Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks met in a Monday night showdown pitting the two current Wild Card teams in the NFC. If Minnesota won, they had a real chance at getting the five seed, and if Seattle won, they all but locked up playing as the five for the playoffs. Vikings looked like an utter mess. They didn’t score until the final two minutes of the game. Mike Zimmer appears to be micromanaging his offensive coordinator which was an issue with Norv Turner a couple years ago. Kirk Cousins looks like the Minnesota version of Scott Mitchell. Things are not good in Vikings land, and this loss creaked the door open for the team they hate the most, the Green Bay Packers, to make a run to the playoffs.

Vikings would need an utter collapse to miss out on the playoffs, but the way things are trending, they’re not good. Vikings have fallen apart in Decembers before. Remember the Nathan Poole game in Arizona causing the Vikings to miss the playoffs in 2003. In the Packers’ Run The Table year, Minnesota fell apart in December losing four of their last six games. This isn’t a new thing for Minnesota and their fans. I have to think things are very tense this morning in the Land of 1000 lakes.

How possible is this from happening? Well, Minnesota would need to lose twice more this season. They have Miami, Detroit and Chicago. Packers would need to win out, and it starts with Chicago this week which is easily the hardest one on the slate. If Packers lose, Minnesota can breathe easy and they’ll probably limp into the playoffs. It’s hard to think any of the other teams really have a shot. Philadelphia has to play Los Angeles and Houston in the final weeks of the season and can’t lose the rest of the way. Washington is starting Josh fucking Johnson, case closed. Carolina has play New Orleans twice, and the Saints still need to win for homefield advantage. Vikings might hope the Bears rest up in Week 17, but they might be fighting for a three seed if Dallas keeps winning football games.

As a Packers fan, I realize how crazy this is to talk about things like this after one good game. But the chips are falling in the right place for it to happen. If Carolina, Philly or Minnesota won this week, we’re not having this conversation. But they didn’t so here we are.

Charlie.