Three Most Painful Loses in Vikings History?

[Nosferatu]

3. December 28th 1975. Dallas 17 Minnesota 14. The Hail Mary Game!
This one makes the list for a couple reasons, I believe I remember Bud Grant saying he thought the 75 team was the best team they ever had and although the Hail Mary to Drew Pearson was just a knife to the heart it was the earlier 4th and 17 conversion to Pearson that was the real killer. Still not sure he had both feet down on that catch.

2. January 24th 2010. New Orleans 31 Minnesota 28. Too many men in the huddle!
This one hurt, I believe the Vikings were clearly the better team and had they played 10 times the Vikes win 8 of them, but not today, all kinds of mistakes in this one, turnovers but the death blow to me was the too many men in the huddle play that pushed us back 5 yards and out of Longwell's field goal range. Just run the ball there and get closer, oh well. We outgained the Saints that day 475 yards to 257 yards. The officials were terrible but in the end it's hard to win with 5 turnovers.

1. January 17th 1999. Atlanta 30 Minnesota 27. The only professional sports game that made me cry.
It had to be the perfect storm for Atlanta to win this game. There were plenty of mistakes here, missed field goal, running out of bounds, dropped passes but I put the blame for this one right on the shoulders of Dennis Green. Trying to score more before half time up 20 - 7. 3rd and 10 from our own 18 and we call a pass play with 1:08 left in the half, WTF, Cunningham is sacked and fumbles and on the very next play Chandler hits Mathis for a TD and it's 20 - 14, I knew right there that day would not end well.

3rd and 3 on our own 27 with 30 seconds remaining in the regulation, Randall Cunningham takes a knee. Now maybe this wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact our defense was very tired, Atlanta just marched 70 yards in 1:10 to tie the game, Ed McDaniel was hurt and we had the #1 scoring offense in the history of the league, but no we take a knee, kinda like we should have done before halftime. As I said I have been a Minnesota Sports fan for 40+ years and never did I shed a tear after a loss until this game. I am convinced now the Vikings will never win a Super Bowl! We were the best team in football in 1998 and it honestly wasn't that close...

 

[USCDoom]

What about 1998 Bucs? Vikings could have been the first 16-0 team.

 

[Nosferatu]

What about 1998 Bucs? Vikings could have been the first 16-0 team.

Yeah it wouldnt have mattered because the Atlanta game still happened, it's difficult to compare a regular season loss to a playoff loss IMO.

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

I've only been following them since the mid-90's, and was pretty young for the Atlana loss in '98 season, so that plays a big role in how the losses effected me.


1) 2009 NFC championship against the Saints. When they were on their A-game, the Vikes were unstoppable that year, with a damn good balance of good offense and defense. Favre had the best regular season of his career. The Vikes were clearly the better team over New Orleans, and it was clear by the 2nd quarter that New Orleans was clearly trying to knock Favre out of the game with injury, but the officials did very little about it. Although the Vikes shot themselves in the foot with their 5 turnovers, I still think the loss had just as much to do with the dirty play of the Saints defense. IMO Sean Payton and Gregg Williams (the ultimate dirty POS who was the D-coordinator for them that year and continued his bs long afterwards) both deserved 5+ year bans from the sport for what they had done to Favre AND Kurt Warner in the Saints game before that, ending Warner's career and effectively ending Favre's. Plus, the Colts proved to be very much beatable in their title loss to the Saints, which made it worse. Awful officiating heavily in favor of NO, the turnovers, bountygate, 5 men in the huddle... urgh.

2) 1998 NFC title game against Atlanta. This is #1 for most people for a reason and would be for me too had been older, so it speaks for itself. I still vividly remember being in utter disbelief when Gary Anderson missed that FG and knowing we were definitely going to lose after that. The only saving grace for me is that I honestly think they'd have had their hands full against Elway, Terrell Davis and the Broncos in the SB, especially with John Randal playing banged up. Might be the best SB that never happened but should have. Denny Green can be thanked almost entirely for this gem of a playoff dump.

