Following their loss 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings will enter the 2024 playoffs as the No. 5 seed in the NFC. Up first for the Vikings in the postseason is an opening-round matchup on the road against the Los Angeles Rams next Monday, January 13.
Just like Minnesota, the Rams finished their regular season with a loss on Sunday, but the catch is that they weren't playing most of their top players, as they clinched the NFC West title last week.
This will be the second time the Vikings will travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams this season, as the two teams met back in Week 8 inside SoFi Stadium, and Los Angeles was able to emerge with a 30-20 victory.
Sam Darnold throws for a season-low in Minnesota Vikings disappointing loss to the Detroit Lions
Coming off a marvelous Week 17 performance against the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold had one of his worst games in a Vikings uniform in Sunday's loss to the Lions.
Darnold only completed 43.9 percent of his passes for just 166 yards and finished with a 55.5 passer rating. According to PFF, he was pressured 16 times in the contest, and that clearly had a big impact on his performance.
The plays were there for Minnesota to make all game long against Detroit. But Darnold and the Vikings went 0-for-4 in the red zone and 0-for-3 on fourth down, and that's not something that they were going to be able to overcome against a team as talented as the Lions.
On the plus side, Minnesota still finishes the regular season with an impressive 14-3 record, and their 14 wins are the second-most in a single season in the history of the franchise. But the Vikings also get the unwanted honor of becoming the first 14-win squad in NFL history to enter the playoffs as a wild-card team.
With the game taking place on a Monday, Minnesota will have an extra day to prepare for its first-round postseason matchup against the Rams. If the Vikings are able to come out of that contest with a win, there's a good chance that they could be heading right back to Detroit to face the Lions for the third time this season.