Finally, to cap off this Wild Card Weekend, we will see the Minnesota Vikings take on the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football. This matchup is a rematch of their showdown earlier in the season in Los Angeles, but this time they will be playing in a neutral site.
The devastating wildfires throughout Los Angeles caused this game to relocate to Glendale, Arizona, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. The two respective teams are adjusting to this location as if it was the Super Bowl with neither team having home field advantage.
It's not often we have a 14 win team as the #5 seed in the NFL playoffs, but the Minnesota Vikings have fell into this spot. The only three losses that Minnesota suffered were to the Detroit Lions twice, and the team in front of them, the Los Angeles Rams.
The two teams squared off to kick off Week 8 in late October on Thursday Night Football. The Rams eventually won this game by a score of 30-20, but was a tightly contested battle throughout the contest. If this game was anything like what we are going to see later this evening, then we are in for a treat.
Both the Rams and Vikings were not pictured to be here before the regular season. Throughout the NFL, people believed that the NFC West would just go to the 49ers once again when it actually went to the Rams.
Critics also suggested that the Vikings would finish towards the bottom of the NFC North, while in the end they were a win away from having a first round bye. Many people alluded to this because of the Vikings quarterback situation prior to the start of the regular season. But to put it plain and simple, Sam Darnold is the main reason behind the Vikings success.
Darnold was just supposed to be a backup and a mentor to rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy. But that all was changed when McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury before his rookie campaign even began. Darnold needed a spark to revive his underwhelming career, and boy did he ever find that spark.
Sam Darnold was arguably the best quarterback in the NFC and could finish in the top 10 in the MVP voting. The relationship with head coach Kevin O'Connell paid off in ways we had not even thought of prior to Week 1. O'Connell definitely has my vote for Coach of the Year.
This game features a matchup of two of the youngest and brightest head coaches in the league in Sean McVay and Kevin O'Connell. Both of these coaches didn't let preseason narratives get to them and both had great seasons.
However, the Rams went through a rollercoaster of a season compared to Minnesota. Los Angeles started off the season with a 1-4 record, before winning 10 of their last 13 games. Usually when you start your season 1-4, the playoffs are well out of reach. The Rams defied these odds.
Minnesota and Los Angeles have a lot in common. The offenses are near mirror images of one another, and the defenses are not far behind either. The quarterback matchup of Matt Stafford and Sam Darnold should be a great one to watch.
Despite the similarities between the two teams, I believe that Minnesota will advance to the next round and take this game. The relocation of the game heavily plays into the favor of Minnesota with no home-field advantage established. To finish, I believe this game will be a close one, but Minnesota didn't get 14 wins just to go home after the 1st round.
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