John Holler has a few thoughts on the bizarre trainwreck of a season the Vikings are experiencing:

The Vikings season has been filled with more twists and turns than a “I wouldn’t take that” mountain road shortcut. Throughout it all, the dysfunctional Vikings family had a home. Until Sunday morning. When the roof caved in on the Metrodome, it might have caved in on the craziest season in recent memory for the Vikings.

Not only are the Vikings not going to be hosting the Giants on Monday night — Detroit gets that free privilege, which begs the question what sort of fan is going to show up in Detroit to watch two teams they don’t like? — but there are significant questions as to what to do next Monday when the Vikings are scheduled to host the football world for the Monday Night Football largesse. Initial word out of TCF Bank Stadium is that the field has been put to bed — ice-encrusted mothballing if you will — and that not only wasn’t it an option for tonight, but it may well not be an option for next Monday either.

Yesterday’s games upset a lot of post-season calculations for other teams in the NFC North:

The Vikings could have been eliminated from postseason contention with a win by the Green Bay Packers Sunday, but both the Packers and Bears got beat. Chicago got pounded at home by the Patriots in a wind-swept smackdown and the Packers, who lost QB Aaron Rodgers in the second quarter, scored just three points in a 7-3 loss at Detroit. Vikings fans denied watching their own team play got both games on TV…well, sort of. The Patriots-Bears game became such a laugher that the powers that be in New York deemed it better to send most of the country that was watching the game to a “more competitive” game — the Dolphins-Jets 10-6 yawner. As such, a win tonight would put the Vikings back into the “still alive” fringe of the playoff bracket tables.

If they win tonight’s game, they’ll move out of the “mostly dead” category. They still won’t be really “alive” in playoff contention without a massively unlikely combination of lucky outcomes in other games.

Sunday’s loss by the Packers could be the death knell for their own playoff hopes. Unless the Vikings can knock off the Giants tonight, the Packers will be behind whichever team (New York or Philadelphia) doesn’t win the division and at a current tie-breaker disadvantage with Tampa Bay in the Packers’ search for a wild card spot. Making matters worse, their final three games are at New England, currently the hottest team in the league, at home against the Giants and at home against Chicago. They must win two of those three at a minimum to make the playoffs and may well need all three.

As hard as it may be for most of them to stomach, the Packers and their fans need to become Vikings fans really quick. Green Bay’s best shot at getting to the playoffs may well end up being winning the division. There is a very good chance that the NFC North will produce just one playoff team. The Bears’ closing schedule has games at Minnesota, vs. the suddenly-desperate Jets at Soldier Field and at Green Bay. If the Vikings can knock the Giants down into a tie with Green Bay at 8-5 and beat the Bears next week, the Packers would level the playing field in terms of tie-breaker advantages in the division and the conference. At it currently stands, from head-to-head to division record to conference record, Chicago holds every edge on the Packers. Green Bay’s loss to Detroit was devastating, so, just as the Vikings have become desperate for a 20-game domino effect to happen in the next three weeks to make the playoffs, the Packers may have just about as significant a hill to climb, leaving them hoping the Vikings play as well as they can and Green Bay’s season sweep comes into play.

Update: Mike Tanier gets in on the act:

Tired of building vinegar-and-baking-soda volcanoes for your children’s science projects? Recreate the collapse of the Metrodome roof instead.

Materials needed: green construction paper, some wooden dowels, a paper towel, about 500 artificial sweetener packets, and a cellphone. Glue some wooden dowels to green construction paper. Moisten a paper towel and fasten it to the top of the dowels. Then puncture it slightly and keep dumping artificial sweetener on or near the puncture spot until the roof gives way. Once the “field” is covered in white powder, use the cellphone to send a series of text messages from Brett Favre to explain how the Midwestern blizzard and the breathtaking footage of a major architectural landmark caving in is really just a backdrop for his personal saga.