Take heart, Vikings fans, it could be worse. You could be a Chiefs fan.
For all their shortcomings, the Vikings are in a far better position than the Chiefs headed into a Week 4 game only blood relations and fantasy football players could love.
Think the Vikings are struggling on third down? They've converted them 36.1% of the time. The Chiefs are at 27.8%.
Think the Vikes need to score more points and allow fewer? They average 20 per game on offense and are yielding 24.7 on defense. Kansas City has scored 27 points all season long and gives up an average of nearly two touchdowns per game more than the Vikings on defense.
Think the Minnesota passing game couldn't be worse? The Chiefs' Matt Cassel hasn't thrown for more than 176 yards in a game, is averaging just 5.2 yards per attempt (for the record, Donovan McNabb isn't that much better at 5.9... but given the Vikings pitiful downfield passing game, it's saying something that Kansas City's is worse), and has been directly responsible for six turnovers.
Think the Purple should have fewer three-and-outs and hang on to the ball more? Eleven teams have worse time of possession than the VIkings (28:01 per game), including the Chiefs, who rank ahead of only the Peyton Manning-less Colts at a hair over 25:17. The good news: someone has to have the ball this Sunday.
Turnovers? How about a turnover margin of minus-6 for the Chiefs, compared to +1 for the Vikings.
All of which means next-to nothing, of course. Except maybe to the fatalistic Vikings backer who might be afraid it's all going to turn around for the Chiefs this weekend. I'm merely illustrating that the Chiefs have sunk even lower than the Vikings - especially when you consider where they came from.
Believe it or not, the Chiefs won the AFC West last season. Seriously, I looked it up. Their 10-6 record wasn't world-beating, but they were 7-1 at home and had little or no reason to believe they had a one-way ticket to the NFL's cellar in 2011.
Conversely, the Vikings came into 2011 on the heels of a 6-10 season while playing in a division that produced the reigning Super Bowl champ and both NFC title game participants a year ago.Expectations simply weren't (or shouldn't have been) that high. Frankly, had a rational Vikings fan looked at this year's schedule a couple of months ago, a trip to one of the NFL's loudest stadiums against a division-winning opponent that went 7-1 at home the year before looked like a loss, even for the thirstiest of grape Kool-aid drinkers.
Now, the Vikings, at 0-3 and with three back-breaking, snatch-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory losses, with an offense that can't convert a third down and a defense that has made an artform out of the second-half collapse, are favored to beat the 2010 AFC West champions on their turf.
Oh yes, it could be worse.

Christian Peterson is the Operations Manager at LeagueSafe.com and is a contributor to Vikings.com, the 2011 Maple Street Press Vikings Annual, and the Fantasy Football Weekly radio show on Saturday Mornings on KFAN 100.3 FM.