A brief look at Raiders/Vikings history

Over the years, the Minnesota Vikings and the Oakland Raiders have not played each other very frequently. These two teams have met 14 times in the regular season and once in the post-season. . .which we won’t talk about here, not just because the Vikings got stomped, but because these history pieces that we do focus on regular season games only.

Thank goodness.

Still, the returns haven’t been all that positive for the Vikings in the regular season against the Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/soon to be Las Vegas Raiders. We’ll go through that here, as we do with our opponents each week. As always, your numbers for this post come to us from the good folks at Pro Football Reference.

Total regular season games between the Raiders and the Vikings: 14

All-time record: Raiders, 9-5

Total Raiders points scored, head-to-head: 335 (23.9 points/game)

Total Vikings points scored, head-to-head: 280 (20 points/game)

Longest Raiders winning streak vs Vikings: 4 games (11 December 1977 to 14 October 1984)

Longest Vikings winning streak vs Raiders: 1 game, five different times (most recently on 15 November 2015)

Most recent Raiders road win in series: 20 November 2011 (final score 27-21)

Most recent Vikings home win in series: 18 November 2007 (final score 29-22)

Biggest Raiders road win in series: 26 points, 14 September 1981 (final score 36-10)

Biggest Vikings home win in series: 11 points, 8 November 1987 (final score 31-20)

Current streak: Vikings, 1 win

Yes, if the Vikings should win on Sunday, they will accomplish a feat that they’ve never accomplished before. . .defeating the Raiders in consecutive matchups. Each team has also has a more recent road victory over the other than a home victory.

The last time these two teams met was in November of 2015 in Oakland. The Vikings got out to a quick 13-0 lead, but two Derek Carr touchdown passes made it appear that the Raiders would take the lead into the locker room. . .until Cordarrelle Patterson returned a kickoff 93 yards to give the Vikings a halftime lead. With the Raiders attempting a comeback, Carr was intercepted by Terence Newman in the end zone, and that was followed by an 80-yard touchdown run from Adrian Peterson to ice a 30-14 Minnesota victory.

The last time the Raiders came to Minnesota was during the dismal 2011 season, and the Raiders helped to make it just a little more miserable. The Vikings took an early 7-0 lead on an Adrian Peterson touchdown run, but the Raiders then ran off the next 27 points to pull away by the middle of the third quarter. The Vikings got a couple of fourth-quarter touchdowns, but it was for naught as the Raiders held on for a 27-21 victory in their final trip to the Metrodome.

To find the last time the Vikings beat the Raiders in Minneapolis, you have to go all the way back to the 2007 season. It was the return of former Vikings’ quarterback Daunte Culpepper to the Metrodome, and it also saw Peterson on the sideline with a knee injury that he had suffered at Lambeau Field the previous week. With Peterson out, it was the Chester Taylor show, and he definitely took advantage. He carried the ball 22 times for 164 yards and scored all three of Minnesota’s touchdowns on the afternoon. The Raiders got to within a touchdown and had an opportunity on the final play in Minnesota territory, but could not convert as the Vikings held on for a 29-22 win.

That’s a brief look back at the history between the Vikings and the Raiders as we get closer to Sunday afternoon’s kickoff. Here’s hoping that the Vikings can get a second consecutive victory over the Raiders for the first time in franchise history on Sunday.