Vikings Fans Become Brady Fans for a Day
The New Orleans Saints have a reasonable pathway to the NFC playoffs — if they can upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Of course, that is a ginormous if, especially because Tom Brady is in charge of the Buccaneers, and Tampa Bay is at home. But it’s a division game, and stranger things have occurred.
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After the Saints road meeting with the Buccaneers, New Orleans faces this three-game remaining schedule: vs. Miami Dolphins, vs. Carolina Panthers, at Atlanta Falcons. Currently, the Saints are the NFC’s 11th-seed for playoff position with a 6-7 record — the same win-loss standing as the Vikings.
We’ve written ad nauseam about Minnesota’s quest to tally a 3-1 record in the last four games. While doing so, the Vikings would hypothetically have a better conference record than the Saints, so Minnesota would get the nod for the seventh seed in the NFC.
But if the Saints beat the Buccaneers — and then run the table — New Orleans marches into the postseason, again. A) The Vikings don’t want the Saints in the playoffs out of mutually assured hatred. B) They could possibly steal the Vikings spot.
The easiest way to alleviate the possibility is for Tom Brady and friends to take care of business over Taysom Hill’s Saints. Too, head coach Sean Payton will miss the game as he was placed on COVID reserve. Therefore, the deck is somewhat stacked against New Orleans. That — and Hill isn’t very good.
Nevertheless, this is a division rival showdown — Vikings fans can tell the masses all about how those get weird despite team records — and New Orleans’ defense is quite formidable. Per EPA/play, an analytical efficiency measurement, the Saints boast the NFL’s sixth-best defense in 2021. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility for New Orleans to punch Brady in the kisser.
If this Saints-Buccaneers hubbub is much ado about nothing and Tampa Bay is triumphant, well, Vikings fans turn attention to Tuesday Night Football when the Washington Football Team and Philadelphia Eagles do battle. Mathematically, the Vikings want the Eagles to win that ballgame based on playoff tiebreakers.
We’ll say it again — Minnesota probably won’t win the next four games. If they were capable of the feat, they wouldn’t have lost games to the Detroit Lions or Cooper Rush-led Dallas Cowboys already. Yet, based on the aforementioned tiebreakers, the Vikings will be in tremendous playoff-positioning shape if they win three out of the next games.
That’s why it’s imperative for the Saints to lose on Sunday, avoiding a scenario where New Orleans wins out and gets into the tournament.
Should the Vikings jiggle into the playoffs with a 9-8 record, they’ll likely hit the road for a date with the Packers, Cardinals, or — you guessed it — Buccaneers.
Brady’s Buccaneers are favored by 11.5 points to take care of business on Sunday night.
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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