For the sixth time in Mike Zimmer's eight years as coach, the Vikings will finish the regular season at home against the Bears. It will be the fourth time the Vikings have had nothing at stake.
The first matchup — a 13-9 victory at TCF Bank Stadium in 2014 — got the Vikings to 7-9 after a little-known receiver named Adam Thielen caught his first NFL touchdown pass. The Vikings won 38-10 in a 2016 finale that was notable for only two reasons: the people that scaled the U.S. Bank Stadium rafters to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the fact the Bears scored their only TD on a play that would spark the "Philly Special" on the same field in Super Bowl LII a year later.
The Vikings clinched a first-round bye against the Bears in 2017, lost a playoff spot with a defeat in 2018 and rested starters in 2019 after a Monday night loss to the Packers locked them into the NFC's final wild-card spot.
The Vikings are again 7-9 and back to a no-stakes finale against the Bears on Sunday, a year after playing the Lions in the same situation. In both seasons, the Vikings began December in control of their playoff destiny; both times, they were eliminated a week before the final game.
They are here because of a series of bets they made that didn't pan out. They banked on veteran additions improving their secondary, while counting on offensive continuity with first-year coordinator Klint Kubiak succeeding his father, Gary. They planned for an improved offensive line, adding size with two of their first four draft picks, and expected their pass rush would return to form after defensive end Danielle Hunter and linebacker Anthony Barr returned from injuries.
Finally, they crossed their fingers they would escape major effects of COVID-19, despite beginning the season with the NFL's lowest percentage of players vaccinated against the virus.
Each of those bets, to varying degrees, came up short of what the Vikings expected in return. This week brings the four-year anniversary of the "Minneapolis Miracle," the defining moment of Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman's eight years together. The Vikings are 33-33-1 since, from their 38-7 loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game to the 37-10 defeat last Sunday night at Lambeau Field that eliminated them from the playoffs for the third time in the four seasons since Stefon Diggs' improbable touchdown.
The Wilf family will debate changes at the top of the organization, which could come as soon as Monday. But before that, the Vikings will play another finale against the Bears, closing out a wild year when 14 of their first 16 games were decided by one score or less.
Here is a look back at the wagers that defined the Vikings' 2021 season.
Bet 1: Adding veterans will fix the secondary
What the Vikings did: After drafting three corners — first-rounder Jeff Gladney, third-rounder Cameron Dantzler and fifth-rounder Harrison Hand — in 2020 and finishing 25th in the league against the pass, the Vikings went almost completely in the opposite direction. They expected major contributions from four veterans on one-year deals (Patrick Peterson, Xavier Woods, Mackensie Alexander and Bashaud Breeland), bumping Dantzler down to the third team before the season while releasing Gladney in August after a grand jury indicted him on felony family violence charges.
How it turned out: While Peterson has played serviceably and Woods has three interceptions, Alexander has struggled in coverage, especially downfield. Breeland sparred with a reporter before the Lions game in October, posted an obscene tweet after getting booed during the game and fared poorly enough in coverage to lose his starting spot by December, when he was released following an altercation with teammates during a Saturday practice. Dantzler showed signs of improvement, especially against the run, after starting the year on the bench, but he and Woods drifted too deep into the end zone on the final play of the Vikings' loss to Detroit on Dec. 5, leaving room for Amon-Ra St. Brown to catch the winning touchdown.
Bet 2: A healthier front seven will thrive
What the Vikings did: They signed Dalvin Tomlinson to a two-year, $21 million deal in free agency, setting him up to play defensive tackle while Michael Pierce (who'd opted out in 2020 because of COVID-19) came back as the nose tackle. The Vikings also worked out a contract dispute with Hunter to get him back in Minnesota following the hernia that cost him all of the 2020 season. With Hunter, Pierce and Barr back, the Vikings figured many of their struggles with stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback would be resolved.
How it turned out: For much of the year, the Vikings ranked in the top two in the NFL in sacks, with Hunter starting the season on a tear and Everson Griffen — signed to a one-year deal after a training camp tryout — making a startling return with five sacks in his first nine games. The Vikings felt confident enough about their defensive line situation that they granted Stephen Weatherly's request for a trade in October. But Hunter suffered a torn pectoral muscle Oct. 31; Pierce missed more than two months with an elbow injury and torn triceps; and Griffen began receiving mental health treatment in late November after an impasse with police at his home in Minnetrista. Assuming Pierce doesn't play Sunday after missing the entire week of practice with an illness, he will end the season having played only eight games. D.J. Wonnum posted five sacks, but has struggled to set an edge against the run as the Vikings' run defense suffered and their pass rush dried up without Hunter and Griffen. In the two losses that knocked them out of the playoffs, they didn't sack either Matthew Stafford or Aaron Rodgers.
