The glass-is-half-full view of this Vikings season and their most recent effort against the Steelers is that even through all the ups and downs, Minnesota still controls its playoff destiny.
Win the last four games, and the Vikings are virtually guaranteed to make the postseason — a better than 99% chance, per FiveThirtyEight's projections.
As it stands now, the Vikings have a 33% chance to make the expanded seven-team NFC playoff field in this expanded 17-game season. Had Minnesota allowed Pittsburgh to come all the way back on Thursday, those odds would have been greatly diminished.