How the Minnesota Vikings season quickly took a turn for the worst

The Minnesota Vikings quickly bottomed out from their spot in the NFC playoffs.

Following Week 13 of the 2020 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings were coming off of an overtime victory at home that pushed them back into the playoff picture in the NFC.

After starting the year off with a disappointing record of 1-5, the Vikings put together an impressive stretch that included winning five of six games to bounce back to 6-6 overall, Minnesota found itself in the final Wild Card spot in the NFC while looking like a candidate to return to the postseason for a second straight year.

Three weeks later, following a Week 16 loss on the road to the New Orleans Saints on Christmas Day in New Orleans, the Vikings season has since taken a turn for the worst and any hopes they had of a playoff appearance have quickly come to an end.

With the 52-33 loss to the Saints in the second-to-last game of the regular season schedule, Minnesota saw its losing streak extend to three in a row while dropping to 6-9 overall on the year. Along with that, the Vikings were officially eliminated from playoff contention for the 2020 campaign.

With Minnesota now officially on the outside looking in and while round out its season in Week 17 against NFC North opponent Detroit Lions on the road in Detroit, many are wondering how the year took such a sudden turn for the worst for the purple and gold after having some hope of a postseason appearance with four games remaining.

What went wrong for the Minnesota Vikings to bring on the downward spiral?

When looking at just where things went wrong for Minnesota, there are a few key factors that played a role in that drop from a Wild Card spot to now out of the playoffs. Those things include injuries throughout the year, inconsistencies among the team and a mix of some tough opponents faced at the end of the regular season, among other factors.

When it comes to injuries, that has been a big topic for the Vikings throughout the course of the year. To begin the year, Minnesota already found out that it would be without stud defensive end Danielle Hunter on the outside of the defensive line, which was a big blow for a team that already was going to be without veteran edge rusher Everson Griffen on the line after he left in free agency this offseason.

The loss of Hunter, mixed with the other offseason departures that resulted in a younger and less experienced defensive group taking the field to begin the new year, put the Vikings behind the 8-ball right away.

Throughout the course of the season and especially in the second half of the year, Minnesota was also without key defensive contributors such as linebackers Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks, cornerback Mike Hughes and others which made things tough for the Vikings to overcome.

The next things that have fed into the drop-off in the last few weeks for the purple and gold were inconsistencies mainly on defense and special teams, as well as those inconsistencies coming against some solid opposition at the worst times.

The defensive play was an issue throughout the year, but the biggest topic during this streak of struggling surrounds the special teams play in Minnesota. Over the last handful of weeks, the special teams play by the Vikings has been awful, including multiple mishaps in that area of the team including struggles by kicker Dan Bailey that has resulted in Minnesota shooting itself in the foot. When you beat yourself, especially in a playoff race, things usually don’t end well and that happened for the Vikings.

With a mix of those struggles, that disappointment also happened to come against competition such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints, all of which might end up being playoff teams in the NFC at the end of the Week 17 slate of games. You have to be at your best when playing those teams, and Minnesota certainly was less than its best resulting in three losses.

Just a few weeks ago, the Vikings had hopes of hanging onto the final Wild Card spot in the NFC postseason. Since then, the season has taken a turn for the worst and Minnesota now finds itself eliminated from playoff contention and looking to end the year on a good note this Sunday against Detroit in the regular-season finale.