VT Breakdown: Vikings Feast on the Pats—The Jets are Next
Joe Oberle
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We all knew the Vikings would play better against the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving Night than they did against the Dallas Cowboys four days prior. They couldn’t have played worse. We feared they might only just compete and then finally lose a close, one-score game to an inferior team. They were due for that. We hoped for another last-minute Purple victory and didn’t care how we got it. In the end, the Vikings made another dramatic, fourth-quarter comeback, requiring all facets of their team to chip in to secure it. And we got it with an exciting 33-26 win.
The Vikings righted their listing ship; got their wheels back on track, course-corrected their wandering ways (pick a cliché’) and are now 9-2 with a big lead in the division and feeling pretty about getting through the toughest part of their schedule by winning two of three games.
There are definite issues on this team (injured secondary exposing depth, middle of the field vulnerability on defense either due to scheme or personnel, a running game that cannot get rolling early enough to make the offense two-dimensional, a kicker whose propensity to miss extra points is looming like Mike Myers on Halloween to jump up and cost them a game). They must be addressed going forward—and they are in the midst of 10 days without a game to do it.
Should the Vikings go for 2pts after EVERY TD? The Math seems to say yes…
Of course, this all must be discussed. Mark Craig from the Star Tribune joins Joe Oberle from vikingsterritory and purplePTSD to do jus that on the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast. Who are these Vikings? They seem to exist on the edge of resilience in close games and egg-laying in the face of equal or better opponents. They benefit from good luck while having some bad calls go against them. They play great at times in ways that give their fan base hope and then flop so epically that the ghosts of failures past rise up like zombies through the turf. We will discuss it all and preview what’s next, as the New York Jets fly into town in a week. Tune in and check it out