Vikings Storylines for Each 2025 Game: Weeks 15-18
Let’s close this series out with the final handful of weeks of the Vikings’ 2025 regular season.
Week 15 – Vikings @ Cowboys – Just Another Game Against Dallas
There really isn’t any specifically notable storyline as it stands for this contest; rather, it’s kind of just another game against the Cowboys, which, with how infamous the franchise is, playing the team is a storyline in itself.
There’s no notable revenge narrative here, nor a notable QB matchup, or even many ties we can string together to really sell this game, other than the “playoff time” narrative that you can say for the rest of the games around this time. The most notable thing you can say about it is that you’ll have a fun week of trash-talking with those couple of Cowboys fans that everyone knows.
Week 16 – Vikings @ Giants – McCarthy vs. Dart
The Vikings visited MetLife Stadium in the opening contest of the 2024 NFL season in a trouncing victory over the Giants, but that team has entered a new era at the QB position. They roll into 2025 with rookie QB Jaxson Dart, instead of 2024’s Daniel Jones, who, of course, is “famously” a former Minnesota Viking, and instead of the Giants matching up with Sam Darnold, this time, they’ll square off with J.J. McCarthy.
This goes to say for many of the matchups for the Vikings in the 2025 season, but the Dart vs. McCarthy showdown previews a new era of QBs within the walls of the NFC.
Week 17 – Lions @ Vikings – The Battle for the North Intensifies
It’s hard to say, but this game could be the end-all be-all for the NFC North division as a whole, and if it isn’t, the Vikings’ game in Week 18 very well could be as well.
This game was played in Week 18 at Ford Field in Detroit last season, and not only was it for the NFC North Division Championship, it was also for the #1 seed in the NFC for the 2024-2025 NFL Playoffs. Ultimately, it didn’t matter that the Lions won the game, as well as the division crown and first seed that came with it, because both the Vikings and Lions failed to win a single playoff game that came after this regular-season finale bout.
Both teams hope for better luck on this go-around, and it all starts in Week 17 during this pivotal NFC North matchup.
Week 18 – Packers @ Vikings – Vikings Likely Discover Their Playoff Fate
The Vikings draw the Green Bay Packers in the final dance of the Week 18 regular season instead of the Detroit Lions, like they have the last handful of seasons, but the stakes are as high as they are during this week of every single NFL season.
It’ll be the close of the first year of the J.J. McCarthy era, and since it’s a question mark of just how far he can take them, it’s likely that the Vikings will have to wait until the final week of the year to find out where they stand in terms of the playoff race and where they fall amongst seedings, if at all.
The Vikings’ roster, luckily, is very good all around the QB position, so the question of “if” the Vikings make the playoffs could very well instead be “when” they make them, and Week 18 may be the time.
Solving Kevin O’Connell’s (Barely) Coded Clue