The NFL’s disciplinary office has been busy this season, and it may have another case to review after Sunday’s Vikings-Cowboys game. Tyler Smith seemed to have an injury scare in the first half as he rolled on the ground. It was an eye injury, and on second look, it looked like Smith was poked in the eye.

With 1:18 left in the first half, Vikings defensive tackle Javon Hargrave seemed to have poked Tyler Smith right in the eye when he was making a run down the field.

Now we’ll have to wait and see, because the league office will surely take notice. The NFL hasn’t exactly been shy with fines this season. They’re handing them out like candies. We’re 15 weeks in, hundreds of fines have been handed out, and the total tab has climbed past $6.1 million. It’s insane, really.

To be fair, there is no separate column in the rulebook labeled “eye poke.” These plays usually fall under unnecessary roughness or unsportsmanlike conduct, which draws a 15-yard penalty on the field and a fine that lands somewhere in the low five figures. It’s not new, either. We’ve already seen an eye poke this year.

Back in October, Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf was fined $12,172 for poking Packers linebacker Quay Walker in the eye late in the fourth quarter. The officials penalized Metcalf for unnecessary roughness, and it ended up costing the Steelers. Pittsburgh went from facing third-and-2 to third-and-15. It was pretty avoidable.

There’s even a chance that he gets suspended, if you want to take history notes. In 2015, Aqib Talib crossed a line. Late in a loss to Indianapolis, Talib poked tight end Dwayne Allen in the eye with two fingers. The play drew a flag, and what followed was a one-game suspension.

NFL vice president of football operations Merton Hanks said at the time that Talib’s action put an opponent at unnecessary risk and it was too big to let go. This situation doesn’t really warrant a suspension, though. Regardless, it won’t matter much.

The Vikings are officially out of the playoffs

The Vikings’ season officially ended on someone else’s field Sunday, which is usually how these things go when you’re hanging on by math and hope. When the Bears took care of the Browns in the early window, that door closed. Minnesota was mathematically eliminated.

Chicago’s win put the Bears at 10–4, and that alone was enough to sweep away any remaining wild-card hope for the Vikings. The division had already slipped away before Week 15 even kicked off, so this wasn’t really a big surprise. Still, it hurts. This now makes four missed postseasons in the last six years, which is…concerning.

On paper, you can still sketch out a scenario. Minnesota, Detroit, and San Francisco all finished 9–8 looks neat in a standings column, but the details matter. The Vikings would hold the tiebreaker over the Lions. They would not hold it over the 49ers.

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That doesn’t mean the final weeks are meaningless. They just mean something a bit different. Minnesota can shift its focus to pure development. And that’s usually when the evaluation really begins. Younger players will get more snaps. A lot of this stretch will also be about J.J. McCarthy. He needs reps. He needs time to fit into O’Connell’s system. He clearly hasn’t yet.

These games give the Vikings a chance to see how he responds when the stakes are personal instead of playoff-bound. They’ve racked up quite a bit of draft capital, so his development is essential to make future decisions. That matters for 2025 and beyond.