On Jan. 16, 2005, the Vikings traveled to Philadelphia for a divisional round playoff game. An uneven Minnesota season — at 8-8 they needed great fortune even to make the postseason field — had been revived a week before with a 31-17 playoff trouncing of the Packers at Lambeau Field, punctuated by Randy Moss' fake moon.
If you want to see the Vikings' flaws laid bare, ship them to Philadelphia
A history of flailing against the Eagles has defined multiple Vikings tenures, even as the way we have watched it unfold continues to change.
September 15, 2023 at 5:23PM
Any hopes of a playoff run, though, were quickly extinguished. The Eagles humbled the Vikings 27-14, harassing quarterback Daunte Culpepper with three sacks and two interceptions, while the game's signature play might have been an unsuccessful fake field goal that tried to take advantage of Moss' tendency to loaf off the field.
It was peak Mike Tice Vikings: Talent and memorable moments combined with breathtaking self-destruction. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman called the game for Fox, just as they had a week ago while witnessing the "disgusting act" from Moss.
A couple of weeks after that game, shipping behemoth Amazon debuted its "Prime" subscription, which at that time gave customers a year of two-day shipping for a $79 fee.
One of those entities has clearly evolved in the last 18 years, while the other has not.
It scarcely seemed odd at all that the latest in a long line of Vikings meltdowns in Philadelphia — which I talked about on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast — was shown to me Thursday via an Amazon Prime subscription that used to solely exist so that I could quickly get novelty T-shirts, tasteful sweaters or whatever else I needed in my late 20s.
The conclusions of the adept team of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit on Thursday's smooth Prime stream of the game were largely the same as the ones reached 18 years ago and at points in between about the Vikings whenever they travel to Philadelphia for a big game.
In that January 2005 playoff game, self-destruction and suspect offensive line play told a lot of the story.
The Vikings went back to Philadelphia for the NFC title game after the 2017 season and again those themes were in play during a crushing 38-7 loss that kept them from playing in the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Last year's 24-7 Week 2 loss had similar ingredients and hinted at this theme: Even though the Vikings would go on to win a lot of games, they were not a true contender.
And Thursday's 34-28 defeat was a master class in self-destruction (four lost fumbles) as well as a brutal reminder of their inadequacy in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
In those four games combined, spanning three different head coaches and quarterbacks, the Vikings lost the turnover battle 12-3 and were outgained on the ground 641-257.
The way games are delivered sure has changed, but the results stay the same.
Here are four more things to know today:
*Phil Miller and I talked on the podcast about looming decisions ahead for the Twins as they ponder their postseason roster, while our colleague Bobby Nightengale tackled a similar subject in written form.
*Free agent guard Dalton Risner, who visited the Vikings during the preseason but didn't sign, spent much of Sunday's opener mixing it up with fans on social media and agreeing that the Vikings could use him. But his feed was quiet on Thursday night.
*Former Wolves forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who went to Utah in the Rudy Gobert trade and was later shipped to Los Angeles, is reportedly getting a four-year, $48 million deal from the Lakers.
*While the Twins are in Chicago this weekend, South Dakota State football will take over Target Field.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
