As part of our expanded Vikings playoff coverage this week, we will answer daily reader questions. You can email your questions to michael.rand@startribune.com, or send them to @RandBall on Twitter.
Q: I had an idea for a Vikings season wrap: You and the others listen to the first Access Vikings podcast of the season together and talk through how accurate or far off you were on your predictions. — Shane Ahlbrecht
Thanks, Shane, for the e-mail.
Sort of.
Uh-oh.
OK, but really it is a fun idea and I think myself, Ben Goessling and Andrew Krammer will take you up on that once the season is over. On the most recent episode, which was just posted Wednesday, we stuck more to a task-at-hand script of previewing Sunday's playoff game against the Giants.
But as the owner of the most (in hindsight) absurd preseason prediction about this team, which I shared in multiple places, let me take a quick look back right now.
In early September, I picked the Vikings to finish 7-10, noting: "The schedule is forgiving, but the depth is still perilously thin. Injuries at any position aside from running back would be ruinous. That's a tough way to live in the modern NFL, but at least the reckoning will usher in a more honest roster appraisal and rebuild."
The Vikings instead rendered the prediction impossible by roughly the season's midpoint and wound up with nearly double the number of wins (13) as was guessed.
Sure, Football Outsiders might consider the Vikings a six- or seven-win team in terms of estimated wins, but those aren't real outcomes.
This Vikings team has been one of the most surprising and perhaps the strangest in franchise history. The depth was, indeed, thin. A rebuild might happen anyway.
But in the here and now, what the Vikings have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. I severely underestimated whatever forces have led to this whimsical season — whether they be the outsized brilliance of Justin Jefferson, the feel-good leadership of Kevin O'Connell, the fortitude of veterans or good, old-fashioned fortune.
Whatever happens Sunday and beyond could qualify as a shock, but probably at this point probably not a surprise.
