Vikings Territory Breakdown: More Barn Burners in the Conference Championship
Please Don’t Let this Season End
Roger Goodell must have sent the playoff teams a letter saying,“if you can’t play closer games, we are going to contract you.” Well, maybe not, but after one of the most boring (due to blowouts) Wild Card Weekends of football, we saw four great Divisional games last weekend all coming down to the wire and followed that up with two more tight games in the Conference titles games. Or, perhaps, this is just what we should have expected after one of the most closely contested regular seasons on record. It looked going in to be the most wide-open postseasons in NFL history after that crazy regular season. We can only hope it continues in two weeks in Super Bowl LVI.
The two number 4 seeds at the outset of the playoffs—the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams—survived to advance to the big game. The Bengals fought back from a 21-3 deficit (tying a Conference championship record for comebacks) to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime and they now return to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1988.
The Cardiac Kids from Cincy travel to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where they will meet the Rams (who came back from double digits themselves to beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17)—which will be a home game for the Rams. With the best team that money can buy or be traded for, the Rams, led by quarterback Matthew Stafford in his first season in L.A., take on the Bengals, who drafted their big time QB Joe Burrows two seasons ago—and won just six games in those two seasons. The Super Bowl competitors demonstrated are two different ways to build a team to get there, and we will soon see whose method works out best this season.
Hopefully the Vikings will be watching, since they are trying to rebuild or retool since firing their coach and general manager at the end of the season. The Vikings hired a new GM, Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah last week and are hot on the trail to find a head coach. In that search, three candidates are bubbling to the surface, and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune will be on hand to walk us through the process on the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast. The Vikings—who lost to both Super Bowl contenders by just one score in each game—have a ways to go, but they appear on the right track and we’ll break it all down for you. Tune in and check it out some of these topics we will examine:
Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah was named right after left the air last week. Is the right man for the job? How did they not coordinate with us about our timing?
Vikings head coaching candidates include: Raheem Morris, Kevin O’Connell—and, like a bolt out of the blue, (or from Big Blue), Jim Harbaugh. We will have plenty to discuss on that one.
Pro Bowl preview—Kirk Cousins is named to the Pro Bowl. Giddiness abounds.
AFCCG review: Hubris before halftime—How the Chiefs tripped and fell on their own sword.
NFCCG review: A chippy and bloody battle of defense that the Rams survived. Is homefield enough to stop the amazing Bengals?
Tom Brady retires, or so we think. The GOAT is heading to pasture. It was a good (amazing) run.
The Vikings need to keep drafting QBs—that’s what this league is about.
Defense in the NFC; Offense in the AFC. What will be the right formula? What kind of SB dip are you serving? A preview of our Super Bowl preview next week.
Prediction segment recap: We have a winner! Mankato Beer goes to?
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Vikings Territory: Vikings-Related Surprises Ahead as Adofo-Mensah Settles into GM Role
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