Lunchbreak: Vikings Earn 'A+ Grade' for Win Over Packers

[Viktor]

Graziano: Vikings still have chance at 2020 playoffs


And speaking of standings, ESPN's Dan Graziano took a look at where the Vikings sit in the conference entering Week 9.


Graziano noted that while Minnesota is in last place in the NFC North, the Vikings gained a game in the standings by being the only team in the division to get a win Sunday.


And when pondering the question if the Vikings can still make the playoffs, Graziano said that it is not an overreaction to think Minnesota could be in the mix in the final weeks of the season.


For the first time, seven teams from each conference will make the playoffs. That means a 2-5 record is not as discouraging as it used to be. If the season ended today, the NFC Wild Card teams would be the 5-2 Cardinals, the 5-2 Buccaneers and the 5-3 Rams, whose legitimacy we've already called into question here.


Mathematically, the Vikings are not impossibly behind the Rams, and the only team between them that currently has a winning record is the overrated Bears. Chicago, two weeks from now, is the only team the Vikings will play between now and Dec. 13 that currently has a winning record.


I don't know if they can get there. Heck, they just traded big offseason trade acquisition Yannick Ngakoue and might not even technically be "going for it" at this point. But it's important, as the second half of this season unfolds, that you keep in mind the point about the expanded playoffs. And "Whoa, the Vikings aren't out of it yet?" is as good a way as any to keep that in mind.


The Vikings have nine games remaining in the 2020 regular season, with four of them against NFC North foes, including the next two against the Lions and Bears.


All in all, eight of the Vikings final nine games are against NFC opponents, with the lone exception being a Week 13 home game against the Jaguars.