Vikings '16: The Ship Is Sinking

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At the start of this NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings reeled off five consecutive victories to take a commanding lead in the NFC North division.  This despite devastating injuries to quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, running back Adrian Peterson and a host of others.  Coach Mike Zimmer was being hailed as a genius.  Football pundits seriously considered the Vikings to be Super Bowl contenders.  Life was good in Purple Land, unless you happened to be one of those skeptics who believed that all those injuries would eventually catch up to the team, and their lead would evaporate just like Hillary Clinton's did on Election Day.

Fast-forward to now.  The Vikings have lost four straight games (Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and Washington, in that order), and are now tied with the Lions at 5-4 for the division lead.  For what it's worth, the Green Bay Packers aren't having such a great season either, yet they're still in the hunt.  And the football pundits are looking elsewhere for the next bandwagon to jump on.

Due to the lack of an offensive line (or, for that matter, an offense), quarterback Sam Bradford keeps getting sacked and the backs and receivers they do have are rendered ineffective.  Injuries have decimated the defense, leading to come-from-behind wins for the other team.  And Blair Walsh can no longer make an extra point if his life depended on it.

There is also dissension in the coaching ranks.  Offensive coordinator Norv Turner suddenly quit without giving a reason midway during the skid.  His replacement is Pat Shurmur, who has mentored Bradford at his other NFL stops with the Eagles and St. Louis Rams.

Unless the Vikings can get their act together in the remaining weeks of the regular season, they are in serious danger of not making the playoffs.  If that happens, Zimmer's job status will be a major question mark.  So will the offense, if Bradford continues to be treated like a tackling dummy by the other teams and his backup QBs can't do the job.

A successful season?  That ship may have already sailed.