That 15-1 Vikings Team Had Randy Moss and Cris Carter, But DVOA Had a Secret

The 1998 Minnesota Vikings team, man, it was something else, arguably the best in their whole franchise history. They rolled to a ridiculous 15-1 season, a franchise best, only to have their Super Bowl dreams crushed in a heartbreaking NFC Championship loss to Atlanta. Ouch. That still stings in the Twin Cities, even all these years later.

The Roster That Blew Up the League

This squad was absolutely loaded. Their offense was straight fire, one of the best of that era, with Randall Cunningham slinging the rock. And you had Cris Carter and Randy Moss out wide? Forget about it. Those guys were unstoppable. It wasn’t just offense, either. The defense pulled its weight, too, with John Randle and Ed McDaniel holding it down, finishing 6th in total defense that season. ESPN’s Aaron Schatz, using DVOA to measure team efficiency, puts this Vikings team right up there as one of the best to ever miss a Super Bowl. They absolutely weren’t a bad team, coming in second in 1998 DVOA, just behind the eventual champion Broncos.

The DVOA Truth Bomb

Here’s where it gets interesting, though. That high-powered, record-setting offense, the one everyone talked about? It only ranked third by DVOA, behind the Broncos and 49ers. What gives? Schatz broke it down. Part of it was playing ten of their sixteen games indoors. Think about that. Another big piece was their schedule, which DVOA showed had the easiest opposing defenses in the whole league that year. And then there’s the explosive play factor. The Vikings specialized in those absurdly long, game-changing touchdowns. But DVOA, it doesn’t see those kinds of plays as quite as predictive as teams consistently moving the chains. It’s a different way to look at the efficiency game, right? You score big, it’s awesome, but DVOA wants to see sustained drives.

Vikings fans have been chasing that dragon ever since, waiting for a team to even come close to that 1998 success. The furthest they’ve managed was in 2017, when they got back to the conference championship game, only to get absolutely smoked 38-7 by the eventual champion Philadelphia Eagles. Talk about a gut punch. You gotta wonder if that 1998 squad, for all its flash, really had the consistent grind DVOA values. It sure gives you something to chew on when you look back at what could have been.

This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.

Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.