With the start of the NFL season upon us, analysts are finalizing their predictions ahead of the league’s kickoff. One of those doing that is ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, who is one of the more respected voices in projecting out both teams’ season, but also how players can be during the course of a season, barring injury.
His final projections cover who he sees making the playoffs and who won’t. When he discussed the Vikings, he was critical of the team and offered a less-than-positive outlook for the 2025 season.
Barnwell gave an official prediction of the team missing the playoffs in 2025. He cited his reasoning being that the team is getting younger, and their large number of one-score games always going in favor of the Vikings. He writes, “Vikings fans are sick of hearing about their record in one-score games, but when you go from 9-0 to 4-8 then to 8-1 across such games in Kevin O’Connell’s first three seasons in charge, it’s going to be a significant part of the conversation. We know that’s a meaningful predictor of what happens next, so it’s tough to imagine Minnesota playing at the same level and getting the same results.”
While that is a fair criticism, it is worth thinking and looking at the flux in those results and what has been a common denominator. Last year, they were able to flip those results because the defense and Brian Flores were on top of their game in 2024. The defense had brought in playmakers Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathan Greenard to attack off the edge and they did so in a major way. It all made a difference, and it allowed for them to bail out Sam Darnold when mistakes were made, and it subdued the opposing offense in those one-score games.
It is time to have a little bit of faith in the well-coached and schemed Minnesota Vikings. The one-score games are not a weakness anymore; it has almost become a strength.