Whether you like it or not, it seems like every single year the Vikings find a way to make winning a game in the NFL seem very hard. That’s because it is hard, year after year the skill gap between good teams, average teams, and bad teams is becoming thinner and thinner. We see bad teams win all the time. Week 3 the Colts beat the Chiefs. So far 2 of the 3 wins for the Vikings have been pretty tough on them. You might say well wait they just are not that good, or they get lucky. That absolutely can be the case, but when you look around the NFL today games are close and crazy stuff happens all the time. You don’t get style points, or points for losing a close one. Wins are wins and in a league full of stars they are hard to get.
A look around the league:
In week 4 of the NFL season half of the games were decided by 1 touchdown or less. This is a constant every week. Two games I would like to look at are the Vikings vs. Saints and Packers vs. Patriots.
The Vikings narrowly beat the saints 28-25. This game took place in London and with the top 3 offensive players on the Saints out, many people projected this to be a cake walk for the Vikings. However due to a number of things, the VIkings let this game almost slip out of their hands. This is in part due to them doing lots of things poorly, but that’s not the point. Year after year the Vikings find ways to win games that are very close.
The Packers beat the Patriots by 3 points in overtime on Sunday. The Patriots started with Brian Hoyer the back up, but he suffered an injury and had to play rookie QB Bailey Zappe. This should be a point where the Packers took over the game. Clearly they didn’t. Any player can perform on any day and that’s exactly what happened.
What does this mean?
Great teams win no matter what. If they have a bad day on offense, then the defense steps up and changes the game, and vice versa. The VIkings have found a way on numerous occasions to win ugly, teams always want to win. They will put their absolute best product on the field and if you don’t answer then you see games get out of hand. Players in the NFL are so talented that a good team is just a few things away from being bad and it goes the other way too. Teams in the NFL are very close in skill. When someone has an off day the other team can swoop in. The Vikings have flaws, but every week they grind and work to change those things. They will win any way possible, that is what will take this team far. Their resilience and grit will win them games, and some luck can be nice.
