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NFL coaches have been lying to us for years.
You need time and continuity to win? The Vikings have a new coaching staff, offense, defense and general manager.
Need your quarterback to avoid turnovers? Kirk Cousins is on pace to set a career high for interceptions. He is 8-1 for the first time in his career.
Need your top draft picks to contribute immediately? The Vikings have gotten almost nothing from their first two picks — or their last seven.
The offseason is important? T.J. Hockenson has been with the team for about 10 days. He has 16 catches on 19 targets and ranks second on the team in yards receiving per game.
If you had told me that by mid-November I'd like Kirk Cousins and the Vikings more than the Timberwolves, I would have had you tested for every psychedelic Aaron Rodgers ever tried, but here we are.
While the Wolves prove that it's hard to shoot the ball with slumped shoulders, the Vikings have exceeded all reasonable expectations. Sunday, in a snow globe in Orchard Park, N.Y., they played one of the most bizarre and exciting games in franchise history, had key calls go against them, turned the ball over and failed to score on fourth-and-goal from the one — and won.
The Vikings' 33-30 victory over the Buffalo Bills prompted national analysts to proclaim that they had proved themselves to be legitimate championship contenders.
This is no time to think. Sometimes, you need to tuck your analysis under the nacho tray and just enjoy.
The wake of this victory is the ideal time to renew our appreciation for the sheer entertainment this franchise and league provide. As for early-week analysis, let's just say that drawing lasting conclusions from a game featuring a dozen bizarre plays is as foolish as having drawn lasting conclusions from the Vikings' loss in Philadelphia in Week 2.
Here's what Sunday meant, and what it didn't:
Justin Jefferson combines Randy Moss' ability to make contested catches with Cris Carter's work ethic and savvy.
I've been attending NFL games since the 1970s. I've been covering the league since 1989. I have never seen a defensive back get two hands on the ball, and have it pulled away, for a reception, by a receiver who got one hand on the ball while his body was horizontal to the ground.
This game was a testament to the Vikings' defensive line depth, and Patrick Peterson's savvy, and Cousins' late-career growth as a calculating risk-taker.
This game also proved that sports exist to destroy preconceived notions. Josh Allen, the Bills' star quarterback, made mistakes you'd expect from an overmatched rookie. He threw two interceptions into the Vikings' end zone, and fumbled the center snap on his own goal line, giving the Vikings a touchdown.
How many MVP candidates have committed three turnovers in one end zone or the other after halftime of a close game?
No matter what the breathless analysis suggests, this game was not important. The Bills could still win the Super Bowl. The Vikings could still falter.
The truest cliche in the NFL is that it is a week-to-week league. All the talk of the Vikings proving something would be erased with a two-game losing streak, which doesn't seem likely, but then "doesn't seem likely'' is a phrase that usually precedes the most gut-wrenching losses in franchise history.
Some games are meant to simply be savored. As winter encroached, the Vikings and Bills gave us a spectacle that made being a fan worthwhile, and made this charmed season even more compelling.
Before playing Buffalo, the Vikings were looking at a four-game stretch of difficult games that would test their mettle.
Now they get to play the most overrated team and franchise in sports, the Dallas Cowboys, at home, followed by the coach who has never won anything without Tom Brady, followed by the strangely competent yet perennially suspect Jets.
This could become a historic Vikings season, and if it does, the bizarreness in Buffalo will represent the day that they won jaded hearts and minds.
