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The 1971 season was the Minnesota Vikings' 11th in the National Football League (NFL). They finished with an 11–3 record to win the NFC Central title and return to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season; however, they lost 20–12 at home to the eventual Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round.
b The NFL expanded from a 14-game regular season schedule to 16 beginning in 1978. [22] c The 1982 NFL season was shortened from 16 regular season games to 9 due to a players' strike. [23] For playoff seedings, division standings were ignored and the league used a 16-team tournament format for the season. [24]
The 10–3–1 49ers, making their first playoff game since 1957, [6] [7] [8] stunned the heavily favored Vikings, the defending NFL champions who had finished the regular season with an NFL best record at 12–2. The 49ers defeated the Vikings in Minnesota, despite losing three of five fumbles; Minnesota had four turnovers.
The 1971 season saw the Vikings play their first regular season game on artificial turf, when they played Philadelphia at Veterans Stadium October 10. For the second year in a row, they lost the divisional round at home, this time to Dallas (the score being 20–12) in the first NFL game played on Christmas Day.
Starting in 1968, Eller's fifth campaign, Minnesota won 10 Central Division titles in the next 11 seasons. [20] The Vikings won the NFL Championship in 1969, [21] losing to the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV. [22] The Vikings also won the NFC Championships in 1973, 1974, and 1976, [23] but lost in the Super Bowl each year. [20]
The 1970 season was the Minnesota Vikings' 10th in the National Football League and the first season following the AFL–NFL merger.Under head coach Bud Grant, they finished with a 12–2 record and won the first ever NFC Central title before losing to the San Francisco 49ers 17–14 at home in the NFC Divisional Playoff game.
The NFL playoffs following the 1969 NFL season determined the league's representative in Super Bowl IV.. This was the last NFL playoff tournament before the AFL–NFL merger and the last awarding of the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy to the NFL champion, which was introduced in 1934.
The 1996 NFC Wild Card Round saw the defending Super Bowl champion Cowboys defeat the Vikings 40–15. In 1998, the Minnesota Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Randy Moss, a rookie wide receiver who the Cowboys had passed over due to legal issues in college, famously had three touchdowns in a 46–36 thriller. [16] [9]