Hillary Clinton and the Minnesota Vikings.

Now stay with me here...

Minnesota's loss Sunday was a heartbreaker, in a game they coulda/shoulda won.  But they played conservatively in the end and Team Purple lost.

Mal and I were watching the Vikings drive up the field -- Teddy Bridgewater's confidence was strong -- when Coach Zimmer called the time out.  You could see it in Teddy's face, he wanted to keep moving the ball...

The Vikings (11-6) took the ball at their 39-yard line for the deciding drive with 1:42 left and, aided by a pass interference penalty on Kam Chancellor, drove deep into Seattle's territory. After the Vikings drained the clock for a seemingly inevitable win, Walsh missed the winner after making all three of his earlier attempts.

Mal wondered why they take that timeout -- what the sideline saw in the defensive set up -- but I think it was just basic coaching rudiments.  So close... you keep the ball on the ground, and don't risk throwing.  Even with Adrian Peterson's earlier fumble, it was safer to keep running and not put the ball in the air.  They thought they could just run out the clock and kick it in for the win.

But...  there's no guarantees about making field goals, even at close yardage, in frigid weather.

In my gut, I am convinced that if the Vikings did not try to conservatively settle for the field goal in securing the win, Teddy Bridgewater and his crew would have worked that ball into the endzone for 6.

They wanted it bad enough, they had the skills and could have taken the risk.  The momentum favored them, not to mention the Seahawks' earlier poor play and the support of the home crowd.

There's no looking back, no do-overs though.
It was a smart coaching move to play it conservatively, the playbooks tell us, because there's usually not a great risk that a kicker like Walsh -- who has come through for the team many times -- misses that kick.

But he did.

Next year, as Bridgewater gains in his own confidence and continues to earn the respect of his teammates and fans, I predict they would let him keep working that drive... Dance with who brung ya.