campaign and were handing the keys to J.J. McCarthy. All of the presents McCarthy needed to do his job were placed under a hand-picked Christmas tree, and the prospects of a Super Bowl were supposed to be hanging in the air.
But, like Griswold’s vision, everything changed when the doorbell rang. Dianna Russini barged in like the obnoxious mother-in-law, screaming about how they should have signed Aaron Rodgers. Film gurus came in, obsessed with McCarthy’s feet like something was growing on them. The Wilfs came in asking if they were going to make the playoffs, much in the same way that Aunt Bethany wondered if Rusty was still in the Navy. And McCarthy threw heat around like Uncle Lewis lighting his beloved stogie — and the family tree — on fire.
At this point, it wouldn’t be surprising if O’Connell marched to the podium and let out a rant capped by the words “Hajlelluah…where’s the Tylenol?” But, if there’s any consolation, the Lions are facing the same thing.
Like Uncle Eddie losing his job at the carnival, Campbell’s Lions feel lost considering where they were one year ago. Going into Week 18 with a matching 14-2 record, the Lions earned the win, the division title, and home-field advantage in the playoffs by beating the Vikings in Detroit. However, injuries shortened their run, ending with a Divisional Round loss to the Washington Commanders.
The Lions have been treading water ever since, dealing with the loss of Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson and a team that seems to have a new major injury each week. Many are currently on the shelf, the players who have come back, including defensive tackle Alim McNeill, haven’t been as good as they once were. That has left Campbell’s remarks after blowing a 24-7 lead in the 2023 NFC Championship Game floating in the air like a ghost of Christmas past.
“I told those guys, this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said after the 34-31 loss. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality. And if we don’t have the same hunger and the same work – which is a whole ‘nother thing once we get to the offseason – then we got no shot of getting back here.”
While that quote is specific to the Lions, it can also apply to the Vikings. They were on the doorstep of competing for a title one year ago until it was ripped away in the final two games. Everyone got a year older, and the injury bug bit some who had avoided it in the previous season. Things can change quickly in the NFL, especially when you have one of the oldest rosters in the league.
It gives both sides a lot to think about — not only where they were one year ago, but where they will be when they meet in Minneapolis on Christmas Day. Both franchises have major decisions to make in the offseason, and it may take a little more to light everything up in 2026.
