Disclaimer: This is by no means me saying that Zimmer is a bad coach. He is, to understate, a very good coach. Do not take this by any means as a form of me thinking we should get rid of Zimmer, because he's really cool.

tl;dr: the Vikings have lost by 4 TDs in exactly 1 game every season since Zimmer took over

So for context, there really isn't a whole lot, just something that popped up when talking to my brother about Mike Zimmer and how blessed we'd been to have him. We were talking about how great he's been, but I felt like he has one tiny flaw, there's always one game every year that he just seems to skip or is unprepared for.

By the way, I'm defining an "excruciating loss" as a 4 TD point differential in a loss. So a 17 point loss or a game where the Vikings are relatively "blown out" but it's 20-3 doesn't count. Ok, now we can begin.

2014

The Year

So Mike Zimmer took over for the Vikings in 2014. His first year, the Vikes went 7-9. Several close losses, several close wins, and mostly in the end of the season. Of the last 10 games, 9 were decided by 8 or fewer points. In those games, the Vikings would go 4-5, including a clock loss to the Bears, a safety loss to the Dolphins, but also included Adam Thielen's first receiving touchdown in a season-concluding win against the Bears.

The Loss

In the Vikings last road game against Green Bay played before December, the border battle did not go Zimmer's way the first runthrough. A 42-0 score through 3 quarters, Rodgers being taken out after the 1st half to prevent injury, and 10 pity points at the end wasn't the first rivalry game that Zimmer had in mind. In addition to a short week, this wasn't aided by Ponder taking over the starting role this week due to an ailing Teddy. Lots of storms arrived at the wrong time, leading to a 32 point blowout, that if point differential mattered, likely could have been much worse.

Green Bay would win the North in 2014 and would have gone to the Super Bowl, but unfortunately had Brandon Bostick on their roster. The team that went in their place would have a spot next on our list though.

2015

The Year

2015 was a tremendous turnaround for the Vikings, but not in the manner that many anticapted. In 2014, the Vikings went 6-4 against non-divisional opponents, and in 2015, they did exactly the same. The only difference was the divisional record, where Minnesota went from 1-5 in 2014 to 5-1 in 2015, propelling the 7-9 record to an 11-5 record, and rewarding the Vikings with a first round home playoff game. This game ended in a very sad fashion, but the season was great for the (at the time) franchise QB Teddy and for most of the defense. Aside from a couple games.

The Loss

In the 2015 Vikings-Seahawks game that almost nobody talks about, the Vikings hosted the Seattle Seahawks in a home game that would prove to be rough. Just like the previous blowout loss, the Vikings would be plagued with injuries to some relatively important defensive players, such as Harrison Smith, Antone Exum, Everson Griffen, Anthony Barr, and Erik Kendricks. Even with proper gameplanning, it's tough to face any offense when missing, ya know, 6 players of at least near pro-bowl level caliber, but facing Russell Wilson with your backup squad leads to, well, this, which if you don't remember was immediately after a touchdown Run by Wilson that was called back. The Vikings lost 38-7 (weren't shutout thanks to Cordarelle), another 28 point loss, this time being -31.

The 2015 Seahawks would also set a playoff record, going 0-2 in the same playoffs, losing in Minnesota on the 3rd coldest game in NFL history, then somehow going to Carolina and losing to the NFC champion Carolina Panthers.

2016

The Year

RIP Teddy, as Teddy goes out for the season 3 weeks before the season begins, and slick Rick trades the Eagles a first round pick for Spam Breadford, a move that proved to be pretty wise. The 2016 Vikings started out hot, but faltered to 3-8 after that now infamous 5-0 start. Those 3 wins were against teams that didn't do a lot of winning, including the 7-8-1 Cardinals, the 3-13 Jaguars, and the 3-13 Bears. Somehow again, the Vikings went 6-4 outside the division, but this year returned to 2-4 in battles against the NFCN. The Defense seemed to play unbelievably for the first 5 games, to such a level that it was not maintainable throughout the whole year, but still, at 7-6, if the Vikes win out, they could still win the North at 10-6. Just beat the Colts who are probably gonna fire Pagano after this game, face a tough challenge against Green Bay, and beat the Bears at home. If anything, Green Bay is the only challenge in there, right?

The Loss

As Indianapolis marched to Minneapolis, Andrew Luck returned for his 3rd start since missing time with whatever he was injured with in 2016 (even living in Indy I can't keep up with that injury news). He proceeded to wipe out the Viking defense, in some ways that I couldn't begin to imagine and allowed several of my friends at school to berate me with words of how the Vikings lost so terribly that I just couldn't answer. The worst part was they didn't even want the Colts to lose, they wanted Pagano fired, they were cheering for the Vikings and were good friends with me and wanted us to make the playoffs, and everything went terribly. Lack of preparation, strange coincidence, this was a tough game to watch, and ended 34-6, a loss by exactly 28.

The Colts would finish the season 8-8, earning 1 more season of misery with Chuck Pagano, and would be the only team to blow out the Vikings in this list to not make the playoffs.

2017

The Year

Still fresh in our memories is 2017, leaving lasting memories of Case Keenum tearing up defenses, and being told that he could only win because of his defense. Magical moments for everyone, such as the Minneapolis Miracle, and some more personal, like my brother and I driving 4 hours to and from Detroit for Thanksgiving and watching Case tear apart the Lions. 3 losses happened in the regular season this year, and aside from Pittsburgh where we thought Bradford was starting until 11:46 CST 17-Sep-2017, both other losses were 1 possession, to Detroit on the day Cook went down (come back strong bud) and in Carolina (a playoff team). The Vikings were incredible this year, and after a miracle to head to the championship game, the only losses the Vikings had seen were relatively close. Could that break the streak?

The Loss

After the greatest game I've witnessed as a Vikings fan, the Vikings went to Philadelphia in a championship game many of us would wish to (and probably did) forget, though the start didn't seem that way. After a 5 minute drive to open the game and a punt after 4 plays from the Eagles, the Vikings were leading the Eagles 7-0 with the ball 8 minutes into the game. Then, after a pick 6 by Patrick Robinson, everything went south. A 3 and out, followed by a Philadelphia touchdown, followed by a few punts back and forth, followed by an Eagles touchdown, and it was 21-7. A few more points tacked on by Philly, and a touchdown attempt instead of a field goal late in the game led to a 38-7 final score, and another 4 TD loss, at a time it was least desired.

The 2017 Eagles would go on to beat the Patriots in Minnesota, the only team to give the Vikings a 28 point loss and win the Super Bowl.

Ok man, let's wrap it up

Again, by no means do I believe Zimmer is a bad coach and I certainly wouldn't trade him for any other coach; but Leslie had 3 losses of such magnitude in his 3.4 seasons as Vikings head coach (none of which occurred in his only playoff season), and Brad Childress only had 2 (though he did have Brett, and they were both against Green Bay, the second loss leading to his firing).

Anyway, here's to hoping Zimmer breaks the streak as we go 19-0 this year!