Are the Vikings a legit contender?
By John Buhler
The Minnesota Vikings are 7-3 through 10 games this season. They look to be pretty good, but are they a legitimate contender in the NFC?
The Minnesota Vikings certainly asserted themselves as one of the six best teams in the NFC last week. Minnesota won a high-profile game on the road against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football to improve to 7-3 on the year. The Vikings look to be for real, but are they a legitimate contender this year in the NFC (6:19)?
On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former Vikings offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, take a look at the Vikings’ resume and see if they are good enough to hang with the very best the NFC will have to offer come playoff time.
“I wouldn’t count them out, but this is the first time we’ve seen [Kirk] Cousins in a long time play very well in a primetime game,” said Schwartz. “He’s now 3-9-1 against teams over .500 in his career. He has just not done a good job in these type of moments, so I want to see a little bit more from him in this moment. We’ll see more down the stretch in more primetime games…”
If you can read between the lines, Schwartz wants to like the Vikings because of Mike Zimmer’s defense and the breakout season from Dalvin Cook in the running game, but he’s not sold on Cousins playing well consistently. That being said, we’ve seen Cousins play some of his best ball in his NFL career out of Michigan State this year. If that continues, the Vikings will be in good shape.
Minnesota is still in the mix to win the NFC North this year but does trail the Green Bay Packers by a game. However, the Vikings have an opportunity to pick up half a game in the standings by beating the Denver Broncos at home. The Packers are on bye and will play their next game on the road against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football in Week 12. Good look with that.
Overall, the Vikings look to be in prime position to be one of the six teams to reach the NFC playoffs this season. A win over Denver would make them 8-3 and 10 wins will probably ensure a team in this conference at least a spot in the postseason as a Wild Card team.
Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:
- Who is the frontrunner in the NFC? (5:00)
- What was the biggest upset of Week 10? (7:41)
- Do the Bengals get the No. 1 pick? (43:25)
- Verderame says put up or shut up to Chiefs (46:00)
All this and more!
dark. Next. Minnesota Vikings: Has Kirk Cousins redeemed himself?
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