Vikings Among Odd Company Amid Playoff Exit
Who saw this coming?
The Minnesota Vikings won 14 games this season but didn’t win the NFC North, as three teams from the division won 11 more games, and none of the three playoff teams from the division won a postseason game. Washington drove the final nail into the NFC North playoff coffin on Saturday in Detroit as the division went 0-3 in the postseason.
Minnesota (14-3), Green Bay (11-6), and Detroit (15-2) all came into the playoffs with serious Super Bowl prospects. All three are out within a week’s time and in stunning fashion.
The clock struck midnight on Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold’s Cinderella-like season in Arizona against the Los Angeles Rams amid nine sacks and two turnovers. Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love threw three interceptions as his team faltered against the Philadelphia Eagles. Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff gave up a pick-six, and the Commanders iced his comeback attempt with a game-sealing interception.
Minnesota’s success in 2024 could take on another flavor in light of the NFC North’s epic playoff collapse. The Vikings just competed for the No. 1 seed against the Lions only two weeks ago in a historic matchup — the first-ever NFL regular season game between two 14-win teams.
Detroit got the top seed and looked dominant in the process. Washington matched the Lions toe-to-toe in a 45-31 victory and delivered the final blows in the fourth quarter with a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels.
Green Bay, which went 0-2 against both the Vikings and Lions, simply couldn’t beat the NFC’s top teams. Before the playoffs, that meant the Vikings, Lions, and Eagles (14-3).
With the Rams’ demolition of the Vikings and the Commanders’ convincing win over the Lions, the Packers’ chasm to the NFC’s top might be wider than the 22-10 loss to the Eagles indicated.
The NFC North looked like the conference’s top division throughout the 2024 season and possibly the best in football. Only the AFC West sent three teams to the playoffs besides the NFC North, but one AFC West team survived thus far — the Kansas City Chiefs.
In the Lions’ case, injuries played a role, but Detroit overcame them throughout the season before Saturday. Minnesota and Green Bay came into the postseason relatively healthy.
With all three NFC North teams gone, each of the teams’ coaching staffs could evaluate the season in light of these quick exits. None of the three carried the torch beyond a playoff game for a division that won an NFL-best 45 regular season games. That’s a top-10 all-time mark, and the cupboard is now bare.
And the Chicago Bears were supposed to be a stronger force in the NFC North amid the surprises because of a rookie quarterback in Caleb Williams, who went ahead of Daniels in the draft. Instead, the Bears squandered Williams’ first season to a tune of 5-12 that can’t be solely chalked up to membership in football’s winningest division for 2024.
Daniels led a massive turnaround in Washington amid the franchise’s first trip to the NFC Championship Game in 33 years. That’s when Washington won the Super Bowl on Minnesota’s old home turf at the Metrodome against the Buffalo Bills in 1992.
Washington had a tough division, too. The Eagles have reached expectations already, and the Dallas Cowboys made a late run amid injuries but fell short of the playoffs. Only the New York Giants couldn’t muster momentum and let quarterback Daniel Jones go in the process on his way to Minnesota.
A division garnered 45 wins or more doesn’t mean a Super Bowl winner will come out of the division, but an 0-3 mark in the playoffs for the NFC North will linger well into the offseason.
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