The Moments That Ruined the Vikings’ Season
The Minnesota Vikings are currently separated by one win from playing the Green Bay Packers this weekend for a playoff trip on the line. All the club would have needed was one more win — somewhere — for the Week 18 matchup to be for all the marbles. That didn’t happen. Instead, a handful of moments ruined Minnesota’s season.
By January, the season’s story has not involved a singular collapse. Little stuff that stacked up, stole oxygen, and left Minnesota out in the cold.
With the benefit of hindsight, the ruinous moments are now plain to see.
The Turning Points That Quietly Sank Minnesota’s 2025 Season
Listed in chronological order, these moments daggered the Vikings in 2025.
1. J.J. McCarthy’s Week 2 High Ankle Sprain
McCarthy engineered a fantastic moment in his NFL start at Chicago, daggering the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in the 4th Quarterback — an opponent that would later win the NFC North, but nobody knew it at the time. The young passer had momentum galore and even won the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award.
One week later, McCarthy played cluelessly at home against the Atlanta Falcons, suffering a high ankle sprain along the way. Folks didn’t know it at the time, but that injury utterly doomed the Vikings.
McCarthy would return a month later and play quite poorly for a few games before turning the corner in his seventh career start. In that game and the following 1.5 contests, McCarthy played like a Pro Bowler, only to suffer a hairline hand fracture, which knocked him out of Week 16 and the Christmas Day game against the Detroit Lions.
Here’s why the high ankle sprain ruined everything: if McCarthy was destined to struggle for about five or six games, he needed to “get that out of the way” during Minnesota’s easy schedule stretch in September and October. If one assumes he could have stayed healthy, the good version of McCarthy would have arrived in October and stuck around for the rest of the season, when Minnesota needed him the most.
Instead, McCarthy’s in-season growth and development were stunted by the high ankle sprain. When he returned, he hadn’t turned the corner yet into a productive passer, and the Vikings lost to the Ravens and Bears — dooming most playoff aspirations.
2. The Cowboys-Packers Tie
Back when Micah Parsons was healthy, and Dallas still carried legitimate playoff momentum, Green Bay and the Cowboys played to a Week 4 tie in Arlington. It was the kind of back-and-forth game audiences usually love, heavy on scoring and light on resistance.
The consequence didn’t surface until much later. That tie now sits between Minnesota and the postseason. Flip it into a Packers loss and Green Bay drops to 9–7, leaving the Vikings at 8–8 with a clear path entering Week 18.
A Minnesota win this Sunday would have been enough under that scenario. Instead, the Sunday Night Football draw is frozen in time, quietly erasing the Vikings’ playoff math months after it happened.
3. 3rd and 9 against the Eagles
While McCarthy was healing from the aforementioned high ankle sprain, Carson Wentz got the nod for his personal “revenge game,” which turned out to feature absolutely zero revenge. We have the hindsight of history to know that Wentz played through a torn labrum, and against his former team, the struggles were prominent.
Because of Brian Flores’ hellishly good defense, though, Minnesota remained in the contest throughout, flirting with the prospect of defeating the Eagles.
Then, a 4th Quarter 3rd and 9 situation happened. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts delivered a strike to wide receiver A.J. Brown, and that sealed the deal.
Had this pass fallen incomplete, Minnesota would have gotten the ball with a chance to drive and win, a dream setup for Wentz’s revenge arc.
Remember — the Vikings needed just one more win from somewhere to have the upcoming Week 18 game be for all the marbles against Green Bay. Snuffing out Hurts and Brown in the clip above would have given Kevin O’Connell and Co. a chance.
4. The Bears’ Kickoff Return
McCarthy returned from the high ankle sprain midseason, and two weeks after helping his team beat the Detroit Lions, Minnesota took on the Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium. The young passer played horribly for about 2 hours and 45 minutes of real-life time.
Until the Vikings’ final offensive possession, McCarthy came alive and led a would-be game-winning drive. His team led 17-16 with 50 seconds left. All the special teams had to do was tackle Bears return man Devin Duvernay at a normal spot on the field — like the 25 or 30 yard line. Too much to ask.
Instead, Duvernay fired off this return:
That Vikings gaffe set the Bears up beautifully for a game-winning field goal, and Chicago did not disappoint.
Had a Vikings special teamer tackled Duvernay, Minnesota would have an inside track to the postseason right now — winner take all between Minnesota and Green Bay in Week 18.
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