After a loss in the NFC Championship last season, should the Minnesota Vikings settle for no less than a trip to “The Big Game” in 2018?
There’s always group of NFL teams, including the Minnesota Vikings, that enter every season without ever having brought their fans a Lombardi trophy. These teams now begin what is another arduous journey through an NFL season, with or without great expectations.
But every year in the NFL, there’s also a handful of teams that get the “Super Bowl or Bust’” sticker put on them. Perhaps they have reached the ceiling in salary expenditures, or collected several superlative players, or maybe they just got really, really close to that brass ring the year before.
Either way, it’s just not the right pressure that fans should put on teams or teams should put on themselves. Especially the Vikings and those who root for them.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. If Minnesota added Kahlil Mack and the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive line to their roster tomorrow, I would certainly say that anything less than a trip to the Super Bowl might be disappointing. But that’s not the case.
In 2016, the Vikings began the season by losing their beloved starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a non-contact injury that was the very definition of a freak incident. In Week 2, Minnesota’s future Hall of Fame running back, Adrian Peterson, was also lost for the season.
To pile onto those injuries, the Vikings’ offensive line had so many replacements due to infirmity that jersey numbers were at their limit.
In response to this utter chaos, Minnesota and quarterback Sam Bradford began the 2016 season with a 5-0 record and became everybody’s favorite to win Super Bowl. A clear national consensus.
But in the Vikings’ next two games, if anyone remembers, they lost a hard-fought matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles and then were embarrassed the next week in Chicago by the Bears.
Minnesota was still only 5-2, but the wheels had come off. They ended up losing eight of their last 11 games and finished the season with a disappointing 8-8 record.
For all of the Vikings fans who don’t care to recall that season, I don’t blame you.
But to make a point of this, when Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer was asked about that dumpster fire of a season, he confessed that his offensive line did not play well. Zimmer also said that the Vikings were fighters.
He didn’t make excuses for injuries and he said his team would play better in 2017.
And they did. In 2017, Minnesota lost another quarterback at the start of the season (Bradford this time) and had to hitch their now-shaky wagon to backup, journeyman Case Keenum.
A couple of weeks later, the Vikings were sitting at 2-2 and had to deal with the loss of their electrifying rookie running back, Dalvin Cook, to a season-ending ACL injury.
Ask the experts, your buddy, or the gal at the local coffee shop, and they’d all tell you Minnesota was toast.
In retrospect, Zimmer and Minnesota’s 2017 team gave fans their most memorable and exciting season since 2009, when Brett Favre came to town.
Minnesota Vikings
They went 13-3 last season, beat the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs with the year’s most exciting play, and then unfortunately lost on the road to the eventual NFL Champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Now in 2018, the Vikings’ front office have added quarterback Kirk Cousins, who they paid very handsomely. In addition to Cousins, Minnesota also brought in defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson this year.
No doubt, this is going to be a excellent football team. But there are several excellent football teams to be faced along that journey to the last game of the year. So let another team live with “Super Bowl or Bust” label.
The Vikings have a coach in Zimmer that’s going to fight and he’s built a team that’s going to do the same.
My expectation of this Minnesota Vikings team is in that fight–and in that journey that is an NFL season. My passion is in the play-by-play hustle and execution, the game-by-game stratagem.
If the Vikings disappoint me, I’ll let them know it. If they play well and win, I’ll celebrate. But even if they don’t win it all this season, I’ll still be back next year, expecting, but not demanding, a better performance.