Saturday wasn’t the performance that any fan was hoping to see from our Minnesota Vikings. After an emotional win on the road against the 13 win New Orleans Saints, it seemed that anything was possible.
The truth is that it was.
It is really easy to get caught up in wins and losses as a fan of a team. And to be fair, why wouldn’t you? There is no metric that measures success better than wins and championships. For Vikings fans, it does get frustrated being one of the most successful teams in terms of wins and the least successful in terms of championships.
However, the reality is that at the end of the day, 31 teams go home wondering what they are going to do to finally get over the hump to take home the title.
If you played that game against the San Francisco 49’ers ten times, the Vikings would probably win three or four times. If you simulated the NFL season from the beginning, there are probably five scenarios where the Vikings come out as Super Bowl champs.
So what can we really be upset about? Yes there are many improvements that can and should be made. They also have the worst cap situation in the league and will need to discuss the futures of Everson Griffen, Xavier Rhodes, Riley Reiff and many more. They will need to replace multiple coaching positions, most importantly the Offensive and Defensive Coordinator positions.
However, in any league of any sport at any level, you just want to have a seat at the table. The Vikings won 10 games this season, a successful season by any metric. They made the playoffs, something that only 12 of the 32 teams are able to do. They won a first round game, meaning that for this season, they were one of the best eight teams in the league.
The Vikings had a seat at the table. They had a chance to make some noise, rack up some wins, and finally get over the hump. Just because they faltered in a tough game doesn’t mean that the team was a complete failure.
Minnesotans are quick to play the “Woe are We” card when it comes to our fandom. We pretend that we are the only fans who have experienced troubling seasons and devastating losses. Other than the New England Patriots, most fan-bases are right there with us saying the same things that we do.
The Cleveland Browns haven’t made the playoffs since 2002. The Seahawks were one yard away from beating the Patriots. The Ravens won 13 games this season and got demolished by the Titans.
It is incredibly hard to sustain greatness and even harder to win a Super Bowl. It takes a lot of luck, skill and good timing. So far, those stars haven’t quite aligned for the Vikings, but they still have a seat at the table.