Part 2:

1999: NFC Divisional Round: vs. St. Louis.

I feel like this is sort of an underrated moment in terms of Vikings postseason failures, because it just so happens to be smack dab in between two of the biggest choke jobs in the history of sports in the 98 and 2000 championship games. But I thought that we could really win this game. We started off the year 2-4, made a change at QB to Jeff George, and he of all people turned the year around and we finished 8-2. The offense pretty much stayed the same... only instead of bombs to Moss and Carter, George was throwing lasers to Moss and Carter.

Plus, what did the fanbase learn last year? That the team that is favored to win the Super Bowl... doesn't always make the Super Bowl. PLUS, we had a dome team come in and defeat us the previous year, and what better team to beat the Rams than a fellow dome team relying on the same speed that the turf gives them? SURELY, THE FOOTBALL GODS WOULD SMILE UPON US AND DELIVER A GIFT AFTER LETTING US DOWN LAST YEAR. SURELY THEY WOULD LET US WIN IN THE SAME VEIN THAT THE FALCONS WON LAST YEAR, JUST TO MAKE THE MOMENT MUCH SWEETER. OK, so I was probably talking myself into thinking the Vikings could do it, but still... it sounded reasonable right?

And it seemed like we actually *could* win the game, as we jumped out to a 17-14 lead at halftime. We didn't seem to be playing *great* (a few turnovers swung the game a little in our favor), but we were hanging in there... and winning at that. So we had a little bit of momentum on our side going into the 2nd half.

First play, St. Louis returns it for a TD. 21-17. Vikings punt. St. Louis scores. 28-17. Vikings punt. 35-17 St. Louis a few plays later. Soon enough, it was 49-17 Rams. Well crap.

Of course, we ended up tacking an extra 20 points on there to make it seem like we didn't just completely lay down in the second half, but the Rams weren't even trying. I kind of liked the Rams too, and I liked how Warner rose from pretty much nowhere to take the team to the top of the conference. After they shellacked us, though, I *hated* them. They probably were my second or third least favorite team for a good three years or so (behind, obviously, the Packers and possibly then-division-rivals the Buccanneers.)

Of course, we laid a much bigger egg the next year, but for some reason this loss always stung me just about as hard as the 2000 NFC championship one. Mainly because it taught me one thing: the football gods hate the Vikings. And that the loss to the Falcons last year wasn't an aberration... it was the motif for the entire existence of the franchise.