Week 10 of the 2025-26 NFL season will feature one matchup that could have massive playoff implications. The Baltimore Ravens travel to face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday in their eighth all-time meeting. Fans of the latter squad, if they know their history, are well aware of the dichotomous potential this matchup carries.
The Vikings have won three of their seven meetings and each time the team went on to appear in that season's NFC Championship Game. In the seasons Minnesota fell to Baltimore, it wound up dismissing its head coach.
Date | Score | Season Result |
|---|---|---|
11/7/2021 | BAL 34 MIN 31 | Mike Zimmer fired |
10/22/2017 | MIN 24 BAL 16 | NFC Championship |
12/8/2013 | BAL 29 MIN 26 | Leslie Frazier fired |
10/18/2009 | MIN 33 BAL 31 | NFC Championship |
12/25/2005 | BAL 30 MIN 23 | Mike Tice fired |
1/7/2002 | BAL 19 MIN 3 | Dennis Green fired |
12/13/1998 | MIN 38 BAL 28 | NFC Championship |
The Ravens have held the key to Vikings' Super Bowl hopes
The Vikings haven't appeared in a Super Bowl since 1977, but since the Ravens became an NFL franchise in 1996, they've seemingly determined whether the team's fans get their hopes back up or run the head coach out of town.
In 1998, Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham threw for 345 yards and two touchdowns to lead his team to victory in Week 15. He outdueled Ravens QB Jim Harbaugh, ironically the brother of current Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh. The win helped the Vikings clinch the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC, but ultimately the Atlanta Falcons pulled off an overtime upset to play in Super Bowl XXXIII.
Subsequently in 2009, future Hall of Famer Brett Favre threw for fewer yards than youngster Joe Flacco in their Week 6 battle. The Vikings remained undefeated and earned a No. 2 seed in the playoffs before Favre infamously threw a game-sealing interception against the eventual Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints.
In 2017, the unlikely Case Keenum led Minnesota back to the conference championship, but not before manhandling Flacco and Co. in Week 7. Baltimore didn't find the end zone until the final second of regulation. The Vikings received a similar treatment from the Philadelphia Eagles who went on to win Super Bowl LII, ironically, in Minneapolis.
On the other side of the coin, Baltimore's victories over Minnesota have been relatively close. In three of the four matchups, the final score was decided by one score and the Vikings entered with a losing record already. Four of the team's previous five head coaches (prior to O'Connell) were fired after those poor seasons. Technically, Dennis Green was fired before Minnesota's Week 17 bout with Baltimore, but the point still stands.
So, if Minnesota emerges victorious on Sunday then Vikings fans should start saving up to book tickets to this year's NFC Championship Game. Though, again, if history is any indicator, there's no Super Bowl trip to look forward to.
Ravens vs. Vikings 2025: Will the pattern continue?
It should just be noted that current head coach Kevin O'Connell is very unlikely to be fired even if Minnesota were to lose on Sunday. The team may be headed toward completing a regression from last year's 14-win campaign but there's little evidence to suggest O'Connell would be dismissed after just one year with 2024 first-round QB J.J. McCarthy under center.
On Sunday, the Vikings will be home dogs against the Ravens who looked like a shell of themselves in the first half of the season. Now Baltimore appears to be waking up and O'Connell, McCarthy and Co. will have their hands full at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Baltimore is 12th in the league in points-per-game (25.3) this season and they'll be squaring off with the league's 14th-best defense which has allowed 21 total touchdowns in eight games to date. The margin of victory will come down to turnovers and both teams are in the red this year. Minnesota (-4) and Baltimore (-3) have turned the ball over more often than not. The team that secures the ball best will emerge victorious.
If Minnesota were to pull the upset, it could be an indication it too is kicking things back into gear after the team entered the season with Super Bowl aspirations. With eight games to play after this week, there's plenty of runway for the 4-4 (potentially 5-4) Vikings to make a playoff run. Who knows, if they get hot then they could prove this trend still has legs.
NFL superstitions: Which franchises have been kryptonite to NFL teams?
Some NFL teams just have the number of a certain opponent and then some can signal prosperity, like with the above case.
For example, the New York Giants own a 5-16 record against the Philadelphia Eagles since 2015 and the Las Vegas Raiders are 3-18 against the Kansas City Chiefs in that same span.
Bears fans know all too well about their curse when facing the Green Bay Packers. The team hasn't beaten Green Bay twice in a single season (or twice in a row) since 2007. Coincidentally, that was the last year the Bears appeared in a Super Bowl (XLI).
Sometimes a pattern is just a pattern but in sports superstitions can reign over more rational minds. Whatever the result ends up being on Sunday between Baltimore and Minnesota, we'll get a clearer verdict on that pattern by the end of the season.