STEELE SPORTS
After a week’s build-up of listening to the nay-sayers bash the Vikings as frauds and pretenders, there was nothing I was looking forward to more than watching analysts and internet keyboard warriors alike eat their words.
Unfortunately for Vikings fans, the only point that our team proved is that we are indeed capable of the statistically improbable.
With Minnesota’s 31-24 loss to the New York Giants, the Vikings were officially eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by a team that we had previously beaten just three weeks prior.
To add insult to injury, the Vikings made a bit of history by losing in such a fashion to the Giants.
Throughout the course of the game, Minnesota completed 80% of its passes with no turnovers and no sacks – stats that would seem to correlate with a winning football team.
According to OPTA Stats, over the course of NFL history, teams who have achieved all three of these stats in a game have compiled a record of 47-0… that is, until last Sunday.
By losing to the Giants, the Vikings not only became the first team in league history to accomplish the wrong end of such a feat, but they also proved to fans that the rebuilding process is, in fact, not over.
It’s hard to fault a head coach and offensive-minded talent like Kevin O’Connell for losing the game when his offense was achieving solid numbers based on the advanced metrics; however, management will surely take a closer look at some of the pieces around him.
The elephant in the room will surely be the employment status of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, whose defense ranked 31st in the league against the pass and proved to be the kryptonite of a promising season.
For Vikings fans, the positive news that comes from this past weekend’s result is that the team should have a fairly simple plan for the upcoming draft: select defensive players.
Luckily for the Vikings, the first round of the NFL Draft should be stockpiled with talented defensive options boasting good news for the team’s outlook.
It will undoubtedly be a long off-season of “what if’s” that Vikings fans will have to deal with, but if there is anything I know about the purple and gold faithful, it’s that we will surely be ready to go all in and be hurt again next year.