A member of the Minnesota Star Tribune's Detroit traveling party commented to Vikings safety Harrison Smith on how he was moving around the losing locker room like someone a decade or so older than some of his teammates.

"I actually feel pretty good," the six-time Pro Bowler said while forcing a smile after finishing the 199th game and 198th start, including playoffs, of a career that will have Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors discussing its merits five years after he retires.

Speaking of which, it was a year ago at this time that reporters gathered around Smith to ask if he was coming back for a 13th season. The Vikings had lost to the Lions 30-20 and were heading home to nurse a 7-10 record. Smith said he would need some time to think it over.

This year, it was only the one reporter who asked him, prematurely of course, for his thoughts on a 14th season in Purple. If the answer ultimately is yes, Smith will move out of an eight-way tie in most seasons played for the Vikings and into a three-way tie with Ron Yary and Grady Alderman, trailing only 15-year Vikings Carl Eller, Fred Cox and Roy Winston; 17-year Viking Mick Tingelhoff and 19-year Viking Jim Marshall.

"I haven't given it a thought so far this year," Smith said. "I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing. I'm a day-to-day guy."

He's also been busy winning 14 games. You wouldn't have known that based on the somber mood of Sunday night's locker room after a 10-6 halftime deficit became a 31-9 beatdown as quarterback Sam Darnold played all jittery while going AWOL from the player who had tied a league season record with 13 games of 100-plus passer ratings.

"This is still a good team," Smith said. "We know that. But I've been around long enough to know what's coming" from the outside.

It's probably the same feeling that caused some of us in the media and general public to pick this team to finish 6-11 (guilty). Smith remembers those days from way back in August. He also remembers how a popular question on social media went something like this:

Why in the heck would Harrison Smith come back for a 13th season when the Vikings are going nowhere with either Darnold or rookie J.J. McCarthy?

"You don't want to say you knew more than people were saying," Smith said.

Only he did know more. He knew to celebrate things such as the day the Vikings signed Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman, introducing them together as reporters went ho-hum.

"I don't think I would have come back if I didn't think this team would be better than people were saying," Smith said. "Most of that belief was in the leadership, knowing some things that I thought would happen as far as guys we added. There was a lot of good stuff going on.

"The leadership of this organization, top to bottom, right now is special. What this group of human beings can do together, that's why I came back."

When it comes to regular-season games, only Marshall (270), Tingelhoff (240), Cox (210) and Eller (209) have played more than Smith's 192. If the six-time Pro Bowler and one-time All-Pro hasn't seen it all yet, he's seen most of it.

He played 61 snaps Sunday, giving him at least 1,000 (1,011) snaps for a seventh season — with a body that's finely tuned, surely, but still turns 36 next month. Smith did miss one game this year but has missed only 12 games in the past 11 years.

Defensively, the Vikings on Sunday became the NFL's only team to have at least one takeaway in all 17 games. They finished tied with Pittsburgh with 33 takeaways. That includes a league-best 24 interceptions, three by Smith, including his 37th career pick on Sunday. That is No. 1 among active players and tied for fourth in Vikings history with Joey Browner.

Yes, the defense played well for 2½ quarters or more. Plenty long enough for Darnold to shake out of his funk. But that didn't happen so now the general euphoria fans had about a team that had won nine in a row feels like it's been replaced by doubt as the Vikings head to Los Angeles to open the playoffs against a Rams team that beat them in L.A. in October.

"Obviously, nobody in this locker room is happy right now," Smith said. "There's disappointment, for sure, and there should be."

He was asked how quickly the Vikings can forget Sunday's game.

"I don't really want to put it out of my mind," Smith said. "You learn from losses. We learn from this. Don't forget it. Don't dwell on it, but learn from it. That's what this game is about. If you don't remember and learn from the bad, what's the point?"

Smith is 2-5 in the postseason as he heads into his eighth playoff game and 200th overall. He said he has confidence the offense will return to form.

"This is how football goes sometimes, and vice versa with the defense," Smith said. "We got their back. They got our back. We're not done yet."

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