get the wins now...Only 3 of last 9 games @ Home

[purplefaithful]

And 3 of those road games are Carolina, Detroit, Atlanta...

If somehow we can get to 6/2 by the bye...

I still believe getting wins in December will be crucial. 

[Guest]

yes the schedule does not favor them, they need to reel off a couple road wins after the Detroit loss.  10-6 needs to be the target minimum.

[Guest]

One thing is the London game is a rd game that will seem like a nice British flower market! We get that game ez. We will win next game at home  and Browns in London. We are 6-2 with now a 3-5 home away game schedule. Win the home games Rams Cinci and Chi. likely wins and we need to get a rd win to insure a PO position at 10-6. Sometimes today we played at such a high level I was a bit surprised!

[Guest]

simply this, simply dog

win thr next 2, 6-2 at the bye
3 home games left, all very winnable, 9 wins

beat Detroit and Green Bay at their place, tough but we will be favored, thats 11 wins and a NFC North Crown.  5-1 in the division

steal one more on the road?  thats 12 with a potential seeding tiebreaker (Atlanta? Carolina?)

we want a division crown, 12 wins and the first round off. 

[Guest]

I know everyone is giddy after yesterday's win...  but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.  Keenum had a couple throws that we got lucky were not interceptions.  He also missed a few wide open WRs that could have really blown the game open.  He still has his warts with an average arm and questionable decision making at times.
I'm not trying to dog on Keenum, he's doing exactly what he was signed to do...  win some games as a backup and keep the team afloat until our starting QB is ready to play.  The Vikings really need Bradford or Bridgewater to come back healthy in the next couple weeks.  If we can get some stable, consistently good QB play...  this team could be a factor in a wide open NFC.

[Guest]

Bradford isn't coming back and Bridgewater isn't going to be on the field until after the Bye week earliest. 

[Guest]

@Skodin said:
simply this, simply dog

win thr next 2, 6-2 at the bye
3 home games left, all very winnable, 9 wins

beat Detroit and Green Bay at their place, tough but we will be favored, thats 11 wins and a NFC North Crown.  5-1 in the division

steal one more on the road?  thats 12 with a potential seeding tiebreaker (Atlanta? Carolina?)

we want a division crown, 12 wins and the first round off. 

Detroit and GB on road: We might not be favored in Detroit on Thanksgiving, depending on their record and ours. I know we can win, but they are turning into a thorn in our side.

The other road game is at Washington, which seems at least as winnable as Carolina and Atlanta. We should be good enough to get one of those 3, so yes, 12 is achievable.

But one of my biggest gripes has been that the Vikings don't win enough of the games they "should". Chicago and Indianapolis last year, why did we lose? Don't say "injuries", even so we were good enough but the Vikings came out flat. "Should" we have won at least once against Detroit last year?

They need to be consistent and business-like. Next two games are winnable with Keenum at QB and then we hope B or B is back (27 days from today). But not if the team shows up in a lifeless funk at some of these "should win" games.

[Guest]

The reality is that this team is the Mirror Image of last year's team but for a different reason.

Last year's team was not able to score consistently due to near-historic awful O-Line play. They had to rely on a stout Defense and winning the Turnovers, Special Teams and Field Position battles.

This team is in the exact same spot only the QB position is the culprit this time. They can lose to ANYONE except probably the Browns if they don't play mistake-free football.

That game yesterday was entirely too close for too long against a pile of backups. And the TOs were the main reason aside from no Diggs.

Until I actually see Teddy or Sam starting I have to assume Case is the guy. That means a razor-thin margin for error at home and counting on the Defense to create turnovers on the road.

I do see a ceiling of 10-6 wherein the Vikings take care of business at home and get a win somewhere on the road.

I can also see them coughing up the ball and humping the bunk on Special Teams and losing to a Baltimore or Bengals team at home. And the Rams with that Offense is going to be a tough one even if the team plays mistake-free football.

But with how much parity there is this year I also wouldn't be surprised if they beat two of Washington/Carolina/Atlanta/Detroit/GB on the road.

Such a crazy year! Virtually every game is going to be winnable and losable.

[Guest]

We were without our Starting QB, starting RB, starting WR, starting G, starting S and then eventually in the game our starting LB. And still we managed to overcome all of that and the adversity we put ourselves into with the turnovers. We scored 23 points which with this defense should be enough to win most ballgames. 

[Guest]

@Mike Olson said:
We were without our Starting QB, starting RB, starting WR, starting G, starting S and then eventually in the game our starting LB. And still we managed to overcome all of that and the adversity we put ourselves into with the turnovers. We scored 23 points which with this defense should be enough to win most ballgames. 

And GB was down to guys who'd only taken Special Teams reps, lost both Tackles, their LG, their #1 RB, etc.  On the Road. In the Game.

It's easier when a team walks into a game knowing who's already out as that allows the backups to get all the reps in practice.

Green Bay entered the healthiest they'd been all year and lost like a third of them in-game. And were still in it late because of the TOs.