The Vikings can look like the worst team in the NFL and the best team in the NFL — sometimes in the same game, as we saw during Saturday's absurd comeback victory from a 33-0 deficit over the Colts.
The sum total should leave the Vikings somewhere in the middle. By almost ever statistical margin, most importantly a season point differential of plus-2, the Vikings are an average team.
The sheer audacity of their 11-3 record, including now a 10-0 mark in games decided by eight points or fewer, has given this season a rare quality: The ability to appreciate it for what it is without fretting (at least not too much) about what might or might not happen in the future.
It's a good time with no strings attached, which I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
If the Vikings ultimately fall short of the Super Bowl, which is likely just based on math, the end will be disappointing. But I submit that this season feels different from any other recent Vikings year of similar arc.
Consider the last four trips to the NFC title game:
*2017: That year had the same sheen of unexpected success and outrageous fortune, but there was the built-in pressure of trying to get to the Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium. When the Vikings came up a game short after a blowout loss to the Eagles — just one week after the Minneapolis Miracle — it felt like destiny had been denied.
*2009: The Vikings were all-in with Brett Favre, he played at a supremely high level, and there was the inherent recognition this could be their one best chance to win a Super Bowl for a long time. The manner of ultimate defeat only added to the disappointment.
