VikesCentric: Season over if road woes continue

The Vikings are about to embark on a critical stretch – a quartet of games against beatable teams, none of which have winning records. The biggest complicating factor isn't matchup-based or injury-based. It's that three of the four games are on the road.

Home-field advantage can be a huge factor in any sport. Some NFL teams derive significant benefit on their home turf – the Seahawks and Chiefs with all the noise, the Falcons and Saints with the domes and the Broncos with the thin air all come to mind.

However, road teams do win their fair share of football games. In fact, 11 teams already have at least two road wins this season. Last week, NFL road teams went 11-4. It's not unusual for teams to win at least half of their games away from home – 13 teams did so last year.

In other words, yeah, home teams win most of the time but probably not nearly as often as you imagine they do. The minds of Vikings fans have been skewed to think that winning away from home is more difficult than mapping the genome of non-human organisms.

It isn't.

The Vikings just make it seem that way.

Last year, the Vikes went 0-7-1 away from Mall of America Field. Who will ever forget the scintillating 26-26 tie in Green Bay that saved them from a 0-8 road record?

Care for a bigger sample size? Since the start of the 2010 season, the Vikings are 8-26-1 on the road.

That's not good. And that's what has to be worrisome for Vikings fans as their team gets set to play at Buffalo this week, at Tampa Bay next week and at Chicago in Week 11 (following a home game against Washington and the bye week).

The Vikings really should beat Washington (1-5) at home. That seems like the closest thing to a sure-thing on the rest of their schedule. The Bills (3-3), Buccaneers (1-5) and Bears (3-3) will be more problematic.

Buffalo has already defeated two NFC North teams (the Bears and Lions) away from home for two of their three wins. Given that, defeating the Vikings at home doesn't seem too far-fetched for the Bills and their top-ranked run defense. If the Vikings do lose this Sunday, they will fall to 2-5 and then have another road game at Tampa Bay. Again, the Bucs have been terrible for the most part this season.

But the Vikings seldom find a road game they can't find a way to lose.

In either scenario, the Vikings would probably need to run the table in their final six games to have a shot at the postseason. Doing so would get them to 10-6 or 9-7. However, their final six games include (you guessed it) two more road games: at Detroit in Week 15 and at Miami in Week 16.

The conclusion is that the Vikings need to make an immediate departure from their recent history of road woes. Maybe they'll do so under the new leadership of Mike Zimmer.

This was supposed to be the soft part of the Vikings' schedule following their tough opening five games. What has been conveniently overlooked by most (including yours truly) is the fact that three of the games in this "easy" stretch are road games.

Are the Vikings really all that much better than last year's team that didn't win a single game away from home? They've already won once on the road. Who's to say they win any more?

Shake the road demons – or whatever it is that afflicts them away from home -- and the Vikings give themselves a chance heading into the holidays. Continue their road woes and it will be time to start looking ahead to free agency and the draft.

Bo Mitchell is the Vice President of Content at SportsData, head writer at VikingsJournal.com, co-host of the Fantasy Football Pants Party at 1500ESPN.com and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America.