After this past Sunday's 27-21 Minnesota Vikings' loss at the hands of the Oakland Raiders, forgive Viking fans if they left the Metrodome feeling as though they had just left the cinema and watched a horror feature entitled, "Vikings Lose by a Touchdown VI".

An exciting story with a predictable finish, and in the end the viewer is left frustratingly unfulfilled.

Take the last two performances at the "Met".

The Vikings entered a contest against a first place opponent. They did so without their best two cornerbacks on defense and had to go the second half without one of their two top play-makers on offense, against the Green Bay Packers it was Percy Harvin and against the Raiders it was Adrian Peterson. In each game after a pair of interceptions thrown by their rookie quarterback during the first three quarters of play, the Vikings entered the fourth quarter in pretty tough predicaments trailing by three scores.

Nonetheless, that same rookie quarterback led two valiant fourth quarter comebacks despite the earlier miscues, and had the opportunity to become a hero for a day. In each game, Quarterback Christian Ponder wound up taking over a possession trailing by six points with approximately three minutes to play whereas a clutch scoring drive would almost certainly pull off the win, but alas, each time the Vikings would not be able to seal the deal with one more touchdown.

The last two home games essentially followed the same script. Upon further review, those two games can really be found to be microcosms of the 2011 Vikings season thus far.

On the year, the Vikings score an average of 20 points-per-game and give up an average of 27 points-per-game. For the mathematically challenged, that is coming up an average of one touchdown short of victory each contest.

Based upon the final scores of the games, had the Vikings either scored just one more touchdown, or prevented just one more touchdown at home against the Raiders, Packers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Detroit Lions, the Vikings would be undefeated in their dome this year. Including their rout of the Arizona Cardinals the Vikings would presently have a home record of 5-0. The same holding true on the road, the Vikings would have had a victory in Kansas City and no worse than an overtime contest in San Diego. Even with assuming an overtime loss in San Diego and including the victory at Carolina, the Vikings road record still would have been 2-3, and 7-3 overall.

For the Viking season to have gone drastically better than it has, nothing major would have had to taken place in each game. Primarily what has been lacking in most of the Viking performances this year, is poise.

Other than the routs in Chicago and Green Bay, the Vikings have not been physically whipped all year. The Vikings have simply been undone by their own careless mistakes whether by the plethora of bone-headed penalties (only four teams have committed more than the Vikings' 75), bad throws, critical dropped passes, or blown assignments, etc.

For instance, take a pair of crucial dropped passes, one on offense and one on defense.

On Sunday, Wide Receiver Devin Aromashodu dropped an easy toss that would have given the Vikings a first down in Oakland territory right before the two-minute warning. Subsequently the Vikings wound up turning the ball over on downs, and along with it, their chances for a win. Also contributing to the loss of course were the nine penalties - including a false start on the game's first play for crying out loud - and certainly the five turnovers.

At the end of the Tampa Bay game, Safety Tyrell Johnson dropped an easy potential interception that would have prevented the Buccaneers' game-winning touchdown.

Coming out of halftime against the Packers, a blown coverage as egregious as any that you will ever see at the NFL level, allowed a gift-wrapped touchdown for the undefeated defending NFL champions. That touchdown would wind up being the difference in the final score.

In the Detroit game, a bad throw by Donovan McNabb to an open receiver cost the Vikings what should have been an easy late-game go-ahead touchdown, and an unfathomable mental lapse by Linebacker Kenny Onatolu cost the Vikings a likely chance at a game-winning field goal try at the end of regulation. Onatolu's cheap shot at the end of a punt return basically cemented the game's going into overtime, and another eventual heartbreaking Viking loss.

The bottom line is, good teams do not beat themselves. The Vikings very easily could have been a good team this year, but they are not, because they so often do beat themselves. This team's severe lack of poise stems from an apparent absence of leadership. There seems to be no accountability whatsoever for the amateurish screw-ups the team commits week after week, week after week.

Good teams have good leadership. Good leadership can be found from the sideline in the form of coaches, or on the field and/or in the locker room in the form of players. The Vikings are 2-8, a record they have not seen since 1962 their second year of existence.

Until or unless some semblance of leadership shows up from somewhere, it appears the Vikings will continually be; one touchdown short.