There is nothing fraudulent about the Vikings in 2022

Instead of praising them for defying the odds during the 2022 season, some have resorted to the lazy argument that the Minnesota Vikings are frauds.

Some call it magical, while others might describe it as defying the odds. But for some reason, the 12-3 Minnesota Vikings are labeled as frauds by some in the national media.

For whatever reason, people don’t want to believe in the success of the Vikings this season, despite winning 12 of their first 15 games, already capturing the NFC North crown, and beating the current No. 1 seed in the AFC in the Buffalo Bills on the road back in Week 10.

Why have other NFL teams from the past that exceeded their preseason expectations been given the benefit of the doubt by the majority of the public and not Minnesota?

Labeling the Minnesota Vikings as frauds is not even factually correct

According to Oxford’s English dictionary, a fraud is defined as “a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.”

What exactly is fraudulent about the Vikings this season?

Minnesota has been the consensus favorite by oddsmakers in 11 of their games this season. The Vikings’ record in these 11 contests? Well, that would be 11-0.

In Minnesota’s other four games, they were the consensus underdog by oddsmakers. Unsurprisingly, the Vikings have a 1-3 record in these four matchups, with their lone win coming over the Bills (a 6.5-point favorite) in Week 10.

Week 10 is actually the only instance where the word fraud could be used to describe Minnesota this season, as they should have lost based on their other results this year.

Some like to point to performance-based metrics like DVOA from Football Outsiders when attempting to discredit the Vikings’ success this season.

But when we refer to the most recent DVOA rankings heading into Week 17, Minnesota hasn’t lost to a team with a lower overall DVOA ranking than them this year, and all three of the Vikings’ losses this season have come against teams that currently have a higher DVOA ranking than them.

Minnesota has defeated nine teams with a better overall DVOA ranking than them this year. But, once again, the Vikings were favored by oddsmakers to win eight of these nine matchups (Buffalo being the lone non-favored contest). So it’s difficult to label these victories by Minnesota as fraudulent since they were expected to win the majority of them.

Currently, the Vikings are three-point underdogs in their matchup with the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, according to the FanDuel Sportsbook.

Past results from this season would indicate that there’s a good chance that Minnesota will end up with a loss this week. However, maybe the Vikings’ should live up to their so-called “frauds” label and win another game where they’re not the favorites, which would also end up preventing the Packers from making the playoffs.

That would just be a shame, wouldn’t it?