Vikings Jump Past Cardinals For Seventh Seed in NFC Playoff Standings
Due to their dramatic victory over the Jaguars and the Cardinals' loss to the Rams, the Minnesota Vikings have moved into the seventh seed in the NFC. With the postseason being expanded to seven teams per conference this year, that means the Vikings would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. As things stand, they would head to Green Bay for a wild-card matchup at Lambeau Field against the No. 2 seed Packers.
Both the Vikings and Cardinals are now 6-6, which is shocking considering how each team's season began. Less than a month ago, heading into Week 8, the Vikings were 1-5 and the Cardinals were 5-2. Things can change quickly in the NFL.
The first tiebreaker between Minnesota and Arizona is conference record, but both teams are 4-4 in games against NFC opponents. The next tiebreaker is record against common opponents, which is where the Vikings come out ahead at the moment. The common opponents for the two teams are the Cowboys, Panthers, Seahawks, and Lions, and right now the Vikings are 2-2 against that group and the Cardinals are 2-3. The Vikings can secure that specific tiebreaker by beating the Lions in Week 17.
Next week, the Vikings head to Tampa to take on the 7-5 Buccaneers. With a win, they would pass the Bucs due to a head-to-head tiebreaker. The Cardinals have a road game against the Giants in Week 14. That may have seemed like an easy win a month ago, but the Cardinals have lost three in a row and the Giants just beat the Seahawks on Sunday for their fourth straight win.
The Vikings have paths to staying ahead of the Cardinals and passing the Buccaneers. They're also two games back of both the Seahawks and Rams.
However, in order to secure a playoff spot over the final four games, the Vikings are going to have to play A LOT better than they did against the Jaguars. They arguably should have lost that game, and it came at home against one of the two worst teams in the NFL.
"It’s important that we’re winning these games, but we’ve got to do these things way better than what we’re doing," Mike Zimmer said. "They all understand. There wasn’t a lot of hooting and hollering in the locker room the last two weeks. They know we have to do better to continue to win games."
The Vikings have a great chance to prove that they're worthy of a playoff spot next week. If they can go to Tampa and beat Tom Brady's Buccaneers, that will mean a lot more than escapes against the Panthers and Jaguars did.
According to FiveThirtyEight, that game will determine a massive 48 percent swing in the Vikings' chances to make the playoffs. They currently have a 39 percent chance to get in. With a win, that number would just to 70, but a loss would drop it to 22.
Minnesota is in the playoffs for now, but there's a lot of work left to do.
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