For One Week, Vikings Fans Should Cheer for The Cowboys
K. Joudry
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For some of you, that headline isn’t going to go over particularly well. The Cowboys are the kind of team that people tend to love or hate. They have a massive following, which, in turn, leads to a massive amount of attention. From what I can gather, it’s that factor that helps contribute to them garnering so much disdain. Nevertheless, I believe Vikings fans ought to be Cowboys fans in Week 10.
There’s an old saying, folks, that applies to our current situation: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Who is Minnesota’s main enemy? None other than the Green Bay Packers, who are having a brutal season. At 3-6, they’re a long shot to even be a Wild Card team, let alone division champs for the fourth-straight season.
FiveThirtyEight has GB at a mere 5% chance of making the postseason. Winning the division is coming in below 1%. Vikings fans will love seeing those odds, but a Cowboys victory this Sunday would make things look even better.
Now, I’ll clarify that I’m not a prophet. What I can say, though, is a 3-7 record is often too much to overcome. Not too many teams start 3-7 and still get into the postseason.
Consider what’d need to occur for GB to get into the playoffs. There are 7 open spots in the NFC. 4 of those spots are going to division winners. Unless something horrendous happens in Minnesota, it’ll be the Vikings who represent the NFC North as the division winner. If that occurs – currently a 98% chance – then GB will be forced to snag one of 3 Wild Card spots.
Doing so would require the Packers to leapfrog several good teams. Dallas (6-2), New York (6-2), Washington (4-5), San Francisco (4-4), Los Angeles (3-5), and Atlanta (4-6) all have better winning percentages. And, don’t forget, that list only considers the teams that aren’t currently in the division’s top spot. If we include the division leaders – Philadelphia, Minnesota, Seattle, and Tampa Bay – the reality becomes even more grim.
There are a lot of teams in the NFC that have been playing better football than Green Bay (the Vikings and Cowboys being among them). Oh, and one more thing: there are several teams with the same winning percentage. Chicago, Arizona, and New Orleans are tied, so GB would need to separate themselves from these teams while overcoming several more.
In other words, it’ll be tough for GB.
A loss to Dallas would make the task that much more difficult. Being 3-7 is not what Matt LaFleur and the rest of the Packers leadership expected coming into the season. Heck, it’s far from what I expected. I believed a strong defense and run game would be enough for GB to still be one of the conference’s best teams.
In Week 11, the Vikings will get their own chance to take on the Cowboys. The game will take place at U.S. Bank Stadium, so Minnesota fans will get the chance to impact the game’s outcome by being super loud whenever Mike McCarthy is trying to get his offense moving the ball down the field. That’ll be a time, of course, when Vikings fans need to be cheering for their own squad.
In Week 10, though, I suggest you lay aside those feelings. Instead, toss your weight behind McCarthy’s Cowboys. Dropping GB to 3-7 would further diminish the dwindling chances for more playoff football in Wisconsin.
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