BRIGHT FINISH TO A DARK SEASON

VIKINGS 37

LIONS 35

We have seen our fair share of meaningless week 17 games over the years, but this was probably the most entertaining one ever. Sure you don't want your season to be ending in a game of no real consequence, but if you got to...at least make it fun.

This was a pretty fun game. Very entertaining. Some big plays, and one big record.

Both teams looked pretty lousy to start. Both looked like they were going to just be going through the motions for the first few drives. 

Then the offensive floodgates opened. Matthew Stafford began picking apart our bad defense. Kirk began to pick apart Detroit's.

Anthony Harris got burned for one score. Then Kirk hit Mattison on a dump off and he raced 40 some yards for another. Stafford threw another touchdown. Then Kirk tossed another score to Ameer Abdullah. Lions got a field goal. Then, in the funniest play of the day, we had a mini miracle as Kirk hit Beebe along the sideline in the waning seconds of the half, and instead of being tackled in bounds to end the half Beebe bounced off the defender and raced in for the touchdown.

Second half was more of rhe same. Stafford burned us quickly. We burned them right back with another Mattison score. A Hitman pick got our lead bumped up to 8 and Detroit never again got closer than 2 as they failed on a pair of conversion tries. I was happy to see Adrian Peterson score on us. I hope this was not his last game. Our last touchdown came on a Kirk sneak after a series of goal line plays including a truly appalling roughing the passer call on Kirk on 4th down and goal. (Our referee karma is hardly even)

But after another Lions TD we stopped the 2 and sealed the win, as Mattison converted a 4th and short run (where was THAT in Seattle?).

Beyond the win, the big story was Justin Jefferson. He came in with a great chance to set the record for rookie receiving yardage. Early on he broke Randy Moss's Vikings record, then broke Anquan Boldin's league record. What a great draft pick he was!

And he even did the Griddy dance with Kirk after Kirk's sneak touchdown. Funny how the media spent the last couple weeks insisting JJ hates Kirk.🤔

Dan Bailey missed 2 more kicks today. He missed a 46 yard field goal, then later had one of the worst PAT shanks I have ever seen.

The defense gave up 35 so there were only brief high points, like Hitman's pick, and a Hercules Mata'afa sack. The next time the Vikings take the field their defense is going to look a whole lot different.

This was obviously the.last game as a Viking for a few guys. I don't see how Anthony Harris returns after his awful season. Eric Wilson probably leaves as a free agent. Kyle Rudolph and Riley Reiff didn't play but are likely gone. I sure hope Dakota Dozier is gone. 

You know what sucks about this season? Besides everything?

With the way things played out the Vikings literally make the playoffs with 1 more win. So flip any of those close losses and we make it. We lost 4 games by 6 or less, 2 by 1 point a piece. That close.

This was a fun finishing win, but it was a cruel bitch of a season.

Other Sunday thoughts....

To add to the cruelty, the Packers got home field advantage as they once again owned the Bears. But did the Bears pay a price? Nah. They got to back into the playoffs anyway, because Kyler Murray got hurt and the Cardinals played most of their game with former Gopher Chris Streveler at QB, and got beat by the Rams own backup QB. 

Saints wound up the #2. Seattle #3. Tampa played Brady 4 quarters in a meaningless game for them and had him chucking passes late to pad the stats. Vomitous garbage.

Also vomitous was how the lousy NFC East was decided. The Giants would have gotten in had the Eagles beat Washington on SNF, but the Eagles chose to essentially throw the game. At 17-14 they pulled Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld, who made Streveler look like Joe Montana. Look, the Giants being alive was absurd anyway, but to see a team tank midgame on national TV like that is a bad look for the league. 

In the AFC, we saw the.wild cards decided. Baltimore rolled. Pittsburgh basically took the game off against the Browns, and helped Cleveland get in for the 1st time since 2002. Steelers still damn near came back.

The Titans won a wild one against Houston to win the south. Indy got a scare from the Jags but got it done to grab a wild card.

The odd team out was Miami, who got FIFTY SIX dropped on them by Buffalo. Granted there were a couple non-offensive scores included but what a garbage display for them. Good on the Bills though for having a chance to crush a division rival's season and doing so. Pittsburgh didn't and you watch. It's gonna cost them next week.

In other meaningless game, the Chargers beat the Chiefs B team. The Patriots beat the Jets, who now own the league's longest playoff drought.