Colin Cowherd Has Adjusted His “16-1 Vikings” Take
Josh Frey
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Earlier in the summer, FOX Sports analyst Colin Cowherd made headlines throughout the state of Minnesota when he declared that the Vikings would “double” their win total in 2022. I’m no mathematician, but if one were to take this declaration literally, they’d have to assume that Cowherd was predicting that Minnesota would go 16-1 this year.
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Now, FS1’s host of ‘The Herd” has officially adjusted this prediction to be a bit tamer, though it’s still a very bold prediction. He said on his show that Minnesota would win either 13 or 14 games, win the NFC North, and that they “should be the number one choice to bet the over this season”.
Even though this isn’t quite as audacious as his previous projection, a 13-4 or 14-3 record would make the 2022 campaign wildly successful for Kevin O’Connell’s first year as head coach. It’s very much a possibility, too.
I’ve already gone through the Vikings schedule and made game-by-game predictions for the team. I landed on 11-6 and a wild card berth. However, I’m willing to admit that this is taking into account a few things going wrong this year. A couple of these include the offense taking some time to click under O’Connell’s system, a few growing pains for the new defense, and a “trap” game in Miami before their bye.
If the Vikings can avoid these things and get off to the season rockin’-and-rollin’, then a division title is very much in the cards for this year. Minnesota has the 13th-easiest schedule in 2022, based off of their opponents combined winning percentage in 2021.
It’s also worth noting that many of the oddsmakers around the world of sports betting have the Vikings over/under set at 8.5. If they are correct about Minnesota, and the team hovers around this mark, it means Minnesota will miss the playoffs for the third-straight season.
It’d be very easy for the Vikings season to end up this way as well. They have older veterans all over the defense, and if any of them miss extended time, it will result in unproven players being forced to step up. Additionally, the offense could indeed suffer a few hiccups early on in the year, which would likely result in a few unforeseen losses on the schedule.
No matter what, predictions are exactly what they seem like: guesses. No one really knows how this season will turn out, and we’ll all just have to wait until Week 1 to find out. Luckily for Vikings fans, we’ll all get an early introduction to playoff atmosphere football with a divisional matchup against the Green Bay Packers on September 11th.
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