Your honesty is duly noted. It certainly soiled their worthiness going foward. Skin or no skin in that game, it would be ludicrous not to feel the same. The Vikes handed the Hawks a victory.
Soiled their worthiness? i don't know if I would agree with that. What they do from here on out is based on their own merit. Some days luck is on your side, and you know that old saying "its better to be lucky than good".I doubt any team gets through a season without a bit of luck. Heck I watched the Rams recover two of their own fumbles in less than 4 plays apart, and hold on to win. I seen Seattle throw a pick from the 1 yard line. I have seen them lose a play off game to Atlanta with 36 seconds on the clock and having a 2 point lead. Then there is the Green Bay melt down and loss, that Seattle benefited from. The ball is pointy, it bounces funny ways, and luck is apparently part of the game.
I won't say they deserved to win. I won't say it was karma for other losses. It was a flat out botched play, and that is why we play the game. You have to execute the play, and the kicker didn't. Just like our punter couldn't punt because of a bad snap, and it cost Seattle 3 points too. You have to execute the play, even the routine ones. I won't say if it was the weather, I won't say if he choked and got the yips, I don't know if it was the laces not being turned out, I really don't know for a certainty, only the kicker knows.
But I will say, I don't think there are any teams more snake bit than the Vikings. My Dad is from Waseca, and I was fortunate enough to watch the Vikings at the end of Tarkenton's career. So I bear no ill will to the Vikings, and even sort of root for them. Not happy about the Hutchinson thing though, but that was on our dumb ass GM who used a franchise tag on a kicker instead of Hutch. A kicker! But I do wish the Vikings some good fortune.
Maybe Seattle gets knocked out in the next round, who knows. Maybe they will get focused and motivated and play better. On any given Sunday a team can win or lose. It is not about the better team winning, but rather the team that plays the best on that day.
But I do think that the Vikings have nothing to be ashamed of. They say there are no moral victories in the NFL, and I get that. But you gotta have these kind of games against quality teams and learn how to get over the hump. The game against the Cardinals was another heart breaker. But once your team gets hardened by these kinds of games they will rise to the occasion rather than fade away. I am sure it will happen fairly soon.
Unless you are the Bengals.
Man the Bengals, the Browns, the Vikings.....they have had a rough go of it. But Seattle did to till the Holmgren era.
Regards
Mister Pig.