EMPTY WINS

VIKINGS 16

PACKERS 3

The Vikings won their season finale Sunday, giving them 5 straight wins to end the season. Believe it or not, this means the Vikings have had at least a 5 game win streak every year of the KOC era. 

Didn't feel like it, though. This was an empty win streak to end a wholly unsatisfying season. 

This finale was a glorified preseason game. The Packers were locked into the 7th seed, so had absolutely nothing to play for, and played reserves, including 3rd string QB Clayton Tune. 

JJ McCarthy was back for the Vikings after the fractured hand kept him out on Christmas. You figured this game would be a good chance for him to play well, given the competition. But we saw more of the same from him. There was a smattering of good plays, but mixed in with a bunch of bad throws, and a ridiculous taunting penalty. And in an almost comically fitting end to his season, it ended just after halftime when he left the game due to the same hand injury. Max Brosmer, in almost certainly the last NFL action of his career, finished up. 

With nothing to play for, the mission of the game was to at least make sure Justin Jefferson got to 1,000 yards on the season. The issue was settled quickly, as the plan seemed to be to feed Justin the ball. He actually ended up with his 1st 100-yard game since early in the season. 

The game was also quite emotional, as this was the likely final game in the careers of Harrison Smith and CJ Ham. Smith was the last player introduced in pregame, and got a curtain call late in the game. And Ham got the game's lone touchdown. I cried. 

The game itself was never in doubt. A Vikings defense that was borderline elite in the back half of the season made easy work of the scrubs the Packers put out there. Dallas Turner had a couple sacks. 

The Packers only score game when Matt LaFleur called timeout with 1 second left in the game, then kicked a field goal to spoil the shutout. It's such a douchebag move that I almost respect it.

The Vikings finished 9-8, in 3rd place, and just a half game behind those Packers. Flip just 1 of those 8 losses to wins and this game might have meant something. But that's the kind of season it was.

The 2025 Vikings season was just empty and unsatisfying. They didn't win the north. They didn't make the playoffs. They didn't get meaningful progress from JJ McCarthy. They didn't even get a definitive no regarding McCarthy's future (well, *I* think things are fairly clear, but I doubt the team agrees).

The Vikings were 5-8 in games played before elimination. Most of the wins were ugly as shit. The losses were often grotesque. The bad QB play, which neutralized our playmakers, made the team unpleasant to watch. The defense was stout, but not what I would call exciting. Will Reichard had one of the great Vikings kicker seasons ever, but we wasted it. 

I don't even feel like this is a situation where a losing team finishing a season strong will have a carryover effect. This is an old team that needs to jettison some of the vets, and desperately needs to do something different at QB. I'm dreaming of getting Joe Burrow in here, but that's probably a pipe dream. There will be veterans and younger QBs with untapped potential that you could get. Malik Willis? Davis Mills? Mac Jones? The Vikings HAVE to, at minimum, force McCarthy to earn the job he was handed this year.

I think the win streak and marginal improvement in McCarthy's play mean no major changes will be made up top. Kwesi is probably safe. KOC is safe. But both will enter 2026 on the hot seat. That will be year 5 of this regime, and they haven't won a playoff game. That can't continue. The NFL is not a league where you have forever to get it right.

It just feels like 2025 was a waste of a season. There is almost nothing that will endure in the memory, at least not in a good way. A franchise that played for the 1 seed a year ago self-sabotaged themselves into frustrating mediocrity. It sacked.