After failing to reach the postseason in 2020 resulting in a disappointing campaign for the Minnesota Vikings, the purple and gold hope to bounce back strong in 2021 while trying to return to the playoffs for the first time since reaching as far as the NFC Divisional Round in 2019.
Minnesota will begin the new year on Sept. 12 on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals to begin what it hopes is a season that results in a division title or at least a postseason berth following the conclusion of the new 18-week regular season.
The Vikings will have their work cut out for them, however, as the Green Bay Packers look to be a strong team once again this year and could be viewed as the early favorites to claim the NFC North. Minnesota also has a tough schedule, entering the year with the fifth-toughest schedule among NFL teams. That’s why it will be important for the Vikings to begin the year off strong and not fall behind early on in the regular season.
Minnesota Vikings Regular Season Must Start Strong
First, let’s take a look at the regular season schedule for Minnesota, which features a bye week in Week 7, before entering will be a tough middle stretch of the schedule.
- Week 1 at Cincinnati Bengals
- Week 2 at Arizona Cardinals
- Week 3 vs. Seattle Seahawks
- Week 4 vs. Cleveland Browns
- Week 5 vs. Detroit Lions
- Week 6 at Carolina Panthers
- Week 7 – Bye
- Week 8 vs. Dallas Cowboys
- Week 9 at Baltimore Ravens
- Week 10 at Los Angeles Chargers
- Week 11 vs. Green Bay Packers
- Week 12 at San Francisco 49ers
- Week 13 at Detroit Lions
- Week 14 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
- Week 15 at Chicago Bears
- Week 16 vs. Los Angeles Rams
- Week 17 at Green Bay Packers
- Week 18 vs. Chicago Bears
Can’t Afford to Drop Winnable Games Early
To begin the new year, Minnesota will have some winnable games early on although it won’t be playing at home until Week 3 of the regular season.
The season opener on the road against Cincinnati is a game the Vikings should be able to handle, although the Week 2 matchup at Arizona could be tough, followed by home games against Seattle in Week 3 and Cleveland in Week 4.
Leading up to the bye week in roughly the middle of the year, Minnesota will host below-average Detroit in Week 5 and hits the road to play at Carolina in Week 6 before getting a game off in Week 7.
Those games won’t be a walk in the park for the Vikings, but they need to try and take care of business in most of those games because they can’t afford to drop any winnable games early on with how the rest of the schedule looks moving forward.
Middle of Schedule Gets Tough for Vikings
Coming out of the Week 7 bye, things get tough for Minnesota during the middle portion of the regular season schedule. That’s why it is so important for the Vikings to take care of business in the early games leading up to the week off.
In the five games following the bye week, Minnesota will have a tough task over the remainder of the season and especially during the span of Week 8 through Week 12 against playoff-caliber teams.
In Week 8, the Vikings host Dallas for a Sunday Night Football contest in Minnesota, then it will hit the road to play three of their next four games on the road and hosting a bitter rival mixed in that stretch. Minnesota will spend Week 9 on the road in Baltimore, before playing in Los Angeles against the Chargers in Week 10, returns home to host the Packers in Week 11 and finishes that span with a road contest against San Francisco in Week 12.
That rough five-game period comes a few weeks prior to a trio of the Vikings facing other tough opponents such as Pittsburgh on Thursday Night Football in Week 14 in Minnesota, the Rams in Week 16 in Minneapolis and Green Bay on Sunday Night Football in 17 in Green Bay.
To say the middle portion of the schedule will be tough for the Vikings is an understatement, and that stretch will ultimately make or break their season which makes a strong start all that more important for the purple and gold.
Can’t Afford to Fall Behind in the Division and Conference
The NFC North has traditionally been a tough division for the teams within it while fighting to see who will come away with the divisional crown by the end of the regular season.
In 2021, Minnesota could be one of the top teams in the division with Green Bay entering as likely favorites in the NFC North. Behind the Vikings and Packers, Chicago could be somewhat of a surprise team, while Detroit will struggle for most of the year as it tries to rebuild once again.
With that said, the Vikings can’t afford to fall behind early in the division, especially with a tough stretch in the middle of the regular season schedule capped by annual matchups against NFC North opponents to round out the year.
In the final six games of the season, Minnesota faces Detroit once, Chicago twice and Green Bay once to finish the year, three of those four games coming on the road which will be no easy task to overcome.
That’s another reason why the Vikings can’t afford to fall behind in the division and subsequently the talented NFC as a whole, and they need to focus on starting the year off strong to not fall behind right out of the gate.
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