Cliff wrote:PurpleMustReign wrote:To me, the entire season is a failure because of the ending, just like 1998,2009, etc.
This post isn't about whether or not you're happy the Vikings didn't make it to and win the super bowl. None of us are happy with the result. The real question here is; when the season started how did you feel about the team? If you expected them to win the super bowl then I understand your position.
If you thought they'd be a 9-7/10-6 slightly above average team that you just hoped to see some improvement from (like most did) then you can see the season as a success as it's a step in the right direction towards a super bowl. A pretty huge step compared to what most of us thought. In that regard, the season was a success.
Winning 13 games means nothing if you can't finish the season with a win.
If you're telling me in a month or two you're going to look back at the season and feel the same as a Browns fan who didn't get to experience a single moment of glory the entire season I think you're wrong. This is the most fun I've had in a season as a Vikings fan in nearly a decade. That means something to me - especially considering that I watch football to have fun.
It's all just so exhausting. I mean, I can see both sides. You can start a season with low expectations but then to get that close and have it end the way it did is pretty crushing.
If someone is happy we exceeded expectations and had a fun regular season and is able to look back on it fondly, I get that. Conversely, if the fun of the regular season was ruined by the manner in which we lost Sunday night, and one is unable to reflect positively.... Well, that I understand too.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I know in 2009 I couldn't (still can't) even go back and watch the Greg Lewis TD or anything from that season because EVERYTHING was soured by that Saints game (as well as the Bears game that cost us homefield). This year is slightly different for me, but I'm just exhausted. We have had a million chances at Super Bowls in this franchise's lifetime. A freaking million. And we've somehow squandered them all. I'm actually a younger fan, but knowing we lost 4 of 4 in the 70s is exhausting. Knowing we are 0-6 in conference title games since then, having lost them in ways ranging from unfathomable choke jobs to historic blowouts, is exhausting. Knowing we've been to the playoffs 29 times (5th most in the entire damn league) and never won the big one is exhausting.
Long story short, any regular season success we have kind of has an inevitable doom hanging over it, because we all know every year that we aren't going to win the Super Bowl. That was me this year. I enjoyed it all as it happened, but never allowed myself to truly believe we could win it all. So it still hurt when we lost to the Eagles, but I felt at least somewhat prepared for it. It's really a terrible way to be a fan, but alas.