Vikings Prediction

I don’t use this space to make one-day predictions, but I am stunned that so many commentators are giving the Vikings any chance against the Packers tomorrow. Haven’t they noticed the comparative scores? The Packers have been demolishing opponents, while the Vikings have been squeaking by. The Vikings’ eight-game win streak has come against the weakest of opponents, and their early-season wins were against backup quarterbacks. They haven’t been a quality opponent all year. Yes, they beat the Packers in Green Bay, but that was early in the season and the Packers were without Jordan Love. Other than that, the Packers have lost only to the superior Lions and Eagles (whom the Vikes didn’t play). The game is in Minnesota, which should help the Vikings, but they’ve lost plenty of times to the Pack at home, and I expect it to happen again.

PS: I’m of course delighted that the Vikings proved me wrong and beat the Packers, 27-25. Once again, though, they failed to dominate despite building a healthy lead and could easily have lost at the end. In short, the win left me without confidence in their chances against the Lions next Sunday, or even when they start the Playoffs. I also want to cast some shade on all the praise being thrown Sam Darnold’s way. Yes, he threw three TD passes, only one of which was hard, but he also almost singlehandedly threw the game away in the fourth quarter. (I say “almost singlehandedly” because kicker Will Reichard shares some blame for clunking his 45-yard field goal attempt off an upright: a 5-point lead at the end would have felt far more comfortable than 2 points.) First (although I’m not sure of the order), Darnold threw an interception when the Vikings held a 27-10 lead and were cruising to the finish line. This not only gave the Packers a short field for a touchdown but shifted the momentum. I don’t know how much the interception was Darnold’s fault–he threw it where we wanted–or how much it was a bad call or just a good play by the off-ball defensive back; but it’s on his record. The next, and even more crucial, error was a legitimately bad throw (announcer Tom Brady graded it a “D”) that went over Justin Jefferson’s leap on a third-down play when they Vikes had a chance to regain momentum and basically ice the game. Jefferson was open and it was Darnold’s worst throw of the day. Unless, perhaps, you give that designation to the game-winning soft toss to Cam Akers on third-and-two with less than two minutes to play. With no defender in the vicinity, Akers had to stop in his tracks, lean back and grab the short toss before it hit the ground. Darnold has been good, but he hasn’t yet shown me that he is a closer. Or worth mortgaging the future on.