Super Bowl: Five Vikings teams that should have won it all

5. 1998 (15-1 regular season, Lost NFC championship game to Falcons)

Before there was Wide Left, there was Wide Left.

Of all the great Vikings teams that failed to even make a Super Bowl, the 1998 squad was probably the most disappointing. That team went 15-1 and did so in such all-annihilating fashion, it seemed impossible that anyone could even touch them in the playoffs.

After the regular season you honestly felt that the Vikings could go up against the Death Star. That’s how invincible that team seemed to be.

Who the hell could even hope to deal with that offense? Who could stop Randall Cunningham from chucking it deep to Randy Moss? Who could cover Cris Carter? Who could slow down Robert Smith?

It seemed a foregone conclusion that the Vikings would vanquish the Falcons at Metrodome and advance to their first Super Bowl since 1977. Until everything went completely wrong.

This is another game that will be picked apart forever. Why did Dennis Green go for another score at the end of the first half instead of sitting on the ball, a move that resulted in a turnover and a Falcons score? Why did Green take a knee at the end of regulation instead of going for the win right there?

How the hell could Gary Anderson miss a field goal to seal the game late in the fourth quarter after being perfect through the entire regular season? It was indoors. The ball wasn’t even frozen. The laces weren’t even pointed the wrong way.

It’s almost like the universe hates the Vikings.