SNF: Vikings vs Bears Game Thread

Sunday Night Football, Week 12. For the second straight week the Minnesota Vikings play on Sunday Night Football in a crucial NFC North battle. Tonight the Vikings host the Green Bay Packers with both teams jockeying for playoff position in a wide open NFC playoff chase.

When the season began you probably expected the Vikings to be battling with the Packers for first place in the NFC North. As it turns out, the two teams are battling, but more for a wild card berth than for a division title. For the moment the surprising Bears have inside position for the NFC North title.

The 5-4-1 Vikings come into this game fresh off a damaging loss to the Bears. Now 2.5 games out of first place with just six games to go, the Vikings’ hopes for a division title were all but extinguished in Chicago. The primary goal now is a wild card berth, and that quest starts tonight against the Packers.

The 4-5-1 Green Bay Packers are also coming off a damaging loss to the Seattle Seahawks last week, and find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being an outsider in the playoff race with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Losers of three of their last four games and losers of every road game they’ve played this season, the Packers need a win tonight to keep any realistic playoff hopes alive. If the Packers fail to make the playoffs in 2018 it will mark the first time since Rodgers inaugural season as a starter that the Packers failed to make the playoffs with Rodgers healthy enough to play all year.

It’s the Vikings and the Packers fighting to keep their playoff dreams alive in an NFC North showdown on Sunday Night Football.

Enjoy the game everybody.