DAVE CAMPBELL,AP Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings were cruising until the calendar turned to December. Though they’ve already secured at least one home game in the playoffs, their once-promising season has taken a dive.
“You have ebbs and flows,” defensive end Jared Allen said. “We were riding the high train for a while, and now we’re experiencing some adversity. But again, we have great character on this team, and we’re going to get it fixed.”
On Sunday, the Vikings (11-4) will host a New York Giants team that started 5-0 but will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2004 thanks to a humiliating loss at home to Carolina. Running back Brandon Jacobs won’t play because of a knee injury, and other regulars will almost surely be held out while some of the younger guys get more time.
“No one wants to hear about your troubles, OK?” coach Tom Coughlin said this week. “What they want to hear about is what are you going to do about it?”
The Vikings are in the same position, with higher stakes.
About the Giants, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, who left New York to sign with Minnesota in 2007, said he can see what’s wrong with his former team.
“It’s like nobody is on the same page. It looks like communication. It doesn’t look like talent, because I know they have the talent,” Shiancoe said.
How quickly teams can turn in this topsy-turvy league.
“Hyde and Jekyll, man. Or Jekyll and Hyde,” Shiancoe said. “You never know what team is going to show up. I think they’re going to play pretty hard, because that last game they want to go into next season with a little bit of momentum. A lot of guys want to keep jobs over there, too.”
After their game is over, the Vikings must watch the Philadelphia-Dallas and Green Bay-Arizona games in the late-afternoon slot to find out their fate. Assuming there are no ties, eight outcomes are possible among the three matchups, leaving the Vikings with four scenarios for entry into the 12-team tournament.
—They get the bye if they win and the Eagles lose, regardless of the Packers-Cardinals result.
—They will fall to the No. 3 seed and host the Cowboys in the first round if the Eagles win, regardless of their own outcome, unless they couple a loss with a Cardinals win over the Packers. In that case, Minnesota would be the No. 4 seed and welcome Favre’s old friends from Green Bay on the first weekend of the playoffs in one of the most memorable postseason matchups in history.
—They will host Philadelphia as either the No. 3 or the No. 4 seed in a rematch of last season’s first-round game, if they lose and the Eagles lose Sunday.
Whatever the case, the Vikings can only blame themselves for the squandered opportunity to seal one of the top two spots, make this game meaningless and guarantee an extra week of rest for their battered bodies.
“We can’t worry about what Philly is going to do, how that whole thing is going to play out,” wide receiver Sidney Rice said. “We’ve got to take care what’s in front of us now, and that’s the New York Giants.”
They’re not in the same division, of course, but the Giants and Vikings have been familiar foes this decade. This will be their ninth meeting since the century turned, beginning with the infamous 41-0 victory by New York in the NFC championship game. The Giants won three straight years at the Metrodome, sending the Vikings into midseason slumps in both 2003 and 2004.
Minnesota then pulled off upsets at the Meadowlands in 2005 and 2007, the latter being the bottom-out point in late November from which the Giants recovered and eventually won the Super Bowl. Last year, with New York’s top seed for the playoffs secure and several regulars resting, the Vikings eked out a victory to win the NFC North on the final weekend of the regular season.
Next year? Though the schedule won’t be arranged until the spring, the Giants will again visit Minnesota.
Until then, the Giants are left only with pride and statistical accomplishments on this final weekend.
“It’s new territory for me and us,” said quarterback Eli Manning, who needs 194 yards passing to set the team’s single-season record. This is the first year Manning has been the full-time starter that the Giants (8-7) will miss the playoffs.
Whether it’s better numbers, though, or a last chance to make a positive impression on the personnel department toward the shaping of next season’s team, these are paid professionals. Scores of eliminated teams around the league have made playoff-aspiring opponents miserable in recent weeks when they didn’t bring their best.
Just look at the Panthers, who thumped the Vikings and Giants by a combined score of 67-16 over the last two weeks even though they’ve long been out of the chase.
“It’s not hard to give our best effort,” Manning said. “It’s something that we expect from ourselves every game no matter what the circumstances. … We have good character on this team and guys who have a lot of pride, a lot of respect for the game and what we’re doing. We’re going to be prepared and ready to play Sunday.”
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
