What must the Vikings do to win next season’s Super Bowl?

Stay humble

In each of the past few seasons, the Vikings have ended up on the losing side of a matchup that originally tagged them as a heavy favorite. Minnesota’s players and coaches usually just say that these games are nothing to worry about, but these performances are still inexcusable.

No one from the Vikings will ever admit it, but they didn’t think for a second that the Buffalo Bills had a chance to defeat them in their Week 3 matchup last season. But as everyone already knows, the Bills did end up beating Minnesota inside U.S. Bank Stadium and the loss ended up playing a factor in the Vikings missing the playoffs in 2018.

If Minnesota had actually given Buffalo a little respect, they probably would’ve left the field with a win. But the Vikings basically took a victory over the Bills for granted and Minnesota ended up actually being the team that had the embarrassing performance.

In 2019, the Vikings are probably going to have a few similar games where they end up being heavy favorites once again. But this time, Minnesota should go into these matchups knowing that they are capable of being defeated by any team in the league on any given day, no matter what.

For the most part, the Vikings won pretty much all of the games that they were supposed to last season. But their loss to Buffalo and their Week 15 defeat at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts in 2016 are the types of outcomes Minnesota must avoid in 2019 if their Super Bowl aspirations truly have a shot at becoming a reality.