After One Game, Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings Are Super Bowl Favorites
Throughout much of the offseason, you’d be hard-pressed to find a national media outlet that considered the 2022 Minnesota Vikings to be a playoff team, let alone a full-fledged Super Bowl contender. Now after one game, Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings are considered the fourth-most likely to win the Super Bowl, per FiveThirtyEight. This comes after their September 8th rankings had the Vikings with 13th-best odds to win the Big Game.
The only teams ahead of the Vikings right now are the Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Kansas City Chiefs, each of whom grab over 10% of the pie after Week 1. Meanwhile, the Packers plummet from a preseason ranking of 3rd down to 8th, and their odds are sliced from 9% to 4%.
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The Vikings climb is certainly warranted after a pure domination of the Green Bay Packers. Justin Jefferson was fantastic, finding himself open all afternoon. Meanwhile, the EDGE duo of Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith proved overwhelming to the Green Bay Packers offensive line, especially without either of David Bakhtiari or Elgton Jenkins.
One game obviously isn’t enough to solidify your place as Super Bowl contender, nor is one loss enough to derail a season. Heck, the entirety of the AFC South went without a single win on Sunday, and two of the teams played each other. One of those teams is guaranteed a playoff spot.
That said, the Vikings have put themselves in a great position not only to compete for a Wild Card spot, but for the NFC North. They gain a leg up on their division rival Packers and step one of 17 towards hosting at least one playoff game in U.S. Bank Stadium is complete.
The Vikings get a long week to continue improving before a difficult road test against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. If they come away with a victory in that game, especially if it’s in similar fashion as Sunday, we need to start taking this Vikings team seriously. Perhaps Kevin O’Connell can lead these Vikings to the promised land of a Super Bowl championship.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing as well as minors in History, Human Biology, and Journalism. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh‘s hobbies include training for a marathon, playing video games, and rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. For more of his takes, NFL and otherwise, check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken