My Week 7 Thursday Night Football Pick: Buccaneers at Vikings

Bottom of the highlights shows, top of the wild-card race: your 2012 Minnesota Vikings.

The Minnesota Vikings are 5-2. That sounds obvious, but I'm not sure how many people realize it. If you watched any NFL highlight show last Sunday night, you were treated to news about Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III, Terrell Suggs, and Mark Sanchez. And then, if you stuck around long enough, you may have seen that Minnesota beat the Arizona Cardinals to stay firmly in the playoff race. If the playoffs started today, the Vikings would be in, while much more publicized teams like the Cowboys, Eagles, and Redskins would be out.

Why are the Vikings being ignored? Probably because no one thinks they can keep this up. Few people expected much from Minnesota this season, and how could they? They were starting a second-year quarterback with a rookie left tackle. They didn't address their shaky secondary except to draft a safety in the second round and sign a cornerback, Chris Carr, who they cut before Week 1. In my preseason preview, I wrote, "...I liked the promise Christian Ponder showed as a rookie, but I have little optimism for a sub-par secondary in a division with two of the most potent offenses in the league." 

Instead, the Vikings are succeeding thanks to MVP-candidate Percy Harvin, Defensive Player of the Year candidate Antoine Winfield (pictured above), and a miraculously-healthy Adrian Peterson. I don't think the Vikings can survive a brutal second-half schedule that includes six games against teams that currently have a winning record, but I do think that they can beat the Buccaneers (and Greg Schiano's bush-league tactics) tonight. And then hopefully they'll get the attention they deserve.

The Pick: Vikings (-5)

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Odds found here.
Image found here.