Vikes Could Sneak Up on October Opponents

The Vikings are 1-3 and facing an upcoming schedule that will likely find them underdogs in each of their next five games. It's a bad combination, but say this for the Vikings, they may not be that great on the field, but this year's team is solid in the locker room.

"Usually this time, someone," cornerback Antoine Winfield said before playfully clearing his throat, "me would say something. But I'm not going to go that route. I mean, nothing good's going to come out of that. We are a close group."

There's plenty to gripe about, but thankfully the Vikings players are sticking together. That is a good sign that the team still has a chance to turn things around. If the offense can just get Adrian Peterson a little help, that might be enough to turn some of these close losses (three losses by a total of 13 points) into wins.

A 12-4 season may be out the window (not that it was ever a real possibility), but Minnesota does have a chance to surprise some teams in the upcoming weeks. Philadelphia, Chicago and San Diego are significantly more talented than Minnesota, but they all share the same 1-3 record as the Vikings, and there's a lot more discord going on in Philly (Is Donovan McNabb Mistreated?), San Diego (Fire Norv Turner!) and Chicago (Do We Have A Quarterback?), than there is in Minnesota.

If the Vikings could take advantage of some of those troubles and steal away a couple of wins in October, they could right this ship pretty quick. But they need to pull off an upset or two in October because it becomes real hard for a 1-7 or 2-6 team to turn things around.