AP

As the Vikings ping-pong between bad seasons and good ones, defensive end Jared Allen believes the currently bad season can still become a good one.

“I try to keep a positive mindset and not let my circumstances determine my joy and my happiness so that’s kind of the approach I take,” Allen told Erik Kuselias on Thursday’s edition of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN. “I’ve kind of been telling guys all week, you got to we got two ways to look at this, we can either go in the tank and say, ‘Hey its going to be an early offseason’ and we can hopefully win a few games here and there and people can start playing for themselves, or we can take this upon the group as a team and we got a chance to do something special.

“You got a chance to come back from a 1-4 start. It’s not like we don’t have the talent, you know this team won a year ago, so we know how to win, we just got to get it done and I think if guys take that approach and to be honest it doesn’t feel like 1-4, guys this week have been having a good time and if you take that approach and say, ‘We got a chance to do something epic here, let’s embrace the suck, let’s embrace this and move forward’ and it starts with one win and I mean you look at teams throughout the history of the league, I mean the Giants they sneak into the playoffs a few years back and win a Super Bowl.”

The process begins on Monday night, when the Vikings visit the Giants. It’ll be quarterback Josh Freeman’s debut. But the offensive performance won’t matter if the defense continues to give up more than 418 yards and 31.6 points per game, on average.

For the full Jared Allen interview, click the box below.