Vikings Sit Atop NFC North After Week One

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Photo: Vikings - Twitter

The Minnesota Vikings kicked off their 2021 season on Sunday. They were terrible. I don’t have the greatest memory but it had to be Mike Zimmer’s worst start to a season while head coaching the purple and gold. His team committed 17 penalties, 12 of which were accepted by the Cincinnati Bengals costing the Vikings a total of 116 yards on the day.

Still, they almost took a victory back with them to Minneapolis, only losing on a last second overtime field goal. Classic Minnesota heartbreak. Or was it?

Tough day for the NFC North

The rest of the NFC North played later in the afternoon or evening. First, the Packers were demolished 38-3 by the Saints, in the most shocking upset of the day. Shortly after that score became official, the Lions failed to finish their comeback in San Francisco, falling to the 49ers 41-33. Hey, at least Detroit’s new QB, Jared Goff, finished the game with a better passer rating than spiking the ball every snap.

The last NFC North team to take the field this weekend was the Chicago Bears, who were in LA to play against the Rams on Sunday Night Football. Andy Dalton was also better than the worst QB of week one, Aaron Rodgers, but the Bears were still blown out on national TV, 34-14.

1st Place Vikings?

And when that score went into the record books, it left the entire division with an 0-1 record to start 2021. But, not all losses are created equally, as my good friend and fellow blogger, B. Heintz pointed out on Twitter, before SNF kicked off.

And after further review, my dude was… partially correct. The Minnesota Vikings will start next week as kings of the NFC North but it’s not because they played vs an AFC team. It’s because they lost by the least amount of points, compared to others within the division. What a world.

Kings of the North.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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