Pull up a chair.
Better yet, pull up a sofa.
It’s time to process, Vikings fans. Relax. Decompress. Work through all the feelings you are going through after watching your team get smoked 31-9 at Detroit. Because you have to be at your best Monday when The Purple head to Tinseltown and face the Rams in the wild-card round. And you won’t be at your best if you approach the game using Vikings history as a guide.
How can I sense your despair? I felt it Monday when I was sipping coffee while reading at a local restaurant. A gentleman, whom I did not recognize, sat down next to me, turned my way and blurted out “Vikings,” with an expletive preceding it.
It’s not time for the here-we-go-again mindset. Not after a 14-3 season that far exceeded all expectations. There were times during the season when the Vikings were considered the best team in football. They have not, all of a sudden, become trash. They had six players named to the Pro Bowl. Trash teams aren’t rewarded like that.
So, we need to accelerate through the five stages of the grief process, arrive at the meaning of it all and get right in time to set up a possible rematch at Ford Field in two weeks. I am providing reasons why you should come out on the other side of this feeling better about your squad.
1. It wasn’t the playoffs
Game 272 of the NFL season sure felt like a playoff game. The hype. Two teams with 14 wins. What was at stake. From a league standpoint, it was no better way to transition to the postseason. But the Vikings were not eliminated on Sunday.
They lost. Convincingly. It ended a nine-game winning streak that began when Breck alum and “Good Morning Football” host Jamie Erdahl blew the Gjallarhorn before the Nov. 3 game against the Colts. Since the show is filmed in L.A., perhaps she can be on hand for Monday’s game. (Update: Erdahl confirmed in a text that she will attend the game).