Vikings Playoffs Hopes Hit Life Support
In a game that the purple team avoided turning the ball over until the final play of the game, a running back tallied 132 rushing yards, and the quarterback tossed two touchdown passes, the Minnesota Vikings fell short to the rival Chicago Bears. For posterity, the NFC North tryst practically served as a season-ender for the Vikings, although the team has a shred of hope to reach the 2020 postseason.
The Vikings forced the Bears to go three-and-out on the first drive of the game, but that was the last glimpse of aptitude the defensive bunch would display until very late in the game. Mitchell Trubisky – likely in his final days as the Bears starting quarterback – sliced Minnesota’s defense on a half-dozen drives during the game’s midsection while tailback David Montgomery extended drive after drive on a 146-yard effort via the rush.
Minnesota’s offense kept the game within reach whereas the defense clumsily surrendered big-chunk plays on nearly every possession. The absence of Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Michael Pierce, and Mike Hughes was evident all afternoon. “Next man up” is an extremely sexy talking point that circulates the NFL, but that notion operates under the pretense that the replacement is virtually as good as the injured player. In most cases – especially for the Vikings – the next man up is a muscular body that tries hard. Swapping Hunter, Kendricks, Barr, Pierce, and Hughes for Jalyn Holmes, Eric Wilson, Todd Davis, Shamar Stephen, and Chris Jones has enabled the team to merely participate in games – not thrive.
Now, the team is one football event from mathematical elimination. Here’s what that entails.
Over with One More Cardinals Win
The Arizona Cardinals woke up to a Hail Murray hangover following heroic efforts versus the Buffalo Bills in mid-November. Kyler Murray and Co. dropped their next three games, and the playoffs were uncertain. In successive weeks, though, the Cardinals have downed NFC East opponents in the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. The games were of the utmost importance to Arizona’s postseason aspirations. And, they delivered.
After 15 weeks, the Cardinals need just one more victory to end the Vikings season. Minnesota’s record is 6-8, a two-game deficit to that of Arizona at 8-6. Indeed, Kliff Kingsbury’s youngsters must lose the season’s two final games (San Francisco, Los Angeles Rams) if Minnesota is to slip in the NFC’s seventh seed.
That likely will not occur. Why? Because the Arizona Cardinals play defense – the team ranks 13th in NFL for points allowed. The 2020 Vikings would probably be significantly closer to 8-6 if the team has ceased to lose one of the aforementioned starting defenders, especially Danielle Hunter.
Then, CHI Must Lose Once
Minnesota’s utopian scenario of the Cardinals losing to Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay in the next two weeks is caveated by one more item. Because of the Week 15 loss to Chicago, the Vikings need the Bears to lose one of their final games.
It won’t happen next weekend. The Bears travel to Jacksonville, a franchise that will not want any business of losing out on The Trevor Lawrence Sweepstakes. The New York Jets inexplicably toppled the Los Angeles Rams in Week 15. That event jettisoned the Jets from April’s No. 1 overall pick and ushered the Jaguars into the driver’s seat.
Minnesota cannot rely on the Jaguars to ruin their own bid at Trevor Lawrence. So, if the Cardinals lose to the 49ers and Rams, the Vikings will ask the Green Bay Packers to oust the Bears from playoff contention in Week 17. Strange bedfellows.
Vikings Must Win Out
If you’re storing this in your memory bank – that’s three separate items that must materialize for Minnesota to hit the road for wildcard football. But there’s more.
Minnesota also has to defeat the New Orleans Saints on Christmas day and the Detroit Lions nine days later. The latter may not sound too formidable, but the Yuletide date in the Big Easy is particularly nasty. Coach Mike Zimmer historically has few problems with Drew Brees and the Saints, but New Orleans is angry. In the last two weeks, Sean Payton’s team has dropped contests to the Eagles and Chiefs – amid a battle for the No. 1 seed in the NFC (currently held by the Packers). It’s odd for the Saints to lose back-to-back games, and they seldom lose three in a row. In fact, the last time New Orleans lost three games consecutively was September of 2016. It was the same timeframe that Minnesota was sprinting to a 5-0 start under newly-acquired quarterback, Sam Bradford.
All in all, that’s Minnesota’s recipe for access to the postseason. Minnesotans must send prayers to the heavens for five isolated pieces to fit together – two Cardinals losses, a Bears loss, and victories at New Orleans and Detroit. Everything but a partridge in a pear tree.
