Vikings Move Into Playoff Contention

With yesterday's big win over the Giants, the Vikings improved to 5-6 on the season and have suddenly vaulted themselves back into the wild card chase. This is slightly shocking, considering the fact that nobody would have considered the Vikings a possible playoff team, but by soundly defeating possibly the third best team in the NFC, Minnesota's chances are vastly increased.

In fact, they're right in the hunt. The division leaders are Dallas, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, and Seattle. The wild card leaders are the Giants at 7-4 and the Lions at 6-5. The other 5-6 teams are the Eagles, Redskins, Bears, Saints, and Cardinals.

The team's remaining schedule is:

It's probably too early to utter the words "run the table," but those are all winnable games. The Vikings have already lost to the Lions (in overtime, and while Jon Kitna was creating their status as "God's Team"), and have already defeated the Bears (thank you Purple Jesus).

In the unfamiliar mindset of making a playoff run (it's been a while), this schedule couldn't have shaped up better for the Vikings. Coming off a win over the wild card leader, they go home to face the other wild card leader. This will be a huge game; if the Vikings beat the Lions, the two teams are tied at 6-6 and the Vikings have all the momentum in the world (and the Lions will have lost four straight).

At that point they face four consecutive sub-.500 teams, with the hopes of winning out and securing a playoff bid. And in the playoffs, being able to run the ball and stop the run are very valuable (according to conventional wisdom, that is; Football Outsiders considers passing to be much more important), and the Vikings have by far the largest ratio of yards per carry to yards per carry allowed. (See Pro Football Reference for the numbers.)

Frankly, I think this is the point of the discussion where we need Jim Mora's input.

Thank you Jim. I needed that.

Okay, now that we've ensured that we're not getting too far ahead of ourselves, we can just sit on the edge of our seats and enjoy the first meaningful football games in Minnesota in a while, and hope the Vikings can make a good, solid playoff push.

Posted by Sean Schulte at 2007-11-26 13:13:15

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