Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert
As the implications grew clear of Sunday's game at the Metrodome, I started making a mental list of the "big games" Minnesota has faced during its seven-year hiatus from a division title.
(Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press ran through a similar exercise, taking readers back to 1997. Check it out here.)
Since winning the NFC Central in 2000, the Vikings have lost every regular season game that carried direct playoff implications. And even if you look at their title in 2000, you remember they clinched the division on the final day of the season only when Tampa Bay lost a 1 p.m. game. The Vikings then went out and lost a 4 p.m. game at Indianapolis, their third consecutive loss to end the regular season.
Let's look at the list I came up with first and then we'll have a few words to say about it:
- 2003: The Vikings lost 18-17 at Arizona in Week 17, giving up a touchdown pass on the final play. A victory would have clinched the division. The loss knocked them from the playoffs altogether.
- 2004(a): The winner of the Vikings' Week 16 game against Green Bay would clinch the division. The Packers won 34-31 at the Metrodome, scoring 10 unanswered fourth-quarter points.
- 2004(b): A victory at Washington during the season's final weekend would have clinched a wild-card spot. The Vikings lost 21-18 and finished the regular season 8-8. Later that afternoon, they advanced only because of other results.
- 2005: Victories against Pittsburgh in Week 15 and/or at Baltimore in Week 16 would have lifted the Vikings into the playoffs as a wild-card. They lost at home to the Steelers 18-3 and at Baltimore 30-23.
- 2007: A home victory against Washington would have given the Vikings a wild-card berth. They lost 32-21.
- 2008: A home victory against Atlanta would have clinched the division. The Vikings lost 24-17 amid four turnovers.
There is no doubt this franchise and its fans have a growing complex about its clutch-less performances. You could feel it when you walked into the Metrodome last Sunday: Nervous anticipation of what will go wrong rather than excitement about what might happen. And that's been the feeling this week in the Twin Cities as this Sunday's game approached against the New York Giants, especially after watching Chicago pull out an overtime victory Monday night against Green Bay.
Receiver Bobby Wade is in his second season with the Vikings but already seems to have a deep understanding of its karmic disadvantage. Here's an exchange Wade had with reporters earlier this week:
Are you surprised it's come down to this?
Bobby Wade: No, I'm not. We've had several opportunities to take care of our own business and do it our own way. But unfortunately it hasn't worked out. We've played a lot of worthy opponents that are worthy of beating us. If it was easy, I don't think it would have been the Minnesota way. It's definitely tough, and we make it tough on ourselves. But I think this is the week we get a win.
Why do you think this is the Minnesota way?
BW: It's just that nothing seems easy. Nothing in this game is easy, but you evaluate a lot of little things --- the breaks, different calls on the field, all kinds of stuff. Ball bouncing, all that stuff. Nothing really kind of just falls our way too much. Hopefully this week we do our part where we don't have to rely on a lot of external things.
Do you think that a past mentality has rubbed off on this team?
BW: We obviously are extremely optimistic that even when things don't go our way ... things are going to go our way. As far as our mood and our mindset, we still feel like things are going to bounce our way. It just doesn't always.
And a few people were tightening up this week at the Vikings practice facility. Coach Brad Childress, for one, misinterpreted a question about backing into the playoffs and responded with a mildly defensive diatribe about the merits of a 10-win season. The Vikings can clinch the division even if they lose Sunday, but Childress seemed armed for questions about how legitimate a victory over the Giants would be considering they will probably rest some of their starters.
Childress referenced the final game of former coach Mike Tice's tenure in 2005, a 34-10 victory over a Chicago team that had already clinched the division and played mostly backups. The game gave Tice a 9-7 record that season and has been cited often in comparison to Childress' 6-10 record in 2006 and 8-8 in 2007.
Here's what Childress said:
"I very rarely see any [media] talk about Mike Tice's 9-7 [record] against a Bears team that [had nothing to play for]. It's cited as Mike Tice's 9-7 without an asterisk. ... I would think that 10-6 against a Giants team that is Super Bowl champions, regardless of who shows up and plays, is 10-6 without an asterisk. Double digits in this league is hard to accomplish any way you want to cut it."
NFL teams change so much from year to year that it's hard to draw common threads through a decade of play. Since their last division title, the Vikings have changed ownership and hired two new coaches. They've had four different offensive coordinators and six defensive coordinators. The only players remaining from the 2000 team are center Matt Birk and tight end Jim Kleinsasser.
But I can tell you from first-hand experience that Sunday's loss to the Falcons was pretty similar to the franchise's other failings during this decade. The good news is the Vikings have another chance to shed this context Sunday at the Metrodome.
Seifert joined ESPN.com in 2008 after covering the Minnesota Vikings for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for eight years. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and daughter.
