One week after manhandling the Cincinnati Bengals at the Dome, the Minnesota Vikings reverted to their Sunday Night Football form in a lackluster 26-7 loss at Carolina Sunday night. The Vikings are now 11-and-3 on the season with all three losses coming on the road. That may become a factor in the post season if they have to travel, most likely in the second round. The good news is that the Vikings clinched their second straight NFC North title when Green Bay lost to Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon on a last second touchdown.

With two games left (at Chicago, home to the Giants), the Vikings will likely end up as the number two seed in the NFC,  get a first round bye and a home game in the Divisional round. But if they are to get out of that first round, some serious questions need to be answered about a team that has been exposed in many areas two out of the last three weeks:

1)  Is Antoine Winfield really at full strength? Steve Smith made him look like Willie Teal on a bad day Sunday night.

2) Why is Bryant McKinnie getting beat every other play? Julius Peppers ran around, over and three B-Mac all night. The end result was Brett Favre getting sacked, hurried and brought down several times after he passed.

3) Is Brad Childress watching the same game as everyone else? With about 6 minutes to go in the game and the Vikings down by 12 he foolishly used a coaches’ challenge to claim that Smith had stepped out of bounds after making a catch and picking up 20 yards. The problem is that even if Childress had won the challenge, the spot where Childress claimed that Smith stepped out of bounds was a first down anyway. Wasted time out.

4) When the Vikings abandon the run, like they did again in this game, can’t they keep Adrian Peterson in the game to catch passes? Apparently not…not until there’s two minutes to go and no hope to catch up.

To say the least, a troubling performance by a team with Super Bowl aspirations, particularly on the heels of their loss at Arizona just two weeks ago. Buckle up Viking fans, a trip to Miami, or even New Orleans, is no where near a lock.

Photo by Tom Dahlin