Thanks to the San Francisco 49ers’ thrilling 34-31 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in the nightcap of today’s NFL tripleheader, your Minnesota Vikings have officially locked up a spot in the 2019 NFL playoffs.
The loss by the Rams drops them to 8-7 on the season, and the Vikings can’t finish any worse than 10-6, even if they were to lose their last two games. As the Rams were the only team standing between the Vikings and a postseason berth, the Vikings will be playing football this January.
Now it’s just a matter of where the Vikings are going to be seeded. In order to be any higher than the #5, they will have to win both of their remaining games (against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night and against the Chicago Bears in Week 17) and hope that the Detroit Lions can beat the Packers in Detroit in their season finale. If all of those things don’t happen, the Vikings will be either the #5 or #6 seed.
Nothing has really been decided in the NFC yet. The only division that has been clinched is the NFC South, which was won by the New Orleans Saints a month ago. The NFC West is going to come down to Week 17 between the 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks, the NFC North will (hopefully) come down to Week 17, and the NFC East could be decided on Sunday if the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles.
For now, though, we definitely know that the Minnesota Vikings will be participating in the NFC playoffs after missing them last season. Congratulations to Mike Zimmer and the Vikings for getting back to the postseason.