What are the Vikings’ playoff chances heading into Week 14?

With four games remaining in the 2018 season, what is the likelihood that the Minnesota Vikings will end up with a spot in the playoffs?

On Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings had a huge opportunity to pick up another win and inch even closer to first place in the NFC North after the Chicago Bears suffered a surprising loss to the New York Giants.

However, the Vikings were not able to come out with a victory in their Week 13 matchup against the New England Patriots. With the loss, Minnesota is still a game and a half behind the Bears for first place in the NFC North.

Luckily for the Vikings, they are still in a good position to make the playoffs this year despite their loss to the Patriots. Thanks to the Washington Redskins losing to the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, Minnesota would be the No. 6 seed in the NFC bracket if the regular season ended after Week 13.

But the year isn’t over just yet as the Vikings still have four more games to play.

Heading into their Week 14 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks, FiveThirtyEight.com currently has Minnesota with a 60 percent chance to make the playoffs this season. A win over the Seahawks would improve the Vikings’ postseason chances to 86 percent while a loss would see those chances drop to 43 percent.

FiveThirtyEight also has Minnesota with a 20 percent chance to win the NFC North his year heading into Week 14. With a win and a Chicago loss on Sunday, the Vikings’ chances to win the division this season would increase to 50 percent.

Unfortunately, with their loss to the Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams winning in Week 13, Minnesota can no longer finish as the top seed in the NFC this year.

However, the Vikings are still hanging onto a very tiny chance (less than one percent) that they can earn a first-round bye in this season’s playoffs. For this to actually happen, Minnesota would have to win all of their remaining games and also hope for a bunch of other shenanigans to go down.

Chances of this actually happening are very slim, but stranger things have gone on during the final stretch of an NFL season (especially for the Vikings).

Before they worry about first-round byes or division titles though, Minnesota’s main focus is on defeating the Seahawks this week and improving their shot at just earning a berth in this year’s playoffs.