Are the Minnesota Vikings about to put together a long winning streak?
There weren’t too many people who had much confidence in the Minnesota Vikings pulling off the upset over the NFC North-leading Green Bay Packers on Sunday and it wasn’t very hard to understand why there was a lack of faith in the purple and gold.
Minnesota had as many wins as Green Bay had losses heading into their Week 8 matchup and the contest was being played at Lambeau Field. But the Vikings did the unthinkable on Sunday as they came away with the win and as ESPN’s Chris Berman likes to say, “that’s why they play the games.”
While their victory over the Packers should certainly result in an increased amount of confidence for Minnesota, it will be interesting to see how long they can stretch the momentum they gained from Sunday.
Are the playoffs still a long shot for the Minnesota Vikings?
Despite their win over a one-loss Green Bay team, the results from this past weekend didn’t do much to change how the analytics community views the Vikings.
FiveThirtyEight still only has Minnesota with a 13 percent chance to make the playoffs this season and Football Outsiders has the purple and gold with an 8.3 percent chance to play extra football this year.
This was a topic that was also discussed by myself and fellow TVA staff member, Dustin Baker, on the latest episode of The Viking Age Podcast. Sunday’s win was certainly one that gave us confidence in the Vikings potentially putting together a string of victories during the next few weeks.
One factor that wasn’t discussed in the podcast is the possibility of the NFL adding two more playoff spots, meaning eight teams in each conference would make the postseason. This is something that the league reportedly discussed on Monday as an option if future games are forced to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If this actually happened, it would be great news for a team like Minnesota. The Vikings would still have to win the majority of their remaining games, but their chances of earning a spot in the playoffs would definitely be much higher.
3 trades the Vikings could make to get back to the playoffs
If the Minnesota Vikings still have their eye on getting to the playoffs this season, what trades could put them over the hump?
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