Vikings' futility continues, and many fans celebrate

The Vikings won seven games this season, against St. Louis, the New York Jets, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Carolina, Washington and Chicago. All those teams had losing records, and they were a combined 34-77-1.

When this was mentioned on Twitter, the response from Vikings apologists came quickly:

"That's called 'winning the games you are supposed to win,'' was one suggestion.

Another was: "So you're saying they lost nine games to winners?''

Actually, the Vikings lost a pair of games to teams under .500, New Orleans (7-9) and the first game vs. the Bears (5-11), and to a .500 team in Miami (8-8).

So, I'm not saying the Vikings won all of the games the final standings indicate they had a big chance to win, or that they lost nine games to winners.

They lost six games to winners: New England, Buffalo, and the Packers and the Lions twice apiece.

It's hard to take the sixth of those seriously, since the Panthers wound up winning the woeful NFC South with a four-game winning streak to put them at 7-8-1.

Sunday's unimpressive 13-9 victory over the woeful Bears was the Vikings first in six games in the NFC North. The Vikings are 8-21-1 in the past five seasons vs. division opponents.

There was also the playoff loss to the Packers after the Vikings' one winning season of those five – the December run of 2012 that put them at 10-6 and sent them to Lambeau Field for the wild-card round.

Daunte Culpepper, in his second season in the NFL and the first in which he was the quarterback, led the Vikings to the NFC title game in January 2001. The annihilation that followed – a 41-0 loss to the New York Giants – created what stands as the worst long stretch in the franchise's 54-year history.

Somebody actually asked that, when I pointed that the Vikings had the same number of winning seasons (five) in the past 14 years as the Timberwolves.

That's kind of vague, a decade-and-a-half, when dealing with 54 years, so I used the present hunk of 14 years, the first 14 years that started with an expansion team, and two 13-season chapters in between.

And the answer about worst decade-and-a-half in Vikings history turned out to be "YES,'' in large letters.

1961-1974: Seven winning seasons in 14 years, and six playoff victories.

1975-1987: Seven winning seasons in 13 years, and six playoff victories.

1988-2000: Ten winning seasons in 13 years, and five playoff victories.

Considering the futility that has been the trademark of the 21^st Century, it's amazing to see the optimism exuding after a season in which the Vikings were again losers who only beat other losers.

I have to steal again the line from Bob Verdi, in his days as a great Chicago Tribune columnist, after a losing Bears season:

"The Bears did not beat a good team all season, including the games in which they beat themselves.''

Substitute "Bears'' with the 2014 Vikings, and you have the perfect epitaph for the Purple's 7-9 season.