Vikings at Chargers Final Thoughts Week 10

EAGAN, Minn. — The margin between winning and losing in the NFL is razor thin.

And you don’t need me to tell you that no team exemplifies that belief more than the Vikings, who have seen nearly all of their games come down to the wire in 2021.

Through eight games, Minnesota sits at 3-5, with seven total games being decided by seven points or fewer. No other team has been involved in more heart-pounding tilts so far this season.

Minnesota has suffered heartbreaking defeats, with four losses by four points or fewer. The Vikings have also squeaked out a pair of narrow victories along the way, too.

Yet as the second half of the season looms, Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer knows it’s time for his team to buck the trend and find a way to turn the close losses into wins.

“Hey, you know, this team fights, OK? They compete like crazy. We had 98 plays on defense last week, but they fought to the very, very end,” Zimmer said. “We’ve had, of the eight games, seven out of the eight have come down to the last play of the game, so I’ve never seen that in my entire career, have that many games come down to the last play of the game.

“We’ve got to figure out how not to let it come down to the last play of the game, number one, and when we do, we’ve got to figure out a way to get it done,” Zimmer continued. “I promise you our coaches, and it’s my responsibility that it’s coming down to the last part of the game, but the players are playing their rear ends off, and we as coaches, we’re trying to figure out how can we put them in these situations, and unfortunately they’re all a little bit different.

“Just different scenarios … we’re trying to work through all of them so we can start winning these games,” Zimmer added. “We haven’t won them yet. We’ve had a little bit of the injuries and COVID and things like that, and we’ve just got to overcome it. But as long as we keep fighting, good things will happen.”