3) 2004 playoffs against Philly. Right after the upset win at GB they got mainly due to pride and deciding to actually show up for the game, they basically decided to shiit the bed the moment they set foot on the field in Philly. The whole team was a disgrace for not even trying past the 1st quarter that game.

 

[Nosferatu]

Not sure I understand the Eagles game being in the top three, I do however respect your opinion but the Vikings were an average in 2004 and the Eagles were the best team in the NFC. The 2000 loss to the Giants was the definition of shitting the bed and disgraceful...

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

Not sure I understand the Eagles game being in the top three, I do however respect your opinion but the Vikings were an average in 2004 and the Eagles were the best team in the NFC. The 2000 loss to the Giants was the definition of shitting the bed and disgraceful...

GAgreed, the 2000 NFC shutout title loss was terrible. I think the reason it never stuck with me as badly as '98 or '09 is because it was clear we were going to get obliterated even before halftime. It was embarassing to be rooting for the Vikes in that one, almost to a comical extent due to being clown stomped so badly.
Where as '98 felt like "THE year", damn near flawless regular season with several blowout wins - and it was looking like a looking like a blowout win over the 14-2 Falcons in the NFCC game until ol' Dennis decided to go full retard before the half and let them cut the lead from 14 to 7. Then in the '09 season game, it was perhaps the most up and down football game I have ever watched; there wasn't a single moment in the game where you felt confident we'd win, but it was clear that fukker was going right down to the wire.

IIn 2004, I remember an up and down year, with several classic choke jobs along the way to cost us any shot at the division. Meanwhile, Daunte had his mirage MVP-esque 39 TD season, and I recall there already being strong assumptions that we were trading Randy Moss away to "get rid" a damn classic Viking great after the season, so I felt like dogshit thinking of that in the Philly loss. So I guess that's why that game felt more painful to me than it normally would have.




Cliffs:
- Agreed on the 2000 NFCC game... I remember watching that shiit show with my father and asking if he thought we'd score any points sometime during the 3rd quarter. He just sort of shook his head in dissapointment and said he was just hoping for a fkn Vikes FG but wasn't counting on it... Vikes delivered on the ultimate choke job.

-- The looming Moss trade rumors before the 2004 season even ended made the 2004 Philly playoff game much worse for me than it probably would have been otherwise. Can't recall if Zygi had ownership yet before the trade officially happened, but either way, he had to have signed off on that prior to McCombs dumping the team on him that offseason. Then he allowed Childress enough authority to single handedly destroy our Moss reunion in 2010. Urgh... smdh.

 

[Beaker]

I know it isn't remarkably painful, but I am still partial to this one

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

I know it isn't remarkably painful, but I am still partial to this one

You shut your whore mouth!

I had that one burried deep into the depths of misery as a title deprived Vikings fan... you pulled that memory out of the abyss for me, dammit!

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

What about 1998 Bucs? Vikings could have been the first 16-0 team.

I respect the notion, but considering the context, that loss to the Bucs in 1998 wasn't that big of a deal. Like Nos said, it was a regular season game, which are seldom as gut wrenching as playoff losses. That and the Vikes were only 7-0 by the time thst loss came, so there wasn't really all that much buildup to hyping a perfect 16-0 regular season yet (there was some hype no doubt, but it hadn't had much time to build yet).

That and it was a regular season road loss by just 3 points (27-24 Bucs) to a respectable enough opponent (Bucs were 8-8 that year) who was also a division rival at that time. So, all things considered, it wasn't like it was embarassing loss to some shitty team or getting blown out, and it wasn't a game that amounted to much of significance for either team's season. Plus being a road loss, we still felt invincible at home when Atlanta showed up in the NFCC game for Dennis Green to poop the bed.

