John Holler looks at today’s matchup with a jaundiced eye:
The national interest in the Vikings-Bills game likely isn’t going to draw flies. Nor should it. A non-conference matchup between a 4-7 and 2-9 team isn’t the kind of thing that garners a lot of attention. But perhaps there are no teams in the league more snake-bit than the Vikings and Bills.
They have both faced schedules that, while both were considered gauntlets from the outset, have turned in a Murderer’s Row. Neither team has done anything to take control of their own destiny from the start, but the teams that have beat them have been among the league’s elite.
The records of the teams that have beaten both teams is both troubling and impressive. The Vikings’ seven losses have come to New Orleans (8-3), Miami (6-5), the New York Jets (9-2), Green Bay (7-4), New England (9-2), Chicago (8-3) and Green Bay (7-4).
Buffalo’s nine losses have include defeats against Miami (6-5), Green Bay (7-4), New England (9-2), the Jets (9-2), Jacksonville (6-5), Baltimore (8-3), Kansas City (6-5), Chicago (8-3) and Pittsburgh (8-3).
Perhaps the moral of the seasons for both teams is that they have faced the league’s elite teams throughout the season and, on regular basis, proved they didn’t deserve to be among the league’s elite teams
