Souhan: Seattle’s cinematic atmosphere is an ideal setting for the Vikings to start a potentially historic run

They are heading into the mists of Seattle and, perhaps, history.

They are embarking Sunday on a three-week journey to culminate what could become the most endearing season in the long and unconsummated legacy of Minnesota Vikings football.

They will play in perhaps the most atmospheric stadium in football. The Seattle Seahawks’ home field is now named Lumen Field, and by late Sunday afternoon, as this important game is being decided, it will feel and look like a skillful director’s movie set.

This game will be won or lost in the gloaming, with misting rain either existent or threatening, coating the scene in sepia tones.

The Vikings have been here before, geographically and emotionally. This is the place where Russell Wilson pilfered seeming victories from them, where the weight of one of the loudest outdoors stadiums and most passionate fan bases can make the fourth quarter feel like a grunge mosh pit with a goal line. A member of Pearl Jam may appear at any time, and so might a fourth-quarter collapse by the visiting team.

NFL games in September and December don’t feel different merely because of the heightened importance of a playoff race. They also look different, especially in outdoor stadiums.

The light will fade as the plays become more vital. Every play will inspire a collective flinch, or cheer, or groan from millions.

This will begin a three-week test of the Vikings’ resistance to their own franchise’s earned reputation. The path is steep, but clear.

Win three straight, and they will reach 15 victories for the first time since 1998, and win the best division in football, and most likely earn a bye the first weekend of the playoffs.

Win three straight, and they will transform themselves from objects of curiosity to acknowledged championship contenders.

Win three straight, and their fans will begin to mouth the words “Super Bowl” without hiding their lips behind mittens.

Vikings players keep parroting the necessary clichés, saying that they will focus only on this week’s game, that they will “be where our feet are,” as tight end T.J. Hockenson said.

The rest of us can specify that their feet are on a path that could lead to one of the most entertaining and consequential three-game stretches in recent franchise history.

First, Seattle, a team that looked dangerous until last week, when the Packers bludgeoned the Seahawks, leaving them dealing with a multitude of worrisome injuries.

Then Dec. 29 at U.S. Bank Stadium against the Packers, meaning that the biggest regular-season event in Minnesota sports, contested at what might be the best football stadium in existence, could impact NFC playoff seeding and the NFC North standings, as well as Monday morning office moods.

To finish the regular season, the Vikings head to Detroit’s quaint Ford Field, where Lions fans may be sneering at their Vikings counterparts for complaining about their lack of championships.

The Vikings lack a Super Bowl title. The Lions have been to just two NFC title games: in 1992, when they were blown out by Washington in their bid to make it to the Metrodome Super Bowl, and last year, when they lost at San Francisco by three points.

Detroit has never hosted an NFC championship game. And the Lions' take-a-number-please trainer’s room indicates that their dream of doing so this year may no longer be realistic.

The Lions may have been the best team in the NFC weeks ago. Now they have 16 defensive players and star running back David Montgomery, the personification of toughness, unavailable because of injuries.

Seattle’s mist, noise and desperate team.

U.S. Bank Stadium twixt the holidays with the Packers.

Ford Field, with two of the NFL’s best stories and coaches bringing it all to a close.

The Vikings’ feet? They’re on a steep but clear path, their footprints possibly preserved for history.