As far as gut wrentching regular season losses go, the only ones I'd even consider mentioning in the same post as playoff games are regular season that essentially were playoff games for teams on the cusp of making it/elimination. The 2003 last second Cardinals TD to Nate Pool (such a cringe-worthy moment in Vikes history, I still remember a very forgettable, irrelevant WR from a team in another division over it) by the now defunk "forced out of bounds" rule comes to mind - it kept the Vikes from getting the wildcard spot after a season of classic choke jobs in which they should have won the damn NFC North, on a hail Mary final play of the regular season.

 

[JOZ]

3. 2010 saints game 2. 1999 atlanta game 1. whatever the last loss was

 

[Win TWINS!!!]

3. December 28th 1975. Dallas 17 Minnesota 14. The Hail Mary Game!
This one makes the list for a couple reasons, I believe I remember Bud Grant saying he thought the 75 team was the best team they ever had and although the Hail Mary to Drew Pearson was just a knife to the heart it was the earlier 4th and 17 conversion to Pearson that was the real killer. Still not sure he had both feet down on that catch.

2. January 24th 2010. New Orleans 31 Minnesota 28. Too many men in the huddle!
This one hurt, I believe the Vikings were clearly the better team and had they played 10 times the Vikes win 8 of them, but not today, all kinds of mistakes in this one, turnovers but the death blow to me was the too many men in the huddle play that pushed us back 5 yards and out of Longwell's field goal range. Just run the ball there and get closer, oh well. We outgained the Saints that day 475 yards to 257 yards. The officials were terrible but in the end it's hard to win with 5 turnovers.

1. January 17th 1999. Atlanta 30 Minnesota 27. The only professional sports game that made me cry.
It had to be the perfect storm for Atlanta to win this game. There were plenty of mistakes here, missed field goal, running out of bounds, dropped passes but I put the blame for this one right on the shoulders of Dennis Green. Trying to score more before half time up 20 - 7. 3rd and 10 from our own 18 and we call a pass play with 1:08 left in the half, WTF, Cunningham is sacked and fumbles and on the very next play Chandler hits Mathis for a TD and it's 20 - 14, I knew right there that day would not end well.

3rd and 3 on our own 27 with 30 seconds remaining in the regulation, Randall Cunningham takes a knee. Now maybe this wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact our defense was very tired, Atlanta just marched 70 yards in 1:10 to tie the game, Ed McDaniel was hurt and we had the #1 scoring offense in the history of the league, but no we take a knee, kinda like we should have done before halftime. As I said I have been a Minnesota Sports fan for 40+ years and never did I shed a tear after a loss until this game. I am convinced now the Vikings will never win a Super Bowl! We were the best team in football in 1998 and it honestly wasn't that close...

I have to replace your number 3 with:

1987/1988 NFC Championship game. It was the first year I really recall becoming an NFL fan (it wasn't big in my house), I was 12, and still riding the Twins' WS victory. All I have to say is: Darrin effin Nelson...

 

[GNG]

56 years and zero Super Bowl wins sums up the Vikings.

 

[Nosferatu]

56 years and zero Super Bowl wins sums up the Vikings.

 

[GNG]

I guess the truth hurts...

 

[Nosferatu]

I have to replace your number 3 with:

1987/1988 NFC Championship game. It was the first year I really recall becoming an NFL fan (it wasn't big in my house), I was 12, and still riding the Twins' WS victory. All I have to say is: Darrin effin Nelson...

I get why you added that game but they weren't suppose to be in that game to lose, the games I mentioned we were clearly the better team and blew it! They wanted to draft Marcus Allen but he said he wouldn't sign with the Vikes so poof Darrin Nelson...

 

[Nosferatu]

I guess the truth hurts...

So does being trolled by a bandwagon fan...

 

[GNG]

So does being trolled by a bandwagon fan...

I'm not a Vikings fan so carry on.

 

[Nosferatu]

I'm not a Vikings fan so carry on.

If you are gonna post here have a clue!

 

[GNG]

If you are gonna post here have a clue!

 

[Win TWINS!!!]