The Vikings are interesting this year, but there are a lot of teams that they’re competing with that are better than them on paper.
That shows up in a recent wild card rankings as conducted by Bleacher Report. The outlet ranked Minnesota as the seventh most dangerous wild card team, listing the Arizona Cardinals as the only team worse.
Here’s what it said about the Vikings:
“The Vikings’ case starts falling apart when you look at the defense, though. The Minnesota pass rush was unable to get to Tom Brady in a 26-14 loss to the Bucs, and they’ve only registered two sacks in their last three games. Both came against Jacksonville, where stats should probably only count as half.
The offense has enough firepower to be dangerous if it gets things going, but the defense isn’t likely to put things together in time to stop the type of quarterbacks they will see in the playoffs—if they even get in.”
The Vikings need to generate a pass rush against the Bears. If that doesn’t happen, a streaky Mitch Trubisky could get an upset win and end a lot of Minnesota’s playoff hopes.