Vikings Can Use Win over DET as Galvanizing Moment or Last Gasp
Somehow, wins for the 2021 Minnesota Vikings have found a way to be frustrating.
Those are strange words to read, but that was the sentiment at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday. Minnesota faced a clearly less talented opponent in the Detroit Lions, yet it absolutely refused to put the game out of reach.
Under Mike Zimmer, the Vikings rarely pile on the points gratuitously. The brand of football amid the last seven years is getting out to a two-score lead and then suffocating an opponent with rip-roaring defense. While the Vikings 2021 defense is markedly improving over the last few weeks, it is not akin to the 2017 or 2018 groups. They’re just not.
With that suffoocate-them mentality in mind, Zimmer chose to deprive the Lions oxygen — when the Vikings led by a mere seven points. The offense could not jell, managing to push lead out to only 10 points. Then, after a series of “of course that happened” events like an Alexander Mattison fumble, Detroit was poised to send Minnesota to a 1-4 record. And that would’ve brought the wrath of Odin down on the franchise.
The Lions tied the game, electing for a two-point conversion — and, of course, converting it. Thanks to Kirk Cousins, Minnesota marched down the field for a 54-yard game-winning field goal by Greg Joseph, who missed [short] a 49-yard field goal some minutes before. Had the contest been a playoff game — a weird example because the Lions are relatively unfamiliar with those — the win would be considered miraculous and on to the next one the purple team goes.
But this was a mandate regular season game with the Vikings at 10-point favorites. The Lions should’ve been battered and bruised. Instead, the emotion walking out of U.S. Bank Stadium from fans was “the Lions should’ve won that thing.”
The cliche goes “a win’s a win.” That mantra is accurate, rest assured. However, it seemed the Vikings kept that game close just for the heck of it. Week 5 could have been an opportunity to stretch legs and win by 21+ points. Nope.
Therefore, the implications of this win over Detroit are twofold. Foremost, the Vikings can use the win as a “the moment we came together” occasion. In 2017, Case Keenum and friends won a sloppy game at the Chicago Bears, giving birth to an eight-game win streak. During that Bears game, nobody on the planet knew the Vikings were actually good or capable of sprinting to the NFC Championship.
This can be that — if Zimmer and his team are ready to rise.
Otherwise, the Week 5 win is a last gasp of the Zimmer brand of Vikings. According to virtually all sportsbooks, Zimmer is already on the hotseat. Barely beating an 0-4 Detroit team does little to get one off such oddsmakers’ lists. In the last gasp scenario, the Vikings fall victim to a brutal upcoming schedule, implying the win over the Lions was a bad team beating a bad team. Lose the next two the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, and the Lions game, in retrospect, was a preview the team wasn’t good in the first place.
The frustrating part is not knowing. Zimmer has the roster pieces to make a postseason push. But the team has lost heartbreakers to the Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals. When they win squeakers like today, well, luck is the word to associate with the victory.
The game in Week 6 at Carolina will be the next chapter in “is this team good or not?”
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).