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Here is a prediction that is not all that bold: The Minnesota Vikings will quite easily thrash the Cincinnati Bengals at High Noon Sunday.
My reasoning is that I watched the Vikings play one of their worst games of the season last Sunday, falling behind early and then rallying behind quarterback Case Keenum to get into range to catch a very strong Carolina outfit.
 One, they can’t play that badly again. Two, the Carolina Panthers, when quarterback Cam Newton is on his game, are Super Bowl-caliber. They were far better than anyone the Vikings have played recently, and farther better than Cincinnati. It is good that the Vikings have spent the week talking about how disgusted they are with how they played, as though it was simply an off-day. It wasn’t. The Vikings were simply off their game, which happens every so often to every team, and it just happened to happen against a team that could whip them.

I noticed from the start, things were misfiring for the Vikings. Their defense, which is every bit as good as Carolina’s, was not up to the challenge of matching the Panthers. Newman connected on some spectacular passing plays, and twice he broke through for enormous runs, which ultimately gave the Panthers a solid lead.

The announcer just got through raving about tight end Kyle Rudolph, who, he said, had not dropped a single pass all season. About a half-dozen plays later, he dropped one. Later, he dropped another. Adam Thielen, who has developed into a superstar receiver this season, dropped a pass that would have been a touchdown. Then he caught a pass at the end line, which was a touchdown, but after review, the officials ruled he did not have complete possession when he hit the ground, having juggled it for a moment on his way down.

The Vikings were called for holding or pass interference repeatedly, and always when Carolina was on a critical drive. Twice they were called for pivotal penalties that turned long-yardage situations into automatic first downs.
It was a true team effort. Nobody ran well, blocked well, tackled well, or covered their man well. In fact, Keenum was the closest thing to being on his game, and courageously led the Vikings back to a final score of 31-24 — one more play, one more touchdown, and they could have caught the Panthers.
The burden of the long winning streak is over, and while the loss let Philadelphia reclaim the No. 1 seed in the conference, the Eagles will now have to do it without quarterback Carson Wendt, who suffered a knee injury in a huge game at Los Angeles. While the Eagles still won, I’m not sure they can keep winning. Wendt, in fact, was probably the league MVP this season.

More than all that, the game itself gives the Vikings a new rallying point for the stretch drive. And it also gives me a mountain of evidence of how important it is that the NFL change some rules. There are a couple of enormous discrepencies.
For one, if a player catches the ball, as Thielen did, and is knocked out of bounds while the defensive back jostles the ball slightly loose, it goes as no completion because the receiver didn’t maintain complete control on his way down and the inevitable crash landing. We can buy that, even if it seems ridiculous.

Second, if a runner dives for the end zone and his helmet breaks the plane, and then the ball follows, the touchdown might be eliminated if we can find that his knee touched the ground a millisecond before the ball crossed the line. OK, we can buy that one, too, even if it seems obvious that certain touchdowns are being eliminated.

Third, if a runner leaps up over the pile at the goal line, and reaches the ball out to break the plane of the goal line by 10 millimeters, then an alert defensive back swats the ball out of his hand, it is ruled a touchdown, because he broke the plane before losing possession. OK, we can even buy that, even though it seems illogical.

Fourth, if a running back or quarterback is tackled and plunges to the turf, an obvious fumble might be overturned if he hit the ground and the ball popped loose, because “the ground can’t cause a fumble.” OK, we’ll also let them have this one.
But now it’s time to combine those four rules, which might be OK on their own, but are completely outrageous when combined with the others. If a receiver must maintain perfect control while hitting the turf, why doesn’t the tackled running back also need to maintain control while hitting the turf? And if a runner breaking the plane of the goal line gets a touchdown even while fumbling, why doesn’t he have to maintain control all the way down to the ground? And if the ground can’t cause a fumble, why is the ground allowed to negate a spectacular catch by a receiver?

C’mon, NFL. Sit down in a room and get things straight. Boomer Esiason, I think it was, came on the post-game show after the Vikings -- who didn’t play well enough to win -- had any chance of winning eliminated by questionable disallowed catches, broken planes, and questionable calls on penalties.
Boomer said: “If it looks like a touchdown, then call it a touchdown. Period.”
He’s right. The Vikings deserved better, even if they were muddling through an off-day against a very good team. It’s possible that only Carolina, Seattle, the Philadelphia Eagles (with Wendt), and the New England Patriots might have been able to beat Keenum and the Vikings last Sunday. And the Los Angeles Rams, he added hastily. Off-days happen to every team. Look at New England Sunday night: Tom Brady looked like a playground remnant against a Miami Dolphins team that was both aroused and had Jay Cutler throwing spectacular passes over the Patriots defenders. The Patriots may have learned a valuable lesson Sunday night.

But I’m certain the Vikings learned their lesson well. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m already feeling sympathy for what the Cincinnati Bengals are in for at High Noon in Minneapolis.