A Brief Look At Chiefs/Vikings History

We're getting ready to get back into the swing of Minnesota Vikings football this coming Sunday, as they will play host to the Kansas City Chiefs at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. These two teams have a bit of a history, including the Chiefs handing the Vikings the first of their four Super Bowl losses, defeating the Vikings 23-7 way back in Super Bowl IV. The regular season hasn't been much kinder to our favorite football team in this head-to-head match-up, either.

So, let's take a look back at the history between these two teams. As always, these numbers are brought to you by the good folks from Pro Football Reference.

Total Games Between the Vikings and the Chiefs: 11 (10 regular season, 1 post-season)

All-Time Regular Season Record: Chiefs, 6-4 (Chiefs 1-0 in post-season)

Total Vikings Points Scored, Head-to-Head, Regular Season: 225 (22.5 points/game)

Total Chiefs Points Scored, Head-to-Head, Regular Season: 176 (17.6 points/game)

Longest Vikings' Winning Streak against Chiefs: 2 (20 September 1970 - 14 December 1974)

Longest Chiefs' Winning Streak against Vikings: 2 (three different times, most recently from 23 September 2007 - 2 October 2011)

Most Recent Vikings' Victory in Minnesota: 20 December 2003 (Final score 45-20)

Most Recent Chiefs' Victory in Minnesota: 3 November 1996 (Final score 21-6)

Biggest Vikings' Victory in Minnesota: 25 points, 20 December 2003 (final score 45-20)

Biggest Chiefs' Victory in Minnesota: 15 points, 3 November 1996 (final score 21-6)

A few things about this particular series:

-It's been a while since the Chiefs last made their way to Minnesota, as the last two match-ups in this series both took place at Arrowhead Stadium.

-Even though the Vikings trail in the head-to-head regular season series, you can see that they have a sizable advantage in points scored. That owes largely to the fact that, of Kansas City's six regular season victories over the Vikings, only one has been by more than five points. On the other hand, the four regular season victories that the Vikings hold over the Chiefs have all come by at least 17 points.

-The last time these two teams got together was in Kansas City on 2 October 2011. The Chiefs defeated the Vikings by a score of 22-17 on the strength of five Ryan Succop field goals and a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Matt Cassel to Dwayne Bowe. That was enough to overcome two Donovan McNabb touchdown passes, one to Devin Aromashodu and one to Michael Jenkins. It was the only time during his tenure as a Viking that McNabb had multiple touchdown passes in a game.

-The last Vikings' victory came in the second-to-last game of the 2003 season, as the Vikings got three touchdown passes from Daunte Culpepper (two to Randy Moss, one to Jim Kleinsasser) and three rushing touchdowns from Onterrio Smith on their way to a 45-20 thrashing of the Chiefs, the biggest win for either team in this series.

-Of the ten regular season match-ups between these two teams, five have been held on each team's home turf. Minnesota, as you'd expect, is much better at home, having won three of the five games that have taken place in the Twin Cities. On the other hand, they've won just once in five trips to Kansas City. That was a 20-point victory back in December of 1974. So, yes, it has been over 40 years since the Vikings last won in Kansas City. (Good thing Sunday's game is in Minnesota.)

-Adrian Peterson hasn't been great in his two career appearances against the Chiefs. He's carried the ball 48 times for 182 yards against Kansas City's defense, an average of just under 3.8 yards/carry, and has found the end zone only once. He did carry 25 times for 102 yards and a touchdown in a 13-10 loss back in 2007, but was limited to 80 yards on 23 carries in the 2011 match-up.

-Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith has also faced the Vikings twice in his career, with less than stellar results. Both of his games against the Vikings came when he was a member of the San Francisco 49ers. He went 13-of-21 for 105 yards in San Francisco's thrilling. . .yawn. . .9-3 victory over the Vikings at Candlestick Park in 2006. His other appearance saw him go 24-of-35 for 204 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in Minnesota's 24-13 victory in the "Hey, let's see how many time outs we can give Jim Harbaugh" game at the Metrodome in 2012.

And that's a brief look back at the history between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Minnesota Vikings. Hopefully our favorite football team can snap KC's mini-winning streak on Sunday afternoon and narrow the gap between these two teams.