Jim Souhan: This one could be key to year and future

Remember when Vikings fans lamented their team's inability to win the Big One, and they were talking about the Super Bowl? Remember when losing in the NFC title game was reason to smash your Helga Hat?

Today, the Vikings play the biggest game of the season, perhaps the biggest game of Brad Childress' tenure, and all that's at stake is a chance to move within one game of .500 and position themselves for a wild-card run against a soft schedule.

If you care about the Purple, you take drama where you find it.

For the new-millennium Vikings, this qualifies as a big game. For new-millennium Vikings fans, a big game should be cause for worry, because Childress hasn't won anything that could be considered a big game since last October, and even that -- a dominating victory at Seattle over a playoff team -- didn't feel as portentous as this one.

Today, the Vikes play a good team in a tough place with something on the line, needing to prove that they can reach a crossroads without taking the road to nowhere.

A victory would make the Vikings 5-6 in the more mediocre conference of a mediocre league, with no frightening teams or dominant quarterbacks left on the schedule.

If the Vikings beat the Giants -- and "if" is the operative word in all of these scenarios -- they'll be set up to make the playoffs and save everyone's jobs. They'd be 5-6 and facing a home game against a Detroit team that has lost three in a row and has struggled on the road.

They could be 6-6 heading to San Francisco, to face one of the three worst teams in football. Then come home games against 4-6 Chicago and 5-5 Washington before a trip to Denver to finish the season. Denver is 5-5, and that game could be meaningless to the Broncos by then.

This Road to the Playoffs features one very large pothole -- an assumption of Vikings competence. We were saying the same things about the Vikes last year, and they collapsed.

Remember? That impressive victory at Seattle made them 4-2. Their remaining schedule at that point: Patriots, 49ers, Packers, Dolphins, Cardinals, Bears, Lions, Jets, Packers, Rams. The playoffs were all but assured ... until the pass defense got exposed by the Patriots and the offense crawled into a shell.

Victories over the badly coached Chargers and the pathetic Raiders indicated Childress' second team is better prepared to beat struggling teams; the 34-0 loss at Green Bay indicated he's no closer to beating good ones.

That's why this game matters. The Giants can push all of the Vikings' pressure points:

• A dominant pass rusher, Michael Strahan, against second-year tackle Ryan Cook.

• A dominant pass rush against second-year quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, who is 4-2 when he starts this year yet has built up little credibility with anyone outside the confines of Winter Park.

• A road game against a quality opponent -- the Vikes are 1-4 on the road this year, with the only victory coming when Adrian Peterson set a team rushing record against the Bears.

• A tough coaching matchup, against the refurbished Tom Coughlin. Since the Seattle game, Childress has beaten these head coaches: the soon-to-be-fired Denny Green, Rod Marinelli, Bobby Petrino, Lovie Smith, Norv Turner and Lane Kiffin.

Since Mike Tice went to the playoffs in 2004 and finished 9-7 in 2005, the Vikings have remade themselves to Childress' liking. A victory in New York would bring him a glimmer of credibility and a chance to make the playoffs. A loss, and we're back to threatened blackouts and meaningless games.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. • jsouhan@startribune.com