The Viking ship is setting sail for the postseason.
The Minnesota Vikings defeated the New York Giants on Sunday, 20-19, on a last-second, 50-yard field goal by Ryan Longwell. Although they would have won the NFC North Division title and made the playoffs anyway, owing to the Chicago Bears' defeat at the hands of the Houston Texans, the victory allowed the Vikings to reach the 10-win plateau for the first time since the 2000 season.
While I don't expect the Vikings to go very far, making the playoffs for the first time since 2004 represents another important step forward for the team. After going 6-10 in 2006, they improved to 8-8 in 2007, and now 10-6 in 2008. This team is not a Super Bowl contender in my opinion, but could possibly be a few short steps away from attaining that lofty status. I'll save the "what-they-need-to-do-next" discussion for a later post.
In looking back at the regular season, the Vikings turned things around nicely after starting 1-3. More recently, after going 5-5 through the first 10 weeks of the season, they finished with a 5-1 run, allowing them to win the division and make the playoffs.
An interesting note is that even in their losses, the Vikings were never blown out of any game. Five of their six losses were by 7 points or less, and in most of those games, they had the ball late in the game, with a chance to tie the score or take the lead. Even in their one double-digit loss (30-17 to the Tennessee Titans in Week 4), they were within a touchdown until about 4 minutes remained, and Gus Frerotte threw an interception that led to an "insurance" touchdown near the end of the game. On the other hand, the Vikings put together few complete games, looking sloppy or sluggish at some point in nearly every contest. For example, while they beat the Detroit Lions twice, they did so by a total of six points. This, against the first team in history to post an 0-16 record, who were blown out of most games, was a frustrating sign of weakness of the part of the Vikings. In short, even in retrospect, this is a tough team to figure out.
By winning the division title and taking the team to the playoffs, head coach Brad Childress has probably saved his job. I'm still not a big fan of Coach Childress, who seems utterly clueless at times, but I'd have to expect that he will be back in 2009. There is definitely a benefit to be derived from coaching continuity, but Childress has got to improve as a coach if this team is ever going to make the leap to becoming a Super Bowl contender. The Vikings still commit too many silly penalties, and their clock management leaves a lot to be desired.
The jury is still out on QB Tarvaris Jackson as well. While T-Jack has appeared to be vastly improved in his second stint as the team's starting QB, after being benched for most of the season, he hasn't yet developed into a reliable signal-caller. It will be very interesting to see how he performs this coming week, in the crucible of a playoff game, against the aggressive Philadelphia Eagles defense, which will probably attempt to blitz him into submission.
Still, flaws and all, the Vikings will be participating in the playoffs this coming Sunday. Should be fun. (Unless they lose).
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