A Vikings season filled with a breezy NFC North crown, breathtaking performances from Justin Jefferson and enough improbable comebacks to fill five years — including two all-timers against Buffalo and Indianapolis — should have earned the team enough grace to survive just about anything on the negative side of the ledger.
Vikings attempting the improbable: Ruining this amazing season
A year filled with unexpected joy and unbelievable clutch wins is starting to become overshadowed by dismal performances down the stretch.
January 2, 2023 at 10:52PM
![Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell greets Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) on the field following an NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay . ] ANTHONY SOUFFLE • anthony.souffle@startribune.com](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/N25IFLUPR744C6SIL3UC6OULHY.jpg?&w=712)
But recent weeks, and particularly Sunday's 41-17 loss to Green Bay, have divided the narrative between "a whimsical adventure no matter how it ends" and "an unsustainable fluke destined for an unsatisfying crash landing."
How you choose to define this adventure might say more about what pleasure you seek to derive from the Vikings than it does about the 2022 Vikings themselves, but the common ground is this: There's no other way to look at this year other than strange — perhaps the strangest in Minnesota sports history, as Patrick Reusse said on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Sunday's loss, a game that was 41-3 at one point, was a tipping point toward the once unimaginable prospect of an amazing season being ruined.
Consider what was at stake:
- The Vikings knew at the start of the game that home-field advantage in the NFC was still within reach thanks to the Eagles' loss to the Saints.
- They knew that another victory over the only team that had defeated by more than one score this season would end the playoff hopes of their biggest rival and at least keep them in line to earn the No. 2 seed.
- Bigger picture, a convincing win at Lambeau could have even influenced the future of Aaron Rodgers.
Instead, they fell behind by at least 33 points for the third time in the last seven weeks. They played like one of the worst teams in the league, which at least one analytics measure suggests they are.
Their perilously thin offensive line was dealt another blow when Brian O'Neill exited with an injury. Kirk Cousins turned the ball over four times, continuing to be the heartbeat of a team that only thrives on thin margins.
Losing wasn't the sin; the process was the problem. Players came nowhere near meeting the moment. Kevin O'Connell was outcoached, including a disastrous series of play calls that led to a lifeless field goal on a drive that started at the Green Bay 1.
The ceiling for a 12-4 team shouldn't be one playoff win, but that's what it feels like right now.
A first-round win probably would be enough to save the overall vibe of the season. But how it ends feels a lot more important to the narrative than it did even a few weeks ago.
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