Did the Minnesota Vikings Get Exposed on Thursday Night Football?

OK, the Minnesota Vikings were robbed of a potential game-tying drive against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 8’s installment of Thursday Night Football.

In case you missed it, referees missed a blatant and obvious facemask penalty on Rams defensive lineman Byron Young. Missing the call directly resulted in a safety, two points for the Rams, and put the game essentially out of reach for the Vikings. You can read more about it from Patrick Flowers in his latest look around the NFL .

If it weren’t Minnesota’s football team on the short end of the stick, I’d probably use last night’s events as an outlet to vent about the growing trend of poor officiating in high-profile NFL games. Frankly, I don’t want to imagine how apoplectic I’d be if that happened to the Chicago Bears. But I digress. However, not before requesting the league’s officials to clean it up by the time the Bears start playing in marquee matchups later in the year. In the meantime, consecutive losses by the Vikings have me putting them on fraud watch. I’ll admit that seems harsh and a bit overreactionary. However, I don’t believe I’m alone thinking about it.

What is happening with the Vikings is too notable to ignore:

Sure, I know better than to think three tweets can tell a whole story. But the tale the tweets above portray doesn’t seem like good things are on the horizon for the Minnesota Vikings.

Are the Vikings doomed to repeat history?

I knew I had to find a way to share this with the readership when my friend sent me this graphic on Thursday night:

The 2016 Minnesota Vikings started 5-0, went on a bye, and returned to the gridiron to lose six of their next seven games en route to an 8-8 record and a seat on the outside looking into the playoffs. And while I know that past performance is not a direct indicator of future results, I also know that the Vikings are a cursed fanbase. Losing back-to-back games after a 5-0 start is likely triggering a subset of fans who know they’ve seen this film before and didn’t like the ending.

Minnesota has three consecutive games against the AFC South ( h/t Zack Pearson ) before the Vikings face the Bears on Nov. 24 at Soldier Field. You better believe we’ll be the biggest AFC South advocates north of the Mason-Dixon Line in those three games. And while I understand that the Bears have to handle their own business, the Vikings’ demise would help Chicago’s football team’s cause as it tries to squeeze into a playoff spot for the first time since 2020.

Ultimately, I can’t say with complete certainty that the Minnesota Vikings were exposed on Thursday Night Football. As much as I’d like to do so, I think there is too much of this season left to play for us to take that leap of faith. However, it does look like there is a potential for the Vikings’ house of cards to come crashing down (much to our delight).