The Minnesota Vikings had a brutal finish to the 2024 season against the Los Angeles Rams. In a game that got moved to a neutral site in Glendale, Arizona, they got whipped 27-9 and saw their season come to a close.

It a season that was historic for the Vikings. They won 14 games and saw themselves become the first-ever 14-win team to both play in a wild card game and not win their division.

They did so with quarterback Sam Darnold, who was a renaissance this season with J.J. McCarthy on injured reserve with a torn meniscus. It might not have ended great for the Vikings, but it was certainly a successful season, but not if you asked Troy Aikman.

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Troy Aikman buries Minnesota Vikings season

The fourth quarter was a brutal one for the Vikings, as ESPN's color commentator Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman buried the team for many reasons, but it was how he talked about their 14 wins didn't mean anything.

"You win 14 games and I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter … but it doesn’t really matter if you don’t do anything with it.”

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Okay, this is an absurd comment for many reasons. One of them is that winning games establishes a culture needed to sustain winning. The Vikings are 34-17 in the regular season with two losses in the wild card round. Those losses came during the competitive rebuild, one which that saw the Vikings have a special season this year when the sportsbooks had them with a projected win total of 6.5.

Now that the Vikings are set to escape over $71 million in dead cap space, they have a lot to sell to perspective free agents. We will maximize what you can do with our coaching and scheme and have a lot of evidence to show just that.

Just because a 14 win season didn't end in a Super Bowl, doesn't mean it doesn't matter, it absolutely does. This win-it-all-or-nothing mentality is a brutal way to watch football.