The Minnesota Vikings come to Kansas City this weekend to visit the Chiefs in a match-up between winless teams who sit at the bottom of their respective divisions. Yet the game automatically holds good news for one of the two teams. Unless the game ends in that rarity of the NFL standings known as a tie, one team will leave Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday with their first win and satisfy, for the time being, a fan base that's grown tired of losing ways after having higher expectations.
Certainly the Chiefs know well that they were expected to be much better than this. Injuries to Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles among other aside, the Chiefs have failed to live up to fan's expectations in any way. A sensible fan would have at least expected the Chiefs to be competitive in the AFC West, realizing the Chargers are also very talented with the division's best quarterback. The schedule was also clearly tougher, so that plays into things, but a 10-win team is a 10-win team.
The Vikings also had high hopes of shaking off a disastrous 6-10 season the year after making the NFC Championship game the year before. Leslie Frazier was supposed to help shake the Brad Childress era, but the Vikes are now 0-3 and have Adrian Peterson publicly complaining about his lack of carries. The team also has the most frustrating start in the NFL with three consecutive games in which they've blown the lead. They're far more talented than this just like the Chiefs.
One team will leave Arrowhead with a win on Sunday and begin to put some of the frustration behind them. There's still plenty of the regular season left despite the horrible starts thus far.