The Minnesota Vikings hosted the Green Bay Packers in Week 17 in what was essentially an elimination game for the NFC North rivals. Whoever was fortunate enough to win would increase their odds of advancing to the postseason exponentially.
Unfortunately for the Vikings and their fans, it was the Packers who were able to do that. Green Bay put together a dominant 33-10 victory, moving their record to 8-8 on the season. Minnesota dropped to 7-9, putting their playoff hopes on life support.
While not mathematically eliminated from the postseason, the Vikings’ odds of moving on are slim to none. But, there is still a chance. The first order of business for the team is to defeat the Detroit Lions, whom they just faced off against in Week 16.
The Lions won that matchup 30-24 in Minnesota. Heading on the road to face a ticked-off Detroit team that was seemingly robbed of a victory in Week 17 against the Dallas Cowboys presents a big mountain for the Vikings to climb.
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Should they pull off the upset victory, Minnesota will be doing a lot of scoreboard-watching. They will need a ton of help from other teams on top of earning the victory themselves. In every scenario, they need the Packers and Seattle Seahawks to lose to the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals, respectively.
Both of those teams are favorites heading into their matchups. Along with those teams losing, the Vikings would need the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or New Orleans Saints to also lose their matchups against the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons, respectively.
That is certainly a lot that the Vikings need. Picking up a victory on the road will be hard enough, but needing at least three more teams, who are all listed as favorites on the gambling lines, to lose, certainly makes the odds not in their favor heading into the final week of the 2023 regular season.
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