Three Most Painful Loses in Vikings History?

[Nosferatu]

Fran Tarkenton is the Barry Sanders of quarterbacks. Was really fun to watch, made you say wow a lot but never did shit when it mattered.

 

[Ojb81]

People underestimate how tough beating Denver in 1998 would have been. Denver was also 14-2 that season, and people really underrate how great they were. They humiliated Atlanta in that Superbowl. It would have been a very tough game to win in that Superbowl.

A huge part of why they lost the game to Atlanta was because Randle started the game off hurt, and was hurt significantly worse from a chop block on first play of the NFCC game. Had they managed to make it to the Superbowl, Terrell Davis would have destroyed them with the running game without a healthy Randle, plus Elway and the passing attack was also elite. The Denver D wasn't bad at all either. It would have taken the absolute best game by the Vikings offense to have stood a chance given the various injuries on the team by that point and how incredibly good that Denver team also was. Considering how Denver dropped 34 points on Atlanta, it's a safe bet that the Vikings would have had to put up 40+ to have a serious chance of winning that game in a shootout.

Had both teams been able to play reasonably healthy, I'd give a nod to the Vikings in a still high scoring game. But without a healthy Randle, the Vikings D would have been decimated by the Denver offense, and that's just a fact.

The NFL, more than anything, is a game of matchups, and the Vikings matched up with Denver better than you might think. I actually wouldn't have been surprised at all to have seen them score 35+ on that solid bronco D

 

[Purple Haze]

1. 1998 vs Atlanta.
2. 2009 vs New Orleans.
3. 1975 vs Dallas.

 

[Nosferatu]

1. 1998 vs Atlanta.
2. 2009 vs New Orleans.
3. 1975 vs Dallas.

So, we agree...

 

[Nosferatu]

1. 1998 vs Atlanta.
2. 2009 vs New Orleans.
3. 1975 vs Dallas.

Oh and welcome to the hoop!

 

[Purple Haze]

Nosferatu, I was at the Falcon game in 1998. Bothers me to this day. I have been a Viking fan for 45 years. I live in Massachusetts and I absolutely hate the Patriots and their obnoxious, ignorant, classless fans. Attending a game in Foxboro is depressing. The place is filled with uneducated; toothless, minimum wage earning fans who spend a week salary to buy two tickets to a game. The stadium and the grounds outside It are a dump along with the surrounding area. I am so happy they lost tonight. Too bad the Seahawks and the Falcons game them Super Bowl victories. Brady should be 3-5. I didn’t see if the classless Brady shook hands after the game or not. Chances are he ran off the field and didn’t, he is a poor loser. If they had won he would have been shaking hands and back slapping all of the Eagles players.

 

[Nosferatu]

Nosferatu, I was at the Falcon game in 1998. Bothers me to this day. I have been a Viking fan for 45 years. I live in Massachusetts and I absolutely hate the Patriots and their obnoxious, ignorant, classless fans. Attending a game in Foxboro is depressing. The place is filled with uneducated; toothless, minimum wage earning fans who spend a week salary to buy two tickets to a game. The stadium and the grounds outside It are a dump along with the surrounding area. I am so happy they lost tonight. Too bad the Seahawks and the Falcons game them Super Bowl victories. Brady should be 3-5. I didn’t see if the classless Brady shook hands after the game or not. Chances are he ran off the field and didn’t, he is a poor loser. If they had won he would have been shaking hands and back slapping all of the Eagles players.

Fuck the Patriots! Actually i've been a Vikings fan about the exact same amount of time and it just doesn't hurt anymore, i'm just used to it now. Fuck Dennis Green and Fuck Jamal Anderson! That's all I got to say about that!

 

[Purple Haze]

Green cost them the Falcon game in 98 at the end of the first half. Instead of kneeling and going into the half with a good lead he had the Vikings try to score more points with the ball near their goal line and less than a minute left. They turned the ball over and let Atlanta score a td with a few seconds left in the half. That was a huge momentum swing. Never should have lost that damn game.

