No one seems to believe the 10-2 Minnesota Vikings are legit. The latest? Frank The Tank from Barstool Sports.
Mr. Tank headlined his weekly picks with a specific shot at the Vikings: “Beware Of Frauds, The Vikings Are The Worst 10-2 Team In NFL History.” The headline would lead a reader to believe there’s a deeper explanation for why the Vikings are supposedly frauds, but that’s not what you’ll find. Instead, you get 58 words.
“The Vikings may be the worst 10-2 team in NFL history. All you need to do is see the point differential, which is just ten points. They play close games and have hung on several times. The Lions are surging and trying to make a statement towards next season as they win their fifth game in six tries.”
Frank The Tank is not the first nor will he be the last to doubt the Vikings. It’s been a common theme all season. Even the oddsmakers don’t think the Vikings are going to drive out of the Motor City with a victory on Sunday as the Lions are favored by 2.5 points.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, there have been nine games in the Super Bowl era when a team with an .800 winning percentage was an underdog to a losing team in December or January. Even crazier is that eight of the nine underdogs were resting starters. That’s not the case with the Vikings.
Vikings (10-2) would be near-historic underdogs at Lions (5-7)
9 instances in Super Bowl era when a team w/ .800 winning % was underdog to a losing team in Dec/Jan
8 of 9 were teams resting starters in Week 16/17
Other: 2004 Falcons (9-2) vs. Tampa Bay (4-7)
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) December 8, 2022
It gets even juicier when you learn that the other was the 2004 Atlanta Falcons, who were underdogs at Tampa Bay despite being 9-2 and the Buccaneers holding a 4-7 record. And, much like the Vikings in Detroit this week, the Falcons would’ve clinched the NFC South with a win.
How’d that game turn out? Buccaneers 27, Falcons 0.
Those ’04 Falcons still won their division and reached the NFC Championship Game before losing to the Eagles, who lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. That was New England’s third title in four years during the younger years of their dynasty.
Are the Vikings a paper tiger? Matthew Coller did a deep dive on the subject this week. As he noted, one explanation for the Vikings only outscoring opponents by 10 points through 12 games is that they’ve played a very difficult schedule. In fact, it’s the eight-hardest schedule in Vikings history, according to the Pro-Football Reference Strength of Schedule metric.
The Vikings have faced the No. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8th ranked defenses in the NFL and come out 3-2 in those games. They’ve played nine one-score games and have won them all.
“The evidence regarding the Vikings’ point differential heading into Week 14 is that it tells a story but not the whole story. We’ll have a better idea if it matters based on what they look like when the playoffs start,” Coller wrote.
