If the Vikings beat Seattle, all will be forgiven
Dustin Baker
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When the Vikings barely thwarted the late-fourth quarter advances from the Houston Texans last weekend, the bullishness surrounding the team gasped for air. After an 0-3 beginning to the season, onlookers were left to speculate the legitimacy of the team. Was head coach Mike Zimmer hitting a wall with his leadership style? Was the roster merely devoid of talent? Was a “tank” season afoot? Or – was the team simply in a rut?
The answers to those rhetorical questions are not immediately known through four weeks of the 2020 season, but an 0-4 start would have likely disqualified any just-in-a-rut talk. Bad football teams fall to 0-4, excuses be damned. Instead, Minnesota now must unearth itself from a 1-3 hole. If history is any indicator, it is significantly more plausible to resurrect from 1-3 than 0-4. Only the 1992 San Diego Chargers reached the postseason after an 0-4 record to start a season. Conversely, 38 teams have rectified a 1-3 season in the last 50 years. It is, of course, still a daunting task to undertake as this equivocates to only 11 percent of 1-3 squads making the playoffs in 50 seasons. Nevertheless, there is emphatic precedent for rebounding from 1-3 whereas 0-4 is a death march to futility.
In 2020, though, an extra team from each conference will dance into the postseason. The NFL decided that 14 teams playing extra-curricular football was more exciting than 12 teams. So, the Vikings have that format tweak in their holster no matter the outcome of the Week 5 game in Seattle.
Should the Vikings triumph over Seattle on the road – a notorious house of pain for Minnesota – the team will be perceived as mini-savants of an early-season turnaround. Here’s why.
Bluebird Demons Exorcised
To put in bluntly: Russell Wilson has dominated Minnesota in a manner than no other NFL quarterback has in Vikings history. Wilson is 6-0 versus the Vikings, and the only other two men that are close in this undefeated magnitude are Tom Brady (5-0) and Peyton Manning (4-0). He has simply been a solver of Vikings, and former kicker Blair Walsh could not hamper Wilson’s streak in the 2015 NFL playoffs.
If more confirmation is needed that a Vikings win in The Great Northwest would exorcise demons, consider this: Mike Zimmer has beaten every NFC team in the industry except for the Seattle Seahawks. Again, he came damn close in a frigid postseason tryst, but Zimmer has never got the best of the Seahawks. Too, the Vikings have not won in Seattle since 2006.
A win will instantly rejuvenate the hope – internally for players and externally for fans – required for a season turnaround. Defeating Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson in successive weeks on the road will do that for a franchise.
Confirmation that Preseason Matters
In the analysis of the first two weeks of the season, the Vikings flat-out were an inept football team, particularly in Indianapolis. Their play was moronic and wholly worthy of a high draft pick in April of 2021. It cannot be ultimately determined yet, but that game versus the Colts might be retroactively perceived as a crossroads. Are the Vikings a bad-to-mediocre football team that is truly emblematic of their performance in Indianapolis? Or was that rock bottom for a Zimmer-led group of men?
If, in a matter of weeks and months, it is determined that contest was a rock-bottom outlier, the preseason-less nature of the 2020 season will reveal its naughty effects. Minnesota is a team laden with young players, and the youth is markedly evident on defense. Young players benefit from preseason experience, even if the games are bland and meritless for a team’s regular-season prognosis.
The Vikings defense is one in dire need of rapid, on-the-fly maturity — if the team seeks to reach the postseason. Four preseason games would have enabled that development to begin crystallization sooner than Week 1 of the regular season. Indeed, all NFL teams were minus preseason action. But it might just be that the Vikings needed that scrimmage-like exposure for the youngsters to get some toes wet.
Then, the Schedule Opens Up
Here is the most exciting part: A win in Seattle would bolster the Vikings record to a less-panicky standing of 2-3. After that, the aimless Atlanta Falcons visit U.S. Bank Stadium. Then, Minnesota travels to Green Bay for a rivalry contest. Those two matchups should, in theory, result in 1-1 for the Vikings at the very least.
From Week 9 on, the quasi-serene portion of the schedule ensues. Have a peek: Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Carolina, Jacksonville are the next five opponents. None of these games will be easy because very few NFL games can be classified as such. What they are significantly less spooky than “at Seattle,” “at Green Bay” or “versus Tennessee.” A docket of Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers pivots to the likes of Nick Foles, Teddy Bridgewater, and Gardner Minshew II. The contrast is stark.
A Vikings loss to the Seahawks is not a doomsday, mail-it-in circumstance. There is still time to make a run amid the peaceful segment of the schedule no matter what happens this Sunday. But a win promptly restores veracity to the team’s lofty goals from a month ago.
Winning a football game, finally, in Seattle would be an absolutely idyllic component to rebound from an 0-3 start.