Super Bowl: Five Vikings teams that should have won it all
By Dan Zinski
1. 1970 (12-2 regular season, lost in first round of playoffs to San Francisco)
The 1969 Vikings went to the Super Bowl only to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Vikes came roaring back in 1970, going 12-2 and winning the NFC Central by two games over the Lions. It looked like the Vikes were on their way to another Super Bowl appearance until one terrible day ruined everything.
The Vikes were heavy favorites going into their first-round playoff game against the 10-3-1 San Francisco 49ers. The game was at Metropolitan Stadium and not a single rational human being thought the Vikings had a chance of losing that day. So naive.
The supposed underdog 49ers were undeterred by the single-digit temperatures, the cement-like turf and the skull-crushingly-great defense lining up across from them. Niners quarterback John Brodie said screw you to all the factors aligned against him and had a great game passing and running, throwing one touchdown pass and rushing for another score.
Turnovers ultimately were a huge factor for the Vikings. Minnesota scored a first quarter TD when Hall of Famer Paul Krause recovered a fumble and ran it in from 22 yards out. But the Vikings themselves would turn the ball over an unforgivable four times on the day, killing their own scoring chances and putting undue pressure on their defense. I guess the ball was extra-slippery in the cold?
Thanks to Vikings mistakes and John Brodie’s lights-out play, San Francisco scored 17 unanswered points from the first quarter until late in the fourth. The Vikings scored a too-little-too-late TD on their last possession to make the final score 17-14 in favor of San Francisco.
It should be noted that super-reliable Vikings kicker Fred Cox missed two field goals on the day as well (no school kids sent him consolation drawings). Bud Grant summed up the effort after the game (via Milwaukee Sentinel):
"“We haven’t been a team prone to errors,” Coach Bud Grant said. “We have been the least penalized, we don’t drop many passes. In many of the areas we excel at we broke down today. But you can contribute some of that to the 49ers.”"
One of the all-time best Vikings teams had to go home and watch the Colts beat the Cowboys in the Super Bowl, knowing it should have been them in the big game instead of Dallas.