Several hours before taking the field against the Dallas Cowboys on "Sunday Night Football," the Minnesota Vikings knew they'd already been officially eliminated from postseason contention, which came to pass when the Chicago Bears secured a 31-3 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field.
But that didn't stop the Vikes from going out and giving their all against America's Team, ultimately taking a 34-26 victory. The Minnesota defense couldn't completely slow down the Cowboys' high-octane offensive attack, but Brian Flores' unit made some stops at the right time and did hold Dak Prescott to zero touchdown passes.
And on the offensive side of the ball, J.J. McCarthy shook off an early interception on a tipped pass on the second play of the game and went on to have one of the best games of his young career, earning a 108.0 passer rating after completing 15 of 24 passes for a career-high 250 yards with two touchdown passes, while also adding a 1-yard touchdown run.
With the win, the Vikings played a spoiler of sorts, as the Cowboys were officially eliminated from wild-card contention and now have basically zero shot of catching the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East race.
So, that had to make Minnesota feel fantastic, especially given the longtime rivalry between these two franchises. And moving forward, the Vikes could conceivably play this spoiler role a couple of more times against a pair of NFC North rivals.
Minnesota Vikings have a shot to hurt both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers down the stretch of the regular season
While the Vikings' Week 16 matchup with the two-win New York Giants has no bearing on the NFC playoff picture, their final two games certainly could, as they square off with the Detroit Lions in Week 17 and the Green Bay Packers in Week 18.
The Lions, who Minnesota took down back in Week 9 by a score of 27-24 behind a three-touchdown game from McCarthy (two passing, one rushing), currently sit in the No. 8 position in the NFC standings after falling to 8-6 on Sunday with a 41-34 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams.
Nevertheless, Detroit, which sits in third place in the division behind the Bears (10-4) and Packers (9-4-1), still has a shot at both a wild-card slot and the NFC North title.
It'll be interesting to see how things stand when Week 17 rolls around, but the Vikings could very well find themselves in a position to officially eliminate the Lions from contention by completing the season sweep on Christmas Day.
The Packers are a bit better off than the Lions, but did see themselves fall into the final wild-card slot on Sunday with a 34-26 loss to the Denver Broncos. And to make matters worse, they also lost Micah Parsons to a torn ACL.
That said, Green Bay can retake possession of first place in the division this week by beating the Bears. But even if that happens, the division could easily still be on the line come Week 18.
It's not likely the Packers will miss the playoffs altogether, but if the Vikings can win the border battle and keep Green Bay from winning the division, that would obviously be a nice way to end the season.