Bet 3: Continuity will work on offense
What the Vikings did: They planned for Klint Kubiak to take over as offensive coordinator when Gary Kubiak retired after the 2020 season, making their former quarterbacks coach a first-time play-caller and deciding not to add an older voice on offense. Wide receiver Dede Westbrook was the only proven skill position player they added to the offense; the Vikings drafted Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Kene Nwangwu, but otherwise counted on tight end Irv Smith Jr.'s emergence after releasing Kyle Rudolph and assumed the offense would function as it did in 2020, when the Vikings were fourth in the league in yards and 11th in points.
How it turned out: The team is 12th in yards and 14th in points this season, after several confounding stretches that saw the Vikings struggle to get the ball to Justin Jefferson. Smith was lost for the season before Week 1. Kubiak didn't find his rhythm as a play-caller, and found himself the latest recipient of Zimmer's criticism the Vikings weren't running the ball enough after last Sunday's loss at Lambeau Field. Jefferson voiced his own frustrations after a Dec. 26 loss to the Rams, saying the Vikings needed to be more aggressive in the red zone and airing concerns about a lack of energy before a must-win game. While the receiver eclipsed 100 catches and 1,500 yards, thanks in part to a November surge, the offense went through lulls and struggled to convert third downs.
Bet 4: A bigger offensive line will make life easier
What the Vikings did: After trading back from 14th to 23rd in the first round of the draft, they picked Christian Darrisaw with the idea the Virginia Tech tackle would start right away on the left side. Then, the Vikings took Ohio State guard Wyatt Davis in the third round, pairing him with Darrisaw as part of what Zimmer said was an effort to get bigger on the offensive line. The Vikings moved Ezra Cleveland to the left side of the line, hoping center Garrett Bradbury would thrive between Cleveland and a more forceful right guard, and they signed right tackle Brian O'Neill to a five-year deal at the beginning of training camp.
How it turned out: The line gave up fewer sacks than in 2020, with Cousins working to get rid of the ball sooner, but penalties and poor run blocking made the group an issue once again. Darrisaw, whose pre-draft groin surgery scared some teams, needed a second operation in August and didn't start until Week 6 against the Panthers. Davis hasn't played an offensive snap all season after a disappointing and injury-riddled training camp; he is among four Vikings 2021 third-round picks that have combined to play 90 snaps from scrimmage. The team went through five different starting offensive lines, benching Bradbury after he returned from COVID-19, then pulling the oft-penalized Oli Udoh for Mason Cole until an elbow injury sidelined Cole. O'Neill hasn't surrendered a sack all year, and Cleveland has improved at left guard, but the Vikings will face a decision on the fifth-year option for Bradbury, who has continued to struggle against bigger defensive tackles.
Bet 5: Hoping for the best with COVID-19
What the Vikings did: This certainly isn't a bet the Vikings wanted to have to make. Zimmer sharply criticized his unvaccinated players after quarterback Kellen Mond's positive test put Cousins and Nate Stanley in the close contact protocol on July 31, and brought in NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills and University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael Osterholm to talk to the team. Behind the scenes, team officials pressured unvaccinated players to get the shot before the season, but the Vikings entered the year with at least 13 players who weren't fully vaccinated, including Harrison Smith, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, Dalvin Tomlinson, Sheldon Richardson and Cousins. They also moved offensive line coach Rick Dennison into an off-field role when he declined the vaccine, which made him ineligible to work with players on the field under NFL protocols.
How it turned out: After Mond's positive test, the Vikings didn't place another player on the COVID-19 reserve list until Oct. 5, when the delta and then omicron variants of the virus affected vaccinated and unvaccinated players alike. Guard Dakota Dozier, who had been vaccinated against the virus, spent several days in the hospital with a breakthrough infection, and vaccinated coaches such as co-defensive coordinator Andre Patterson detailed their own battles with the virus. Smith, Tomlinson, Cook and Cousins all missed games because of COVID. Cook tested positive before last month's loss to the Rams, and Cousins tested positive two days before the Vikings lost at Lambeau Field — where Sean Mannion, the vaccinated QB the Vikings added before the season, returned from his own breakthrough case to start the game.