Harrison Smith & Mike ZImmer
You can feel it in your bones. This Minnesota Vikings season has been weird.
It could get even weirder on Sunday night (or in Week 18) from a statistical standpoint.
All of these tight damn games are adding up – at an unprecedented pace for the NFL. Through Week 16 of 2021, the Vikings have participated in 14 games decided by eight points or fewer. Depending on your definition of “one-score games,” that is 93% of all games in 2021. Every Vikings game sans one has been close.
Fourteen games within eight points or fewer ties an NFL record – and the Vikings cold break the “record” as early as Sunday night.
If the Vikings contest with Packers is decided by a margin of eight or less, Minnesota will have played the most games in a single season with close margins. That’s how weird the 2021 campaign has transpired for Mike Zimmer’s bunch.
Unfortunately for the Vikings sake, they’re on the losing end of too many close games this year. Minnesota has won just six of the 14 close games, resulting in a disappointing .429 win percentage. Winning 42.9% of the time ranks 19th leaguewide for the eight-point-margin metric. Put simply – the Vikings are playing in oodles of close games and losing more than they’re winning. That’s problematic for a head coach on the hot seat, as is Zimmer.
Perhaps the Packers will do the Vikings a “favor” and wipe them off the map Sunday night. Because Minnesota toppled Green Bay twice in a row, the Vikings are arguably due for a reckoning. The most significant wildcard, though, for Sunday Night Football is temperature. The game is slated to be one of the coldest NFL games in recent memory and only the fourth time ever that the Vikings and Packers have met in January.
What’s more, the Vikings need a win at Lambeau Field to survive. Zimmer’s postseason hopes are now a dim flicker, requiring teams such as the Eagles and Saints to help out with losses.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”915667″ player=”26279″ title=”5%20potential%20candidates%20to%20replace%20Minnesota%20Vikings%20head%20coach%20Mike%20Zimmer” duration=”184″ description=”If/when Mike Zimmer gets fired in Minnesota, who are some top head-coaching candidates to take over the Vikings? Here are five we’ve hand-selected.” uploaddate=”2021-12-07″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/snapshot/915617_s_1638839200091.png” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/streaming/915617/915617.m3u8″]
If the Vikings beat the Packers and Bears [in Week 18], they’ll need the Eagles and Saints to lose one game apiece. Then, Zimmer punches his ticket to the playoffs for the fourth time in eight seasons.
And if the Vikings do beat Green Bay and Chicago, you can wager your mortgage — the score margin of each game will be within eight points.
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).