I feel like I’ve been writing the same things virtually every week when it comes to predicting what’s going to happen with the Vikings.
It’s because I don’t trust this team.
There’s nothing to trust.
They’re 6-7, two bounces away from being 4-9 or 8-5, depending on how you look at it.
I’ve been begging for them to be relevant (sometimes literally) all season long. After their 1-5 start I had a feeling they could still make a run when I looked at their schedule.
Making a run means having a decent chance to make the playoffs while playing in the last game of your regular season.
They made a valiant effort, I’ll give them that, but it’s all for not if they can’t beat the Bears this Sunday at home.
And, as usual, I’m very uneasy about that.
The Bears still have that good defense, and Trubisky is just the type of quarterback who will come out and have a big game against the Vikings more times than not.
Even sadder is the fact that, although they got off to an extremely slow start, my predictions for this Vikings team have been pretty close to dead on the last five or six weeks.
That’s not good news Vikings fans.
I think this might be the week the Minnesota Vikings wave bye-bye to their playoff chances. I think it could be close.
If I think that I have to pick the Bears (+3).
Kirk Cousins has played solid for 7 or 8 games in a row now. He’s due for a couple turnovers. The Bears defense will be happy to help him out with that.
I just think this is it for Minnesota. A win this week puts the Vikings Christmas Day game against the Saints up on a pedestal of relevance, get my hopes up, and makes looking forward to Christmas Day that much better.
Losing makes me depressed for 5 days. Thinking about how they have a game everyone around the world can watch coming up, and winning it means basically nothing.
The latter is the position the Vikings will more than likely put me in.
It’s too bad this isn’t the NBA. Knowing the Vikings need a win this week to make the nationally televised Christmas Day game against the Saints meaningful, the NBA would phone ahead to their officiating crew and tell them to give Minnesota every call.
No such luck in the NFL. The refs are a crapshoot every week. (Unless you’re Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers getting sneezed on…each crew is gonna call that a 15 yard penalty every single time.)
And I haven’t even mentioned the kicking game yet. Might need some of those points to win this week.
The one saving grace I have is a good buddy of mine, who reads the content I put out on this site frequently, told me there is a 70% chance the game against the Saints on Christmas Day will be relevant. That prediction came after week 10’s victory over Chicago. This man is always the smartest person in the room anytime he steps into one.
So maybe there is something to that.
Maybe the will of that prediction will get Minnesota through this one.
As for betting, I’ll take the Bears (+3).
I’ll be on the couch drinking a mike’s harder with the boys hoping I’m wrong (or right by 1 or 2 points.)
Go Vikes.