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

After re-thinking on a lot of these games, I'm going to revise my list.

1. January 17, 1999. 1998 NFC Championship - This game explains itself. They had the most explosive offense of all time, all with rookie Randy Moss changing the way the entire league played defense along the way. The defense wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for the historic offense to just outscore opponents at will. That was "the year", if there ever was one.

2. January 24, 2010 - 2009 NFC Championship - While the 2009 team wasn't quite as dominant as the '98 team, they were amazing in their own right. It was one of the most magical season in Vikings history, all set up perfectly for Favre to walk off into the sunset while winning a Superbowl for us in the face of his former Packers team. They put up a huge fight in this game, out-gaining the Saints in total yards 475 to 257, taking the the game all the way to OT to end on a New Orleans FG in which the Minnesota offense didn't get to touch the ball. Not to mention that they nearly overcame 5 turnovers to the Saints, the numerous dirty hits on Favre trying to knock him out of the game, the atrocious OT officiating clearly in favor of the Saints, and "5 men on the field" penalty that lead to the Favre INT instead of Ryan Longwell FG attempt. Brutal loss.

3. January 21, 2018 - 2017 NFC Championship game - We had the #1 defense in the league, plus a top 10 offense. We had just sneaked past New Orleans at home in an epic win via the "Minneapolis Miracle". Then we went into Philly, our offense scoring with relative ease on the first drive, giving us hope. Then the whole team proceeded to have an epic meltdown, with the O-line destroyed by Philly's defense and our own D looking like they gave up as soon as Philly returned the first Keenum INT back for the pick six and their first score. And it all came at the expense of the Vikes making history by being the first team ever to host their own home Superbowl.

 

[Nosferatu]

After re-thinking on a lot of these games, I'm going to revise my list.

1. January 17, 1999. 1998 NFC Championship - This game explains itself. They had the most explosive offense of all time, all with rookie Randy Moss changing the way the entire league played defense along the way. The defense wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for the historic offense to just outscore opponents at will. That was "the year", if there ever was one.

2. January 24, 2010 - 2009 NFC Championship - While the 2009 team wasn't quite as dominant as the '98 team, they were amazing in their own right. It was one of the most magical season in Vikings history, all set up perfectly for Favre to walk off into the sunset while winning a Superbowl for us in the face of his former Packers team. They put up a huge fight in this game, out-gaining the Saints in total yards 475 to 257, taking the the game all the way to OT to end on a New Orleans FG in which the Minnesota offense didn't get to touch the ball. Not to mention that they nearly overcame 5 turnovers to the Saints, the numerous dirty hits on Favre trying to knock him out of the game, the atrocious OT officiating clearly in favor of the Saints, and "5 men on the field" penalty that lead to the Favre INT instead of Ryan Longwell FG attempt. Brutal loss.

3. January 21, 2018 - 2017 NFC Championship game - We had the #1 defense in the league, plus a top 10 offense. We had just sneaked past New Orleans at home in an epic win via the "Minneapolis Miracle". Then we went into Philly, our offense scoring with relative ease on the first drive, giving us hope. Then the whole team proceeded to have an epic meltdown, with the O-line destroyed by Philly's defense and our own D looking like they gave up as soon as Philly returned the first Keenum INT back for the pick six and their first score. And it all came at the expense of the Vikes making history by being the first team ever to host their own home Superbowl.

I will never be able to change my top 3 because my heart was shattered January 17th 1999 I will always love the Vikings. I will always hope they do well but I really died a little that day and I simply don't care the way I used to. Also just my opinion but you can't put the Eagles loss in the top 3, we got fucking crushed. Of the 8 teams who won their division the Vikings scored the least amount of points in the regular season. The defense wasn't quite the same on the road. I wasn't surprised at all the Eagles won the game, I was surprised they destroyed us but again IMO no way this is a top 3 painful loss...