A smart question surfaced when a peculiar fog thickened over the Minneapolis area Sunday night.

The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski penned, "Are we sure the MVP race is over?"

Sam Darnold had just set career highs in completions (33) and passing yards (377), tossed three touchdowns and recorded his 13^th game this season with a passer rating above 100, all in the process of defeating archrival Green Bay, 27-25, and positioning Minnesota to the brink of the NFC Playoffs' No. 1 seed.

It's irresponsible to not at the very least hold a serious discussion.

First, Krawczynski stated the obvious: Buffalo's Josh Allen is responsible for 41 touchdowns (28 passing, 12 rushing and 1 receiving). Baltimore's Lamar Jackson has 43 (39 passing and 4 rushing) and an NFL-best 8.8% passing touchdown percentage against a 0.9% interception rate. And Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley is 101 rushing yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson's 40-year-old single-season record of 2,105 yards.

Yet, Week 18 is left – and the Vikings are playing at Detroit in one of the most significant games all-time.

Krawczynski asked (and we're glad he did): What if Darnold is lights out in Detroit?

Well, then, it would be an error to overlook the scope of his impact.

Krawczynski wrote the following in this article:

During the Vikings nine-game winning streak, Darnold has completed 68 percent of his passes for 2,543 yards with 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions. If you narrow the focus to just the last seven games, he has completed 67 percent of his throws for 2,012 yards with 18 TDs and two picks. He hasn't been flawless, but he has been darn close. Just like he was on Sunday against the Packers.

"Outside of these walls, nobody really believed in him," Vikings running back Aaron Jones, Sr., said. "Nobody gave him a chance. But he's proving everybody wrong. I'm really happy for him."

Among the top reasons Darnold has a legitimate MVP case are his fearlessness in the face of pressure; his resiliency in clutch situations; the trust in him that Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell has continually administered; his impressive statistics – 4,153 passing yards, 35 passing TDs and 106.4 passer rating.

And as Krawczynski pointed out with Jones' help: A journey that resonates.

Voters love a narrative arc with this award, and Darnold certainly has a story to sell. The former third overall pick was labeled a bust after flaming out with the Jets and Panthers. He was considered a consolation prize at best, a placeholder at worst, when the Vikings signed him to a one-year, $10 million contract in free agency. As a result, the Vikings were forecast to be languishing at the bottom of the NFC North, not in prime position for the top spot in the NFL's toughest division with one game to go.

Krawczynski also underlined possible arguments against Darnold winning the honor: O'Connell's genius as a play-caller; Minnesota's depth and not dearth of offensive weapons; Allen doing more with less in Buffalo; Jackson's gaudy stats, and Barkley engineering the Eagles success in an era governed by passing.

In conclusion, Krawczynski wrote, "MVP or no MVP, there is no diminishing this dream season for Darnold."

Best overall experience in the NFL

The Star Tribune last weekend featured U.S. Bank Stadium's 1-of-1 atmosphere.

Ben Goessling gathered insight from Minnesota's staff of gameday presentation gurus – Jesse Marquette, Arthur Kuh, Allan Wertheimer and Lauren Pinter among others, including Vikings public address announcer Alan Roach – to detail how the club has created one of the strongest home-field advantages.

Here's an excerpt that aptly describes a tantalizing pregame production:

When Marquette triggers the [preview video for the Packers-Vikings game] Sunday, it will play over the video boards in the middle of the Vikings Cheerleaders dance routine, leading into three cellists playing an ominous version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" with dry ice swirling around their feet. Then, New York-based voice-over artist Debbie Irwin (whom the Vikings found after a Google search for voice artists who sounded like Cate Blanchett) narrates a video that plays on Norse mythology and casts the Vikings opponent as fate that "must be conquered," cueing fans to boo vociferously at a clip of the opposing quarterback walking toward the field. The climax of the 15-minute "Showtime" production is, of course, the Vikings themselves, emerging from a 30-foot tunnel shaped like a Viking ship with a dragon on its bow. NFL rules on pyrotechnics have prohibited the Vikings from launching fire out of the dragon's mouth for five years; the Vikings control room now has a console that drops fake snow from the stadium's ceiling, as players run through a trail of dry ice and six stone columns ejecting lighted smoke.

Makes you want to attend a Vikings home playoff game, right? A win Sunday in Detroit will secure at least one home playoff game.

Vikings Entertainment Network Vice President of Content and Production Bryan Harper said to Goessling: "If we're [telling fans to be in their seats by 11:45 for a noon game], we have to give them unbelievable entertainment from 11:45 so that now they have trained themselves like, 'You can't miss this.' "

The snow. The SKOL chant. The player introductions that cause the decibels to surge. None of it.

As Goessling noted, opponents had committed 19 false-start penalties on Vikings home turf entering Week 17 and 32 pre-snap penalties in total this season. Green Bay added four more pre-snap infractions.

Also, the NFL's Voice of the Fan survey ranked U.S. Bank Stadium first in overall experience, game entertainment and team/fan rituals and video board content.

Be sure to check out the complete picture in Goessling's article here.