Cards upend Vikes, 30-17
It’s a cruel start to December for the Vikings as the struggling Arizona Cardinals proved potent enough to upend the Vikings in Sun Devil Stadium Saturday night, 30-17. Adrian Peterson struggled to get his running game going and Kurt Warner had a better night than Brett Favre in the battle of really old QBs.
Still, it’s only the Vikings second loss of the season, and while the dropped game may put them out of contention for home field advantage throughout the playoffs, as New Orleans has yet to lose even once, the bottom line is that the team is still 10-2 and in excellent shape with four games remaining. Hardly time to his the reset button on the trusty ol’ PS3 just yet…
Minnesota still holds a two-game lead on Philadelphia and Dallas, both 8-4, while holding in effect a one-game lead over Arizona following this head-to-head loss. Green Bay won’t play till Monday night, but the Vikings currently hold a three-game lead over the Packers, while a win for the Pack could reduce that to a two-game lead.
The remaining regular season schedule is no cakewalk, either. We host Cincinnati at home next week, then face a two-game road trip to Carolina, then Chicago. We finish out the regular season at home against the New York Giants. We’ll need to win at least two of those games to stay ahead of the pack for the second-place first-round bye in the NFC, though we’d probably need to win out and get some help with a couple of New Orleans losses, in order to move up to secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The road to the SuperBowl, in all likelihood, will have to go through New Orleans this year. They have a cakewalk schedule compared to the Vikes, playing three of their division opponents and Dallas the rest of the way. If they lose in the regular season, it’s likely to be only once, to Dallas.
