Your 2023 Vikes - More like the 2008 or 2013 team?

Dating back to 1990, only 31 of 270 teams have made the playoffs after losing their first two games of the season. With an 11.5% success rate, many Vikings fans may decide to pack up their Justin Jefferson jerseys.

But there is a glimmer of hope, because one of those teams happened to be the 2008 Vikings. When comparing that group to this team, there’s a path that can lead the 2023 Vikings to the playoffs. However, there’s also a more common path that could be more beneficial to this team.

Before we do that, let’s go back to the fall of 2008. Tim Brewster was leading the Gophers, Flo Rida and T-Pain’s “Low” was an absolute banger and the Vikings were entering the second year of Adrian Peterson’s career. Expectations were high for Brad Childress’ team after they narrowly missed the playoffs in 2007. However, after losses to the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota was in the dreaded 0-2 hole.

The Vikings would grind out a victory in Week 3 over the Carolina Panthers before losing on the road to the Tennessee Titans the following week. But Minnesota hit its stride soon after, going 9-3 in their final 12 games and winning five of their last six games to make the playoffs.

If Flores can continue to get the most out of his defense, the offense can pick up the slack and help the Vikings get back into the NFC North. With the seven-team playoff field and a division that might only require 10 wins to take home the title, Minnesota’s hole might not be as deep as it was for that 2008 team.

But that’s the optimistic outcome. We all know that Minnesota’s history is usually more sordid than that. In 2013, an 0-2 start led to a major change for the path of the franchise.

The 2013 team also had high expectations coming off a surprising playoff appearance in 2012. They had plenty of ascending talent. Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, and Everson Griffen were would go on to lead the 2017 team. However, they were experiencing a learning curve – especially with Christian Ponder at quarterback.

Ponder had successfully managed to ride shotgun during Peterson’s MVP campaign in 2012. But after trading Percy Harvin to the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason, the Vikings got off to a slow start, losing their first two games on the road at Detroit and Chicago.

The Vikings returned to the Metrodome the following week for a winnable matchup with the Cleveland Browns, but Josh Gordon had other ideas. After catching 10 passes for 146 yards and a touchdown, Gordon and the Browns earned a shocking 31-27 victory and sent Minnesota into a tailspin.

The Vikings went on to start the season at 1-7. They benched Ponder for Matt Cassel after the loss to the Browns. The defense completely went off the rails, setting franchise records for points (480) and yards (6,362) allowed. The Vikings went 5-10-1 in their final season at the Metrodome.

That season sparked an important turning point for the franchise. Minnesota fired Leslie Frazier and replaced him with Mike Zimmer. He had his flaws as a head coach, but Zimmer ultimately did what he set out to accomplish. He built the Vikings into an elite defense and led them to the NFC Championship Game in 2017.

The Vikings should beat this team at home on Sunday. Still, there’s just as good of a chance they don’t. If that happens, that could send Minnesota to 0-3 and lead them down a dark path considering what lies ahead on the schedule. However, such a path could also inspire similar change to what happened in 2014. The Vikings could set out to find a new quarterback in a loaded draft class and use their mountain of cap space to quickly fix the deficiencies of this year’s team.

Both the 2008 and 2013 Vikings represent reasonable outcomes for what the Vikings could be this season, and Sunday’s game against the Chargers could go a long way in determining which path they could take.