Football season is back BABY! The Minnesota Vikings return after a magical 2022 regular season. They went 13-4 under first year head coach, Kevin O'Connell, before losing to the New York Giants in round one of the postseason. The regular season, however, included the NFL's 2 best games: Vikings beating the Bills in an insane game that still doesn't make sense & overcoming a 33-point deficit against the Colts to complete the greatest comeback in NFL history. We also went 11-0 in one score games, which was an NFL record. Talk about a stressful season for the Vikings fans. I was on the edge of my seat the entire season!
With all that being said, that was the luckiest season I've ever seen for an NFL team. In just the 6 weeks before the bye week last season, the Vikings had everything going their way. Week 1, the Vikings defeated a Packers team that was missing their top 3 WRs from the previous season and were without 3 starting OL. Week 3, the Lions completely choked and basically gave the game to the Vikings (that's on par for the Lions, I guess). Week 4, in London, the Saints were missing their starting QB, LG, Safety, WR, & RB and the game still almost went to OT thanks to a missed 61 yard FG that double dunked the field goal post. Week 5, the Vikings had a 21-3 lead only for the Bears to score 19 unanswered points until the Vikings woke up again to score a TD and force a fumble to end the game. Week 6, the Dolphins were down to their 3rd string, rookie QB and we still only won by 1 score. Even the Bills and Colts victories (as awesome as they were) were the luckiest games ever. I am not trying to downplay the 2022 season, I am just trying to remind everyone how it played out and put 2023 into perspective. I would be shocked if we see a duplicate of what we saw last season. The season unfortunately ended at home to the New York Giants. With the season on the line, QB Cousins threw 3 yards behind a wide open KJ Osborn on what should have been a HUGE gain, forcing 4th down. And then on 4th & 8, with the season actually on the line...Cousins decides to throw a 3 yard out route to a heavily blanketed TJ Hockenson who immediately got tackled. There aren't many pro athletes I despise more than Cousins, and sadly we have to watch him "lead" the Vikings for a 6th straight season. Hopefully this ends up being his last year in Minnesota.
I am not someone who was fooled by the Netflix series that followed Cousins around last season. It didn't make me like him anymore or dislike him anymore...I just don't like the guy because he only cares about himself and his stats. He doesn't care about winning and that drives me nuts. He cares only about his stats that will get him his next paycheck, and I am a Vikings fan who wants to see the Vikings win a Super Bowl. News flash: there is a 0% chance the Vikings will win a Super Bowl with Cousins as their starting QB. The Netflix show also showed how negative Cousins is, which explains why the dude always chokes in big moments, instead of rising to the occasion like many of the great QBs do.
The Vikings finally did let go of some aging contracts and brought in some new faces. The biggest pickups include WR Jordan Addison, CB Byron Murphy, and DC Brian Flores. The players we saw leave include Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks. I think the team will be improved overall, but won't have as good of a record. We won't be a serious threat until we get a real QB to lead the team. My prediction is the Vikings will go 8-9 and finish 2nd in the NFC North. The good news is we have Justin Jefferson, probably the best player in the league not named Patrick Mahomes. Jefferson is off to the best start by a WR in NFL history and I don't think he is going to slow down anytime soon! I hope I am wrong about our record and we end up seeing another special season that leads to more playoff success than last season. Let's go, Vikings!
2023 NFC North Standings Prediction:
Detroit Lions
Minnesota Vikings
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
2023 Vikings Game by Game Prediction:
vs Buccaneers - W
@ Eagles - L
vs Chargers - L
@ Panthers - W
vs Chiefs - L
@ Bears - L
vs 49ers - L
@ Packers - L
@ Falcons - W
vs Saints - W
@ Broncos - L
vs Bears - W
@ Raiders - W
@ Bengals - L
vs Lions - W
vs Packers - W
@ Lions - L
Good luck to the Vikings and good luck to us fans...it should be another WILD ride of a season, because why wouldn't it be?!
Games would have been easy wins with a better defense. I predict 10-7 for the Vikings