Are the Vikings getting enough love for how good they are?
By John Buhler
The Minnesota Vikings bludgeoned the Los Angeles Chargers to yet another victory this season. Is Mike Zimmer’s team getting enough for how good they are?
And just like that, the Minnesota Vikings won their 10th game of the season.
Minnesota improves to 10-4 on the season, as they demolished the Los Angeles Chargers in Carson on Sunday afternoon, 39-10. Just because they’re not leading the division doesn’t mean this Vikings team can’t contend for a Super Bowl. So why aren’t we giving Mike Zimmer’s team its due respect?
No, the Vikings aren’t getting enough love as they should this year. This is because the division-rival Green Bay Packers are 11-3. Green Bay is a Super Bowl contender for the first time in three seasons, but the Vikings might be the more dangerous team come playoff time. Fate would have it that these two rivals will be meeting next week in Minneapolis to largely decide the division.
Minnesota’s final two games are against division rivals the Vikings lost to earlier in the season in the Packers and the Chicago Bears. Getting both teams at home might mean Minnesota goes 12-4 and ends up with a top-two seed in the NFC playoff picture. As long as the Vikings can host playoff games in their dome, Minnesota has every reason to believe it can reach the Super Bowl.
What makes Minnesota such a dangerous team is that they can beat the opposition in a multitude of ways. This is the best season of Kirk Cousins’ NFL career out of Michigan State. He perfectly complements the superstar running back in the Minnesota backfield in Dalvin Cook. This offense is both explosive and incredibly versatile, making the Vikings a tough out every single week.
But what defines this team is Zimmer’s defense. The Vikings are always good on this side of the ball. They can neutralize the best offenses in football if need be. Should the Vikings have to get into a shootout, this Minnesota defense isn’t going to give up, even if it’s not playing up to its lofty standard in that particular game.
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In short, we’ve ignored the Vikings for much of this season because we don’t really trust Cousins to win the big game and we’ve seen this Minnesota defense-first team before under Zimmer. That being said, there is enough offensive firepower to make this year’s Vikings team potentially better than the 2017 team that hosted the NFC Championship Game. We need to respect this team now.