Let’s not sugar coat it: The start to the Vikings season has been sloppy, frustrating and downright bad. The big brains call it “receding to the mean” for all the close wins we had last year. Personally, I’ve always thought this is an example of the gambler’s fallacy; every spin of the roulette wheel is independent of the next. Anyone who’s watched the first two games could tell you exactly why we’re in this position.
Regardless, we’ve got ourselves in a bit of a predicament. Only around 11% of 0-2 teams make the playoffs. Change that to 0-3, and it’s only happened 6 times since the 1979 expansion. If this wasn’t enough to make this game interesting, our opponents, The San Diego Los Angeles Super Chargers find themselves in the exact same position.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, Vikings fans: we NEED to get a win here. Our division did us a solid during week 2 and we’re only one game back on GB and the Lions. If we find a way to get this done, we’re right back in the thick of it with all of our divisional matchups still ahead of us.
The good news is that there’s reason to be optimistic!
Vikings Get Back on Track
For starters, after some abysmal offensive line play (and plenty of injuries to boot), Kwesi’s bringing in reinforcement by way of Dalton Risner.
Depending on who you ask, this move might’ve been influenced by the fans BEGGING the team to act on what’s been a brutal start to the season for the Minnesota Moving Crew. While we still have to see if he’ll be ready for action on Sunday, a bit of new blood should give some energy to the squad.
In addition to this, the Chargers are dealing with their own injury to star running back Austin Ekeler. They thoroughly struggled to move the ball on the ground without him in week 2, which just so happens to be the primary method that the Vikings got crushed. If we can capitalize on this, as well as cut down on the turnovers, the Vikings should be in a good position at home.
Let’s imagine these things don’t happen, however. Say our line is still banged up. Our case of the turnovers sticks around for another week. We continue to keep our defense on the field and they give up too many points for captain Kirk to recover from. Say we disappoint and drop to 0-3…
The 0-3 Minnesota Vikings
We’re then staring down the barrel of a brutal chunk of the schedule. The Chiefs and 49ers each come to town, both of whom are looking like legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Week 4 is the Adam Theilen revenge game, on the road to play the #1 overall pick. While this might be the pessimistic outlook, it’s not too unthinkable that MN would be searching for two wins in the first 7 or 8 games.
On top of this, we’ve yet to see how this core of players would react to a skid this severe. This chatter started right after our loss to Tampa Bay, when JJ looked ready to jump from the top of US Bank Stadium.
This might not be fair to project on him but Justin’s a gamer at the end of the day. If we aren’t capable of winning when he’s putting on the performances he does every week, there’s going to be worries about him wanting to stay.
On top of that, the second Aaron Rodgers went down (lol), every talking head decided that the Jets should trade for our boy Kirko. Who knows if that concept has any basis in reality. But! It would effectively be the end of the season and the current era of Vikings football. Are we trading up in the draft? The wormhole really opens if we can’t compete with the current cast.
Bottom line is that this is going to be a wildly important game for this team. This fanbase is notorious for planning the future around what’s happening directly in front of them but this feels like a pivotal moment in if our time towards the top of the NFC is coming to an end.
Former wrestler, Current football watcher, Future president.
Alter-Ego of the Packer Punisher.