The Weirdest Vikings-Ravens Stat You Can Possibly Imagine
Dustin Baker
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The Baltimore Ravens want to get back on track in Week 9 after a thorough beatdown by the Cincinnati Bengals — who just lost the New York Jets — two weeks ago. John Harbaugh and Co. will give it a whirl against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
For the Vikings, Mike Zimmer’s team desperately seeks a victory after a pallid showing versus the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Minnesota lost 20-16, flailing on offense following the game’s first offensive drive and collapsing on defense down the stretch.
But for histrionics, the Vikings-Ravens tryst is more than just an NFC team traveling to an AFC city for battle. It’s a strange bellwether event.
For newcomer fans of the NFL, the Ravens are really the Cleveland Browns — not based on “they’re bad like the Browns were for 20 years.” Instead, the Ravens are quite literally the transference of the Browns. In November 1996, the Browns left Cleveland “in the middle of the night” to become the Baltimore Ravens. Think Minnesota North Stars and Dallas Stars. The NFL awarded Cleveland an expansion team three years later, coining themselves the Browns once again.
The Browns were allowed to keep their name and relatively rich history, while the Ravens were considered a standalone “new” franchise with some loose times to the Baltimore Colts from the Johnny Unitas days.
That’s all a setup to announce the Ravens have played the Vikings six times in franchise history. In those six meetings, the Vikings and Ravens have evenly split wins and losses with three apiece.
And here’s the weird part: In the seasons when the Vikings won against the Ravens, the team reached the NFC Championship — 1998, 2009, and 2017. During the seasons in which the Vikings lost to the Ravens, the head coach was terminated — 2001, 2005, and 2013.
If you’d like a visual of the odd statistic to share, here that is:
The 1998 Vikings were led by Randall Cunningham, Cris Carter, and rookie Randy Moss (and others, of course), bolting to the NFC Championship for a ghastly loss to the Atlanta Falcons. En route, they toppled the Ravens 38-28 in a Week 15 showdown.
In 2009, the Brett Favre-led Vikings beat a good Ravens team in Week 6, tallying Minnesota’s record to 6-0 in wild game.
Then in 2017, Case Keenum and friends defeated Baltimore 24-16 in Week 7, and that Ravens team was pretty average. But it did keep the Vikings unforeseen eight-game win streak afloat.
For the firings, Dennis Green was let go in the 2001 season, and the Vikings finished the season against Baltimore with Mike Tice in the saddle. Four years later, he, too, was fired [in the 2005 season], a campaign when the Vikings lost to the Ravens in Week 16, 30-23. Finally, Leslie Frazier was canned in 2013 — and Minnesota lost to Baltimore in an absolutely topsy-turvy Week 14 game in Maryland.
So, there you have it. This is bellwether stuff based on history. Most Vikings fans believe the “curse” will continue with the current skipper, Mike Zimmer, losing his job sometime this season because the Vikings are likely to lose in Baltimore on Sunday. Plus, Zimmer is already certifiably on the hot seat. The dots connect.
However, if they do not, well, history is strangely on the side of the Vikings to reach the NFC title game.
But, for the record, not the 1998, 2009, nor the 2017 Vikings owned a losing record when playing the Ravens amid the conference championship pushes. That’s the caveat.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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