No. 5 Minnesota (-1.5) at No. 4 L.A. Rams
Monday, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN/ABC)
Vikings fan complain about their bad luck in the postseason all the time, and I'm starting to think they might be right. This team is cursed. Not only do they have the four Super Bowl losses, but they had a 15-1 team in 1998 that lost in the NFC title game because their kicker missed a 38-yard field goal, which was the ONLY time he missed a kick during the ENTIRE season.
In 2009, they were on the edge of field goal range during the final 20 seconds of an NFC title game that was tied at 28 when Brett Favre decided that would be the perfect time to wing a ball downfield to the other team. The Vikings lost in overtime.
But wait, there's more.
In the 2015 wild-card round, the Vikings needed just a 27-yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat the Seahawks, but Blair Walsh missed. In 2015, NFL kickers went 191 of 194 on field goal attempts of 27 yards or less. Walsh had one of the three misses.
Sure, they have the Minneapolis miracle, but then they lost 38-7 in the NFC title game the next week.
This year, they went 14-3, which would have been good enough for a home playoff game in EVERY OTHER SEASON in NFL history, but nope, not this year. Not for the Vikings. Instead, they're the first team ever to win at least 14 games and make the playoffs as a wild-card team. Not only do they now have to play on the road, but they have to fly halfway across the country to face one of the two teams that beat them during the regular season.
Just to repeat: The Vikings went 14-1 this year when they weren't playing the Lions and they somehow got matched up in the wild-card round against the ONE team responsible for that loss.
Last week, I picked the Vikings to lose in Detroit and my entire basis for making the pick was that Sam Darnold had never played in a game of that magnitude and that I didn't think things would go well for him. You don't know how you're going to react to that kind of pressure until you're actually in it, so let's see how Darnold did:
That's a big yikes.
Last week, I trusted Jared Goff more than Darnold, and this week, I trust Matthew Stafford more than Darnold. While the Vikings were fighting for their lives on Sunday night, the Rams starters were resting on the sideline because they didn't play in Week 18.
A rested Matthew Stafford going up against a Vikings defense that gave up the fifth-most passing yards in the NFL this year doesn't seem like a matchup that's going to end well for Minnesota.
The pick: Rams 26-23 over Vikings
