The Vikings are in a challenging part of their schedule, and things don’t get any easier going on the road against the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night.

Sunday’s game against the Seahawks was never close. Seattle is a very good team, and they played at the highest level, while the Vikings didn’t play their best and are dealing with some very tough injuries on top of it. They couldn’t get anything going; the offense produced a season-low 125 yards, and the defense gave up season highs in points (38) and yards (433).

Seattle’s offense has really come alive in the past few weeks. They’re clicking on all cylinders in both the passing game and the run game. Sometimes when I watch Russell Wilson play, I could swear it’s me — it’s good to see that the mobile quarterback is as important as ever. The Seahawks are such a tough matchup when they are playing like this.

The timing of when you play a team matters. That makes two games in the past three in which the Vikings ran into a good team playing their best, along with the Packers loss in Week 11. Those were very tough losses. They don’t mean that the Vikings are a bad team, but they do mean that they are not a finished product.

Every team has injuries, and it has to be “next man up,” but it’s not easy to replace a Harrison Smith or Anthony Barr. This team still has room to improve. The coaches know that, and they’ll continue building this team and getting better.

And they will need to do so fast, because Arizona is one of the best teams in the league. In fact, I think that as of today they are playing at a higher level than everyone else. My top four teams right now are Arizona, Denver, Cincinnati and Seattle.

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians is as good as it gets when it comes to coaching quarterbacks. He was on staff for the rookie seasons for Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck, and now he has Carson Palmer playing the best football of his life at age 35. The Cardinals are playing great on both offense and defense, and they will be a big challenge for the Vikings.

But here’s the thing: The teams that are on top one day don’t always stay there. Just a couple weeks ago, I might have said New England was playing better than any team in the league, and definitely in that top-four group. But that was before injuries to guys like Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski and Dion Lewis, and back-to-back losses to the Denver Broncos and the woeful Philadelphia Eagles (at home!). Teams that were playing well start struggling, and other teams suddenly put it all together, so that top tier is always shifting.

Things change constantly in the NFL, and that’s the beauty of it, for both fans and players. What you did last week doesn’t matter, and each game is a chance to write a new script.

The Vikings will be underdogs for Thursday’s game. But that doesn’t mean they can’t win. It’s the NFL; you never know! I can’t say I expect the Vikings to win, but improbable things happen every week in this league, so why can’t we get a miracle?

With four games left, the Vikings are in the thick of both the playoff hunt and the division title race. The team hasn’t been at its best the past few weeks, but it just takes one game for all that to change. Thursday will be a challenge, but after that the Vikings have extra time to get healthy, come back for two home games, and then close out the season in Green Bay. Now would be the perfect time to start another hot streak to carry the team into the postseason.

Fran Tarkenton is a Minnesota Vikings analyst for TwinCities.com and the Pioneer Press. A former Vikings quarterback and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he is the founder and CEO of Tarkenton Companies and the author of the new book “The Power of Failure.” Follow him at twitter.com/Fran_Tarkenton.