The Vikings and Packers' Endings in Cincinnati and Arizona May Have Already Decided the NFC North

The recent history of both franchises can be summed up by these four close games and their results.

There isn't a single Vikings fan in the world who was surprised by how Thursday night's marquee Packers-Cardinals game ended.

Arizona, the NFL's lone unbeaten team through seven weeks, seemed destined to win the game in regulation or, at the very least, take it to overtime. Trailing 24-21, they had stopped the Packers on fourth down from their own 1-yard line and driven the length of the field. With 15 seconds on the clock, the Cardinals faced 2nd and goal from the Green Bay 5, giving them time for two shots at the end zone and the fallback option of a short game-tying field goal if both fell incomplete.

Exhibit A:

Instead, Kyler Murray threw a fade to A.J. Green, the veteran receiver wasn't on the same page and didn't turn around, and Rasul Douglas easily intercepted the pass to seal the Packers' seventh win in a row.

RASUL DOUGLAS INTERCEPTS MURRAY. #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/ZIDly9m0Bc

— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2021

Once again, the Packers had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

The story of two NFC North rivals, the Vikings and the Packers, can be summed up by the endings to four close games in two cities — Cincinnati, OH and Glendale, AZ — during the first eight weeks of this 2021 season. 

Because of the NFL's rotating division-vs.-division schedules, both teams played the Bengals and Cardinals this year. As it happens, all four of those games happened on the road and in the first half of the season.

The Vikings, as usual, had their chances. Opening their season in Cincinnati, they rallied from a 21-7 deficit to force overtime and were just a few yards out of field goal range at the 2-minute warning. 

Exhibit B:

On that first down play, Dalvin Cook was ruled to have fumbled, and even though it appeared on replay that his butt was down before the ball came loose, the officials deemed it too close to overturn the call on the field. The Bengals marched down the field, including a fourth down conversion, and won it with a field goal of their own. Although that may have looked like a bad loss for the Vikings at the time, Cincinnati is now 5-2 and sitting atop the AFC standings.

A week later, the Vikings had the Cardinals on the ropes. An early 20-7 lead had turned into a 34-33 deficit, but that didn't matter. The Vikings had driven all the way to the Arizona 19, setting up what looked like a simple game-winning field goal.

Exhibit C:

Of course, things are never simple with the Vikings, especially when kickers are involved. Greg Joseph's kick went wide right, and suddenly the Vikings were in an 0-2 hole.

Compare those two results to how the Packers' close games in Cincinnati and Arizona played out. We already looked at Green Bay's unlikely win on Thursday night, but they could've easily lost in Cincinnati in Week 5, too. That was a wild game that featured five missed field goals in the final 2:16 of regulation and overtime.

After Mason Crosby missed a field goal to keep the score at 22-22, Bengals rookie kicker Evan McPherson hit the upright on a 57-yarder with 26 seconds left. Then Crosby missed two more game-winners, one at the end of regulation and one early in OT. That gave McPherson another chance from 49 yards out. Not a short kick, but one he's very capable of making.

Exhibit D:

The kick looked good. It was headed right down the middle, to the point where McPherson looked away and began celebrating. And then it hooked sharply to the left, hitting the flag that hangs from the top of the upright. Crosby finally made his next attempt to win the game for the Packers.

Bengals kicker Evan McPherson celebrated a field goal that he missed https://t.co/R6nVpIGgsP

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) October 10, 2021

Based on the four screenshots above, an outside observer with no knowledge of the histories of the franchises would probably expect the Vikings to emerge with two wins and the Packers with two losses. Instead, the opposite happened, and it's the difference between a hypothetical world where the 5-1 Vikings lead the 5-3 Packers in the NFC North, and the actual reality of the 7-1 Packers having a commanding lead over the 3-3 Vikings.

On the surface, maybe there's nothing too crazy about any of those four outcomes. Weird things happen in the NFL all the time. But what makes it extra painful for Vikings fans is how familiar it all feels.

The Vikings just never seem to get the bounces or breaks to go their way in big moments. This is a team that has the seventh-best winning percentage of any NFL franchise, yet has never won a Super Bowl. Their history is defined by coming up short in the biggest of games.

Then there are the Packers. Yes, they've had some playoff heartbreak as well, but they also have four Super Bowl titles, the best winning percentage in NFL history, and have spent the past 30 years with a pair of Hall of Fame quarterbacks leading the way. For the most part, things just seem to work out for Green Bay in a way that they don't for Minnesota.

The entire history of the Vikings and Packers franchises can be summed up by how their games in Arizona ended this season

— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) October 29, 2021

This year's games in Cincinnati and Arizona for both teams happen to be a perfect example of that. Even though the Vikings still have both games left against the Packers this year, the division race might realistically already be over.

And not a single Vikings fan is surprised at how it all played out.

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