Congratulations to the 2020 Vikings. In clawing back to .500 — defying season-wide odds and game-specific odds to win five of their last six games — they have shown themselves to be good enough to be considered frustrating.
I dare say, in fact, that this current incarnation of the Vikings, via twists and turns that alternately made us wonder if they could land the No. 1 pick in the draft and now have us thinking about the playoffs, have broken into an exclusive group: The most frustrating Vikings teams in recent memory.
In this thought exercise, let's draw the boundary a little more firmly and set up some criteria. Since the 1998 season has come to define modern fandom and heartbreak, let's say only years AFTER 1998 are under consideration.
What makes a team frustrating? That can be in the eye of the beholder, but to me there are often some key ingredients: Special teams lapses. Huge momentum swings during a season. Agonizing defeats. Breathtaking skill and execution undercut by bewildering decisions and turns of event. A general feeling that, from game to game, the team you are rooting for is not the more disciplined or intelligent of the two on the field.
Hello, 2020 Vikings!
To me, it is a season-long ethos — which is why, even if 1998 was included in this list, it wouldn't crack the top five. While the NFC title game that season was one of the single most frustrating games in franchise history, the season as a whole up to that point was a whimsical walk in the park picking up W's on the cobblestone.
As such, here in order of oldest to most recent are the main contenders that 2020 is dealing with in my opinion (with assists from many of you on Twitter). There are, to be sure, plenty of options.
1999: The year after the Vikings went 15-1, they started 2-4 (with all of those losses coming by five points or fewer). Randall Cunningham was benched. Jeff George led a frantic 8-2 final 10 games, which culminated in a playoff berth and the chance to be absolutely walloped in the division round by the Rams.
