The Vikes will win tonight. The reason is simple. The Vikings reliably beat the team that most recently dealt them a big loss. All Vikings fans know this. In fact, the very first NFL football game I ever attended was a Monday Night Football game in which the Vikings beat the Steelers 17-6 at the old Met stadium. This was, of course, two seasons after the Vikes lost to the Steelers 16-6 in Super Bowl IX.
Minnesota was, and probably is, a better team than the defending champions. (Winning the Super Bowl makes a team the league champion, it does not somehow prove it to be the best team in the league.) The fact that the Vikings took the Saints to overtime despite losing five turnovers as a visiting team is a strong indication that they could have, and probably should have, won last year’s NFC Championship. But they didn’t, and it was not exactly the first time they lost a big game they really should have won. Either way, it’s only Week One, so don’t get too excited or too depressed regardless of how the game turns out.
I’m just glad it’s football time again.